The idea of #degrowth made it to the latest IPCC report.
🧵
The term “degrowth” is mentioned 27 times in the 3,675 pages of the full report (12 of these mentions occur in the bibliography). There is no mention of it neither in the 96 pages technical summary nor in the 36 pages summary for policy makers.
The first mention of the term happens in “Chapter 1: Point of Departure and Key Concepts,” in the penultimate section titled “Facilitating Long-Term Transformation," where degrowth is contrasted with ecomodernism on the issue of decoupling.
On the same idea, one can also find the term once in one of the 23 paragraphs of the summary of Chapter 1.
The second mention is in "Chapter 18: Climate Resilient Development Pathways," in the section titled "Linking Development and Climate Action." Post-growth is presented as one of five categories of perspectives on development.
Another quick mention in this paragraph also from Chapter 18 pointing at degrowth when talking about "the quality of development processes and actions."
In this paragraph from Chapter 18, it is mentioned as part of an "extensive post-AR5 literature on political economy associated with various elements relevant to Climate Resilient Development."
The last, and most detailed mention can be found in a sub-section of Chapter 18 titled "Economic and financial arenas."
I am currently reading these sections in detail and I will soon publish a piece on the overall framing of degrowth and post-growth in the AR6.
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Karma moment in science. Two weeks ago, @IvanVSavin & @ProfJeroenBergh published a (flawed) review of the degrowth literature arguing that there were « very few studies using formal modelling ». This week, Lauer et al. published a study showing that this is wrong. 🧵
Systematically reviewing the literature from 2000 to 2023, Arthur Lauer and his colleagues identify 75 modelling studies.
Savin and van den Bergh (2024) argue that « the fraction of studies undertaking modelling or data analysis fluctuates in the range of 0-15% over tiem shows no clear trend » (p.3). Wrong again.
Today is Black Friday, a nonsensical ritual invented by for-profit businesses for the sole sake of moneymaking. By shopping today, you are willingly enriching a small class of business-owning super-polluters who bath in ecosystem-killing profits.
The top 10% richest humans own 76% of world wealth and generate 50% of all carbon emissions. The footprint of the world top 1% equals the one of the poorest 66% of humanity.
We are told that consuming forever more is part of human nature. Bullshit. The seemingly inescapable rat-race for positional prestige is constructed by an army of influencers, growth hackers, and ads designers. Read it again: the destruction of life on Earth is designed.
Of course that's your contention. You're an economist who just heard about degrowth. You just got finished reading some quick-and-dirty critique – the latest piece in The Economist probably – and you’re convinced that degrowth is unnecessary because we can green growth.
You’re gonna be convinced of that ‘til next month when you read "Decoupling Debunked", then you’re going to admit that decoupling has never happened in the past but you’ll say that it could sure happen in the future.
That’s going to last until next year when you’ll be regurgitating Andrew McAfee, Sam Fankhauser, or Alessio Terzi about how price signals and technological progress can solve any environmental issue.
Summary of my talk at the #BeyondGrowth conference on the impossibility of green growth and the necessity of degrowth. 🧵
There is a rumour that is picking up speed in the media, affirming that it is possible to both produce more while polluting less. Some people call it “green growth.”
This rumour is not only a rumour, it is also a belief deeply embedded within our current environmental strategies. Problem: The idea of an economic growth fully decoupled from nature is scientifically baseless and it is distracting us from more effective transition strategies.