Though renewable energy can significantly reduce carbon emissions, if growth remains the global economic imperative, increased energy use will prevent us from reaching decarbonization goals | GILLES SABRIE / THE NEW YORK TIMES
GDP expansion under a green agenda is part of the problem, not the solution
Reposted from the Japan Times
“No poverty,” “zero hunger,” “gender equality,” “climate action”. These lofty ideals are expressed in several of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. Understandably, the SDGs have become very popular in Japan.
Can the 17 goals — launched by the U.N. in 2015 to be reached by the end of this decade — really save the world from the multipronged crises of climate change, inflation, war and populism? I start off my book “Slow Down” with a resounding “no,” arguing that “the SDGs are the new opiate of the masses.” In fact, the U.N. goals have become popular in a conservative society like Japan precisely because they do not demand transformative, systemic change but, rather, aim to preserve the status quo.
In fact, if one looks at the concrete proposals of companies and the media to achieve these goals, they often advocate for individuals to adopt eco-friendly behaviors such as opting for reusable bags and bottles, reducing food waste and recycling fast fashion products.
Although these small, individual behaviors are obviously insufficient to tackle the “polycrisis,” actions like recycling and buying eco-products relieve our conscience. And the feeling of satisfaction hinders us from recognizing the real root causes of today’s emergency.
This is also partly why the SDGs are used by companies to enhance their public image: They function as a marketing and greenwashing tool to reassure consumers that the act of constantly buying new commodities actually contributes to enhancing equality and sustainability. No wonder, then, that the discourse of redeeming capitalism with the SDGs has been so easily watered down.
Thus, the polycrisis has only gotten worse year after year because, at the moment, almost no one is challenging the business as usual model, even though urgent actions are needed given the chronic state of the emergency we are in.
Achieving rapid decarbonization to reach the Paris Agreement’s target — namely limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century — demands ending wasteful mass production and consumption for the sake of endless economic growth.
Concretely, this means banning luxurious, unnecessary products such as private jets, cruise ships and yachts, as well as drastically reducing meat consumption and the sale of SUVs, in addition to investing in green technologies and infrastructure. However, the current economic and political system is incapable of seriously considering such options — no matter how necessary they are — because they are against the logic of endless capital accumulation.
Within a capitalist society, the only solution to the global ecological crisis is growth, growth and more growth. Popular proposals such as Society 5.0 in Japan and the Green New Deal in the United States aim to make energy and resource usage more efficient and create more stable jobs with higher salaries. They wish to achieve both economic growth and a transition to a sustainable society by decoupling growth from energy and resource usage.
Although innovation is surely important, green growth cannot realize the ideals of the SDGs. Capitalism does not necessarily produce what is needed, but what is profitable. Even if technology increases productivity and efficiency, if the price of goods goes down due to higher productivity, consumption also increases, so efficiency gains would be lost. This is called Jevons paradox.
Furthermore, new green technologies such as electric vehicles and renewables — while having the potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions — still employ massive amounts of resources and energy. Therefore, if, as we invest in such technologies, growth remains the absolute imperative of economic activities, large electric SUVs and more solar panels will continue to be manufactured in greater quantities, with models changing constantly, and more and more marketing campaigns.
As a result, despite the introduction of such advances, resource and energy use will not decrease sufficiently to achieve decarbonization.
Intense competition for green growth in the Global North is also likely to accelerate monopolization by a few companies, which will increasingly widen economic disparities, and make people more vulnerable to precarious employment and long working hours.
Furthermore, the expropriation of resources and land in the Global South by companies from the Global North will exacerbate inequality worldwide. This is the inevitable result of ecological imperialism.
In contrast, the introduction of new technologies in the context of degrowth would result in a shortening of working hours — instead of the creation of more products by working the same hours as before — though, if poorly introduced, this paradigm shift could also lead to recession and increased unemployment.
Although some of the SDGs’ targets can be implemented without the need for technological innovations, the focus on green growth alone may end up marginalizing these important targets, such as economic equality through redistribution, gender equality and the elimination of racial discrimination.
In short, economic growth is appealing because of its simplicity. It dismisses the complexity of justice, equality and sustainability by converting everything into a single economic value and concentrating only on its increase. In this sense, abandoning the gross domestic product as the measure of social progress is a prerequisite for addressing solutions to structural problems that have been marginalized under the growth imperative. This is what degrowth calls for.
Today’s world is characterized by poverty and inequality. But these exist not necessarily due to insufficient production. Our society already has the technology and resources to meet the basic needs of all people, but they are concentrated in the hands of a few and, moreover, employed to seek endless economic growth, instead of providing everyone with adequate living standards.
In this context, accelerating innovation does not lead to saving the planet. By slowing down, degrowth opens the path to a truly just transition.
Kohei Saito is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Tokyo. He is the author of “Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto” (Astra Publishing House, 2024).
COMMUNIST PARTY OF MAINE 