Bericht
Green 'agrowth' as a third option: Removing the GDP-growth constraint on human progress
The debate on growth versus the environment is usually summarized as optimists believing in limitless growth versus pessimists seeing environmental and resource limits to growth. This opposition defines the main strategies: namely, striving for green growth versus some anti-growth approach. In this paper I argue that we should not feel obliged to choose between these polarized opinions, as there is in fact a third option. I call this the "agrowth" strategy, and it offers a way out of the impasse that characterizes the growth-versus-environment debate. I will define this agrowth strategy, motivate its rationality, and examine its premises, implications, advantages, political feasibility and practical steps. I suggest that an agrowth strategy follows logically from accepting the shortcomings of GDP (per capita) as an indicator of social welfare. It will be graphically shown that both anti-growth and pro-growth goals represent avoidable, unnecessary constraints on our search for human betterment, which lead to lower realizations of social welfare than are in fact feasible. I will further discuss the idea of green agrowth, notably in the context of avoiding dangerous climate change. Finally, a pragmatic approach to selecting alternative macro indicators is proposed.
- Language
-
Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
-
Series: WWWforEurope Policy Paper ; No. 19
- Classification
-
Wirtschaft
Health Insurance, Public and Private
Climate; Natural Disasters and Their Management; Global Warming
- Subject
-
climate change
degrowth
GDP paradox
green growth
growth debate
macro indicators
- Event
-
Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
-
Van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M.
- Event
-
Veröffentlichung
- (who)
-
WWWforEurope
- (where)
-
Vienna
- (when)
-
2015
- Handle
- Last update
-
10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET
Data provider
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Bericht
Associated
- Van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M.
- WWWforEurope
Time of origin
- 2015
Other Objects (12)
Evaluating Alternatives to GDP as Measures of Social Welfare/Progress
The impact of the financial-economic crisis on sustainability transitions: Financial investment, governance and public discourse
Labour Market Institutions and Regional Unemployment Disparities
Subjective well-being and socio-ecological transition
The challenges of EU governance and the quest for long-term growth
Civil society actors as drivers of socio-ecological transition? - Green spaces in European cities as laboratories of social innovation
Deepening the scope of the "economic model": Functionalities, structures, mechanisms, and institutions
Surveillance and Control of Fiscal Consolidation on a Supranational Level
Innovation in the energy sector
Modeling growth, distribution, and the environment in a stock-flow consistent framework
What Institutions help immigrants Integrate?
European integration as an underestimated success programme
Evaluating Alternatives to GDP as Measures of Social Welfare/Progress
The impact of the financial-economic crisis on sustainability transitions: Financial investment, governance and public discourse
Labour Market Institutions and Regional Unemployment Disparities
Subjective well-being and socio-ecological transition
The challenges of EU governance and the quest for long-term growth
Civil society actors as drivers of socio-ecological transition? - Green spaces in European cities as laboratories of social innovation
Deepening the scope of the "economic model": Functionalities, structures, mechanisms, and institutions
Surveillance and Control of Fiscal Consolidation on a Supranational Level
Innovation in the energy sector
Modeling growth, distribution, and the environment in a stock-flow consistent framework
What Institutions help immigrants Integrate?
European integration as an underestimated success programme
Evaluating Alternatives to GDP as Measures of Social Welfare/Progress
The impact of the financial-economic crisis on sustainability transitions: Financial investment, governance and public discourse
Labour Market Institutions and Regional Unemployment Disparities
Subjective well-being and socio-ecological transition
The challenges of EU governance and the quest for long-term growth
Civil society actors as drivers of socio-ecological transition? - Green spaces in European cities as laboratories of social innovation
Deepening the scope of the "economic model": Functionalities, structures, mechanisms, and institutions
Surveillance and Control of Fiscal Consolidation on a Supranational Level
Innovation in the energy sector
Modeling growth, distribution, and the environment in a stock-flow consistent framework
What Institutions help immigrants Integrate?