green growth essay

The Role of Technological Change in Green Growth

By reducing the costs of environmental protection, technological change is important for promoting green growth. This entails both the creation of new technologies and more widespread deployment of existing green technologies. This paper reviews the literature on environmentally friendly technological change, with a focus on lessons relevant to developing countries. I begin with a discussion of data available for measuring the various steps of technological change. I continue with a discussion of sources of environmental innovation. Given that most innovation is concentrated in a few rich countries, this leads to a discussion of the remaining role for lower-income countries, followed by a discussion of technology transfer. Because of the importance of market failures, I then discuss the role of both technology policy and environmental policy for promoting environmentally friendly technological change. The review concludes with a discussion of what environmental economists can learn from other fields.

This paper was produced for the Green Growth Knowledge Platform (www.greengrowthknowledge.org), a joint initiative of the Global Green Growth Institute, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, United Nations Environment Programme, and the World Bank, and also appears as World Bank Policy Research Working Paper #6239. I thank Michael Toman, Marianne Fay, and Stephane Hallegatte for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. In addition, the discussion in this paper has also been informed by my work with various colleagues on other projects related to technological change and the environment, including Richard Newell, Adam Jaffe, Nick Johnstone and Jung Eun Kim. Their implicit contributions to this work are duly noted. Any remaining errors are solely my responsibility. Views and errors remain mine alone, and should not be attributed to the World Bank Group or its member countries. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

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Spencer Bokat-Lindell

Do We Need to Shrink the Economy to Stop Climate Change?

By Spencer Bokat-Lindell

Mr. Bokat-Lindell is a staff editor.

This article is part of the Debatable newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

If there is a dominant paradigm for how politicians and economists today think about solving climate change, it is called green growth. According to green growth orthodoxy — whose adherents populate European governments , the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development , the World Bank and the White House — the global economy can both continue growing and defuse the threat of a warming planet through rapid, market-led environmental action and technological innovation.

But in recent years, a rival paradigm has been gaining ground: degrowth. In the view of degrowthers, humanity simply does not have the capacity to phase out fossil fuels and meet the ever-growing demand of rich economies. At this late hour , consumption itself has to be curtailed.

Degrowth is still a relatively marginal tendency in climate politics, but it’s been attracting converts. In 2019, more than 11,000 scientists signed an open letter calling for a “shift from G.D.P. growth” toward “sustaining ecosystems and improving human well-being.” And in May, a paper published in the journal Nature argued that degrowth “should be as widely and thoroughly considered and debated as are comparably risky technology-driven pathways.”

Here’s a closer look at the debate.

The case for degrowth

Perhaps the most prominent proponent of the degrowth movement is Jason Hickel, an economic anthropologist and the author of “Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World.” Degrowth, as he defines it, “is a planned reduction of energy and resource use designed to bring the economy back into balance with the living world in a way that reduces inequality and improves human well-being.”

His argument against the green growth framework rests on two key premises:

There is no historical evidence that G.D.P. can be completely decoupled from material resource use. In other words, human economies cannot grow infinitely on a planet with finite resources .

G.D.P. can be decoupled from greenhouse gas emissions by replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy, but that decoupling isn’t happening fast enough.

The requisite solution, in Hickel’s view, is to reduce resource and energy consumption, which will make it easier to rapidly transition to renewable energy in the short time humanity has left to avert 1.5 degrees of global warming. But this imperative would not apply equally across the globe:

Climate change is being driven primarily by the cumulative historical consumption of the Global North, so he argues it is incumbent on rich countries to shrink their economies. (The disproportionate responsibility advanced economies bear for climate change is also why Hickel rejects calls for population control in poorer countries as “completely backward”: “We do have a population problem, it’s true,” he said in 2018. “But it has nothing to do with poor countries. The real problem is that there are too many rich people.”)

That retrenchment, in turn, would create space in the global carbon budget for poorer countries to continue growing, which they still need to do to lift their populations out of poverty.

Critics of degrowth have analogized the project to economic austerity or forced recessions, which tend to cause broad-based suffering and worsen inequality. But those negative effects, Hickel says, are merely the predictable disaster that ensues “when growth-dependent economies stop growing.”

Degrowth, by contrast, calls for a different kind of economy altogether, one that could improve people’s livelihoods despite a reduction in aggregate activity: It seeks to scale down “ecologically destructive and socially less necessary production” (such as S.U.V.s, weapons, beef, private transportation, advertising and consumer technologies that are designed to obsolesce) while expanding “socially important sectors” like health care and education.

Among the policies Hickel proposes to create such an economy are shortening the workweek, introducing a job guarantee with a living wage, shifting workers out of declining industries and the decommodification of goods like housing that people need to live dignified lives.

‘A fantasy that distracts us from real efforts to save the planet’

In a recent newsletter, the economist Noah Smith took degrowth’s main arguments to task in a defense of green growth:

First, he says economic growth can, in fact, be decoupled from resource use: “We can keep raising everyone’s standard of living without exhausting the planet’s resources. Because growth doesn’t just mean using more and more stuff; instead, it can mean finding more efficient ways to use the stuff we have.” (Hickel dismisses the claim as a hypothetical .)

Second, and more directly pertinent to climate change, Smith says that decoupling G.D.P. from greenhouse gas emissions is not just possible, as many degrowthers acknowledge, but already happening: Since 2005, 32 countries, including the United States, have managed to do it, according to the Breakthrough Institute.

Smith agrees with Hickel, though, that emissions decoupling isn’t happening fast enough. The question, then, is whether degrowthers offer the correct prescription for reaching carbon neutrality on a shorter timetable.

My colleague Ezra Klein doesn’t think so. The unacceptably slow pace of the transition to renewable energy, he argued on a recent podcast, is a political problem, not a technological one. And on the politics, degrowth is a much tougher sell than green growth.

The degrowth movement is “attacking the flaws of the current strategy as not moving fast enough when the impediments are political, but then not accepting the impediments to its own political path forward,” he said. “I think that if the political demand of the movement becomes you don’t get to eat beef, you will set climate politics back so far, so fast, it would be disastrous. Same thing with S.U.V.s. I don’t like S.U.V.s. I don’t drive one. But if you are telling people in rich countries that the climate movement is for them not having the cars they want to have, you are just going to lose.”

This is an argument Hickel takes seriously:

New York magazine’s Eric Levitz agrees that “Americans might well find themselves happier and more secure in an ultra-low-carbon communal economy in which individual car ownership is heavily restricted, and housing, health care, and myriad low-carbon leisure activities are social rights.” But, he adds, “nothing short of an absolute dictatorship could affect such a transformation at the necessary speed. And the specter of eco-Bolshevism does not haunt the Global North. Humanity is going to find a way to get rich sustainably, or die trying.”

Forgetting about growth

At the moment, degrowth has no mass constituency. But some of its animating ideas are nonetheless exerting an influence on political economic thought — particularly the critique of G.D.P. growth as the lodestar of human progress.

“Even within mainstream economics, the growth orthodoxy is being challenged, and not merely because of a heightened awareness of environmental perils,” John Cassidy wrote in The New Yorker last year. “After a century in which G.D.P. per person has gone up more than sixfold in the United States, a vigorous debate has arisen about the feasibility and wisdom of creating and consuming ever more stuff, year after year.”

What’s the alternative? Kate Raworth, an English economist, has identified one option: “ doughnut economics .” In Raworth’s view, 21st-century economies should abandon growth for growth’s sake and make it their goal to reach the sweet spot — or the doughnut — between the “social foundation,” where everyone has what they need to live a good life, and the “environmental ceiling.”

“The doughnut model doesn’t proscribe all economic growth or development,” Ciara Nugent explains in Time. “But that economic growth needs to be viewed as a means to reach social goals within ecological limits, she says, and not as an indicator of success in itself, or a goal for rich countries.”

Raworth’s ideas have had real-world impact: Last year, during the first wave of the pandemic, Amsterdam’s city government announced it would aim to recover from the crisis by adopting the precepts of “doughnut economics.” A year before that, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand announced her country would prioritize its residents’ welfare and happiness over G.D.P. growth.

Even in the United States, which has embraced no such policy, G.D.P. growth has slowed in the past two decades, largely because of falling birthrates and a switch in spending patterns from goods to services.

That hasn’t solved the problem of America’s addiction to fossil fuels, of course. “Yet the sorts of policies on offer from degrowth advocates — like universal basic services and shorter working hours — could help address some of the long-standing ills now afflicting a wide range of economies,” Kate Aronoff writes in The New Republic. “Rather than chasing an increasingly far-off goal by trying to coax forth elusive corporate investment with giveaways, governments could start planning for what a fairer lower growth, lower carbon future might look like.”

Do you have a point of view we missed? Email us at [email protected] . Please note your name, age and location in your response, which may be included in the next newsletter.

“Why Degrowth Is the Worst Idea on the Planet” [Wired]

“Can we live within environmental limits and still reduce poverty?” [Development Policy Review]

“Can we save the planet by shrinking the economy?” [Vox]

“Green growth vs degrowth: are we missing the point?” [OpenDemocracy]

Spencer Bokat-Lindell is a staff editor in the Opinion section. @ bokatlindell

What is green growth and how can this transition be promoted?

18 Feb 2021

Domaines professionnels

August 22, 2020 marks the Global Overshoot Day : on this date, humanity has spent all the resources that the Earth can generate in one year. From that day on, we will have felled more trees, caught more fish and cultivated more land than nature can provide us with in a year. We will also have produced more greenhouse gases than our forests and oceans can absorb. In the face of the climate emergency, it is necessary to review our consumption and production patterns and adopt more environmentally friendly behaviour, as our economic growth is unsustainable for the planet. Can we use resources reasonably without curbing economic growth? It is entirely possible: green growth makes it possible to implement economic development that is sustainable in the long term while remaining within a sustainable development approach . What actions can be taken to promote green growth? Are there training courses available to adopt a sustainable business model ? We tell you everything in this new article.

Sustainable business model

What is green growth?

Achieving green growth means promoting economic growth and development while taking care not to alter the natural capital - the resources on which our future depends. Green growth aims to respect biodiversity , natural resources and working conditions. The green economy also means limiting greenhouse gas emissions by removing fossil fuels from our consumption.

According to the OECD, implementing a green growth strategy allows for the continuation of our society's economic model of capitalism and sustainable growth, taking into account a rational use of resources. In order to adopt a strategy for sustainable economic development, structural reform of business activities, both in decision-making and operational processes, is necessary. Of course, these changes must be gradual: they are part of an ecological transition process.

For or against green growth?

Green growth is a sensitive subject, at the heart of many ecological, political and economic debates. Greenwashing , for example, is a dubious practice: many national and multinational companies brand green growth only to restore or maintain their brand image, without taking any real action for the environment.

Some do not believe in green growth, particularly in view of exponential population growth , and prefer growth reduction strategies aimed at maintaining GDP growth below 1% per year, given that resources are not infinite. Scientists, on the other hand, argue that growth is possible even without resources and decouple resource consumption from growth, making green growth possible.

You have understood that green growth places ecology and sustainable development as new growth drivers. Thanks to an increase in the efficiency of our economic system, we could, according to this theory, reduce our consumption of raw materials while continuing our economic growth.

The challenges of green growth for businesses

Being part of a green growth approach is becoming a necessity for companies and meets a number of challenges:

• a better brand image ;
• more economic opportunities;
• a reasoned use of resources due to the increase in their price (such as gas, oil, paper...);
• energy sovereignty;
• minimal costs and investments compared to those that will have to be made if climate change persists.

Training in sustainable development is therefore essential for companies. Training in ecological transition enables them to have a global vision and to be able to implement actions in favour of sustainable development within their company. This training concerns all citizens, whatever their profession and position: the climate emergency can no longer be ignored and implies changing our energy and raw material consumption habits.

Training in ecological transition

Sustainable development paths for green growth

• A circular economy : this economic model consists of producing services and goods in a sustainable way, limiting waste and the production of waste. This implies, for example, using sustainable materials, collected in a more environmentally friendly way, and limiting the use of disposable objects.
• Recycling and zero waste : this involves selecting recyclable materials and limiting the production of polluting waste. These practices exclude the use of disposable products, which are not reusable, and over-packaging.
• Thermal renovation : our homes and premises must be insulated and renovated in order to limit heat loss. This limits energy consumption and environmental impact.
• Energy efficiency or energy efficiency : this makes it possible to minimise energy consumption for the same service provided. Attending a training course on energy efficiency allows you to become familiar with artificial intelligence and the many new technologies in order to think about the opportunities for more responsible digital behaviour.
• Eco-production : producing in an ecological way is entirely possible. It is a question of banking on a sober economy, while improving competitiveness. It is based on several principles: optimisation of flows (waste, water, energy), processes and products, strategy and governance, and buildings.

You have understood it: green growth makes it possible to maintain economic growth in the world, within companies, while taking into account global warming and environmental constraints. It allows for the protection of the environment while maintaining our energy performance and our economy: it is the transition towards a more climate and ecologically sound economy and management of resources .

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Five reasons ‘green growth’ won’t save the planet

PhD Researcher, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge

PhD researcher at Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance, University of Cambridge

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Green growth has emerged as the dominant narrative for tackling contemporary environmental problems. Its supporters, including the likes of the UN, OECD, national governments, businesses and even NGOs , say that sustainability can be achieved through efficiency, technology and market-led environmental action. Green growth suggests we really can have our cake and eat it – both growing the economy and protecting the planet.

But when it comes to tackling the most pressing environmental problems such as climate breakdown, species extinction or resource depletion, green growth might weaken rather than strengthen progress. Here are five reasons why:

1) Growth trumps efficiency

In theory, advances in environmental efficiency can help to “decouple” economic growth from resource use and pollution. But such outcomes remain elusive in the real world . While sectors such as construction , agriculture and transport have managed to create less pollution and use less resources per unit of output, these improvements have struggled to fully offset the scale and speed of economic growth. By outpacing production improvements, economic growth has led to an unhampered rise in resource use, pollution, and waste .

In fact, efficiency may even be fuelling further consumption and pollution. This is a paradox first observed in 1865 by the economist William Stanley Jevons, who noticed the introduction of a more efficient steam engine actually coincided with more coal consumption, not less, as new profits were reinvested in extra production, causing prices to fall, demand to rise, and so on. Such “ rebound effects ” exist across the whole economy, so the only real solution is to consume less . At best, efficiency is a half-baked solution, at worst, it stokes the very problem it tries to address.

2) Overstated technology

Proponents of green growth want us to believe that ever better technology is the solution. However, we are not so sure. International environmental agreements and scenarios confidently assume large scale technologies will be deployed to capture and store carbon emissions , but we have yet to witness their potential even on a small scale. Mechanised agriculture is being promoted on the basis of increased efficiency and yield while overlooking the fact that low-tech farming is a more productive means of meeting global food demand at lower environmental cost .

Clearly, technology is crucial in lowering the environmental burden of production and consumption, but green growth overstates its role.

3) No profit, no action

Perhaps the most compelling argument put forward for green growth is that protecting the environment can go hand-in-hand with making profits . However, in reality there is often a tension between these goals. Many firms are risk averse, for instance, and don’t want to be first-movers, whether on charging for plastic bags, banning plastic cups or introducing carbon labelling.

Then you have the fact that some sustainable interventions are simply not attractive investments for the private sector: there is little profit to be made in conserving ecosystems or financing public infrastructure for electric vehicles . Meanwhile, environmental risks like natural resource depletion or extreme weather might become increasingly attractive to part of the private sector .

If we’re serious about living within environmental limits we need to say adios to certain sectors: fossil fuels, livestock and fertilisers . If we leave that to the market, we’re going to be waiting a long, long time.

4) Green consumption is still consumption

Buying “green” offers a seemingly common sense solution to the environmental ills of over-consumption, but we’re sceptical. The push for greener consumption has devolved responsibility from governments and business to ordinary people. As one commentator put it, we have been conned into fighting environmental issues as individuals , while the real culprits get off scot-free.

Indeed, the very act of green consumption still fuels the extraction and use of natural resources, pollution and environmental degradation. Stuff requires more stuff to produce – this is often overlooked when we buy re-useable cups, eco-appliances and “sustainable” clothing. Any positive impacts of green consumption can also easily be undone through people feeling they have a moral license to indulge elsewhere. Green consumption is a zero sum game if we decide to go vegan then fly long haul. While it’s misguided to think consumers can’t make a difference, we shouldn’t be fooled into thinking humanity can consume its way out of environmental problems.

5) The danger of guesswork

A central principle of green growth is that markets are both part of the problem and solution. Proponents of green growth argue that as long as we get the numbers right – a tax on carbon, a clean energy subsidy, or a price tag on nature – markets can foster sustainability. But tackling environmental problems through the market involves a lot of guesswork with no guaranteed outcome .

Unlike carbon, ecosystems and biodiversity are not amenable to economic valuation and substitution within markets. Pricing environmental damage in markets is like selling permits to pollute and trash our natural world. Although market mechanisms can guide business towards sustainable behaviour, only stringent laws and regulation can help bring their growth in line with environmental limits.

Beyond green growth?

Efficiency alone is a blunt tool and techno-fixes will also not get us where we need to be. We need to address the elephant in the room: consumption. As the business case for reducing consumption is poor, governments and communities need to take charge.

There are promising signs. The next major Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report will finally include a chapter on tackling consumption. In the UK, the Committee on Climate Change’s report on net zero by 2050 highlights the critical need for societal change. Questioning our appetite for growth is the first step towards a more inclusive and effective model for sustainability.

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• 12 December 2022

Degrowth can work — here’s how science can help

• Jason Hickel 0 ,
• Giorgos Kallis 1 ,
• Tim Jackson 2 ,
• Daniel W. O’Neill 3 ,
• Juliet B. Schor 4 ,
• Julia K. Steinberger 5 ,
• Peter A. Victor 6 &
• Diana Ürge-Vorsatz 7

Jason Hickel is a professor at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Autonomous University of Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), Spain, and a visiting senior fellow at the International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Giorgos Kallis is a professor of ecological economics and political ecology at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Autonomous University of Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), Spain, and at the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain.

Tim Jackson is director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.

Daniel W. O’Neill is an associate professor of ecological economics in the School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, UK, and president of the European Society for Ecological Economics.

Juliet B. Schor is an economist and professor in the Department of Sociology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA.

Julia K. Steinberger is a professor of ecological economics at the Institute of Geography and Sustainability, University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Peter A. Victor is a professor of environmental studies at York University, Toronto, Canada.

Diana Ürge-Vorsatz is a professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Central European University, Vienna, Austria.

Policies that support degrowth include the provision of high-quality, affordable public housing, such as that in Vienna. Credit: Rafael Wiedenmeier/Getty

You have full access to this article via your institution.

The global economy is structured around growth — the idea that firms, industries and nations must increase production every year, regardless of whether it is needed. This dynamic is driving climate change and ecological breakdown. High-income economies, and the corporations and wealthy classes that dominate them, are mainly responsible for this problem and consume energy and materials at unsustainable rates 1 , 2 .

Yet many industrialized countries are now struggling to grow their economies, given economic convulsions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, resource scarcities and stagnating productivity improvements. Governments face a difficult situation. Their attempts to stimulate growth clash with objectives to improve human well-being and reduce environmental damage.

GDP is getting a makeover — what it means for economies, health and the planet

Researchers in ecological economics call for a different approach — degrowth 3 . Wealthy economies should abandon growth of gross domestic product (GDP) as a goal, scale down destructive and unnecessary forms of production to reduce energy and material use, and focus economic activity around securing human needs and well-being. This approach, which has gained traction in recent years, can enable rapid decarbonization and stop ecological breakdown while improving social outcomes 2 . It frees up energy and materials for low- and middle-income countries in which growth might still be needed for development. Degrowth is a purposeful strategy to stabilize economies and achieve social and ecological goals, unlike recession, which is chaotic and socially destabilizing and occurs when growth-dependent economies fail to grow.

Reports this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) suggest that degrowth policies should be considered in the fight against climate breakdown and biodiversity loss, respectively. Policies to support such a strategy include the following.

Reduce less-necessary production. This means scaling down destructive sectors such as fossil fuels, mass-produced meat and dairy, fast fashion, advertising, cars and aviation, including private jets. At the same time, there is a need to end the planned obsolescence of products, lengthen their lifespans and reduce the purchasing power of the rich.

Improve public services. It is necessary to ensure universal access to high-quality health care, education, housing, transportation, Internet, renewable energy and nutritious food. Universal public services can deliver strong social outcomes without high levels of resource use.

Introduce a green jobs guarantee. This would train and mobilize labour around urgent social and ecological objectives, such as installing renewables, insulating buildings, regenerating ecosystems and improving social care. A programme of this type would end unemployment and ensure a just transition out of jobs for workers in declining industries or ‘sunset sectors’, such as those contingent on fossil fuels. It could be paired with a universal income policy.

Reduce working time. This could be achieved by lowering the retirement age, encouraging part-time working or adopting a four-day working week. These measures would lower carbon emissions and free people to engage in care and other welfare-improving activities. They would also stabilize employment as less-necessary production declines.

Enable sustainable development. This requires cancelling unfair and unpayable debts of low- and middle-income countries, curbing unequal exchange in international trade and creating conditions for productive capacity to be reoriented towards achieving social objectives.

Aubagne in France is one of almost 100 places worldwide offering free public transport. Credit: Viennaslide/Alamy

Some countries, regions and cities have already introduced elements of these policies. Many European nations guarantee free health care and education; Vienna and Singapore are renowned for high-quality public housing; and nearly 100 cities worldwide offer free public transport. Job guarantee schemes have been used by many nations in the past, and experiments with basic incomes and shorter working hours are under way in Finland, Sweden and New Zealand.

But implementing a more comprehensive strategy of degrowth — in a safe and just way — faces five key research challenges, as we outline here.

Remove dependencies on growth

Economies today depend on growth in several ways. Welfare is often funded by tax revenues. Private pension providers rely on stock-market growth for financial returns. Firms cite projected growth to attract investors. Researchers need to identify and address such ‘growth dependencies’ on a sector-by-sector basis.

For example, the ‘fiduciary duty’ of company directors needs to be changed. Instead of prioritizing the short-term financial interests of shareholders, companies should prioritize social and environmental benefits and take social and ecological costs into account. Sectors such as social care and pensions need secure funding mechanisms for public providers, and better regulation and dismantling of perverse financial incentives for private providers 4 .

Balancing the national economy will require new macro-economic models that combine economic, financial, social and ecological variables. Models such as LowGrow SFC (developed by T.J. and P.A.V.), EUROGREEN and MEDEAS are already being used to project the impacts of degrowth policies, including redistributive taxes, universal public services and reductions in working time.

Are there limits to economic growth? It’s time to call time on a 50-year argument

But these models typically focus on a single country and fail to take into account cross-border dynamics, such as movements of capital and currency. For example, if markets are spooked by low growth in one country, some companies might move their capital overseas, which could adversely affect the original country’s currency and increase borrowing costs. Conditions such as these posed severe financial problems for Argentina in 2001 and Greece in 2010. International cooperation for tighter border control of capital movements needs to be considered and the effects modelled.

Fund public services

New forms of financing will be needed to fund public services without growth. Governments must stop subsidies for fossil-fuel extraction. They should tax ecologically damaging industries such as air travel and meat production. Wealth taxes can also be used to increase public resources and reduce inequality.

Governments that issue their own currency can use this power to finance social and ecological objectives. This approach was used to bail out banks after the global financial crisis of 2007–8 and to pay for furlough schemes and hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic 5 .

Inflationary risks must be managed, if increased demand outstrips the productive capacity of the economy. Earmarking currency for public services reduces cost-of-living inflation. But a degrowth strategy can also reduce demand for material goods — for example through progressive taxation, by encouraging shared and collaborative consumption, incentivizing renovation and repair, and supporting community-based services.

Another risk is that when states or central banks issue currency, it can increase the service payments on government debt. Research suggests that managing this risk requires careful coordination of fiscal policy (how much governments tax and spend) and monetary policy (how price stability is maintained) 6 . Modelling and empirical research is needed to shed light on the pros and cons of innovative monetary policy mechanisms — such as a ‘tiered reserve system’, which reduces the interest rate on government debt.

Manage working-time reductions

Trials of shorter working hours have generally reported positive outcomes. These include less stress and burnout and better sleep among employees while maintaining productivity 7 . Most trials have focused on the public sector, mainly in northern Europe. But private companies in North America, Europe and Australasia have run trials of four-day weeks, with similar results 8 . However, the companies were self-selecting, and research is needed to test whether this approach can succeed more widely, for example outside the white-collar industries that dominate the trials.

Young people in Hong Kong hold placards about the Lying Flat movement, which has seen large numbers of workers resigning from jobs. Credit: Jonathan Wong/SCMP via ZUMA Press

Barriers to implementing reduced hours need to be understood and addressed. Per-head staff costs, such as capped tax contributions and health insurance, make it more expensive for employers to increase staff numbers. Personal debt might encourage employees to work longer hours, although recent trials showed no evidence of this 7 , 8 .

The understanding of collective impacts is also limited. Outcomes from France’s experiments with a 35-hour week have been mixed: although many people benefited, some lower-paid and less-skilled workers experienced stagnant wages and more-intense work 9 . Such pressures need to be studied and addressed. Assumptions that reduced hours result in more employment need to be tested in different sectors and settings. Recent evidence suggests that workers can maintain productivity by reorganizing their work 7 , 8 .

Links between hours of work and carbon emissions also need to be established 10 . Although less commuting lowers energy use and carbon emissions during compressed work weeks, behaviours during three-day weekends remain underexplored. More travel or shopping during free time could increase emissions, but these effects could be mitigated if production in problem sectors is scaled down.

Reshape provisioning systems

No country currently meets the basic needs of its residents sustainably 1 . Affluent economies use more than their fair share of resources 2 , whereas lower-income countries are likely to need to use more. Researchers need to study how provisioning systems link resource use with social outcomes, for both physical systems (infrastructure and technology) and social ones (governments and markets).

Bottom-up studies suggest that better provisioning systems could deliver decent living standards with much less energy use than is required today 11 . These studies don’t fully account for institutions such as the state, and are likely to be underestimates. Top-down studies, which do factor in such institutions, suggest that more energy is required to meet human needs 12 . But these studies are unable to separate out wasteful consumption such as big cars or yachts, and are thus likely to be overestimates.

Get the Sustainable Development Goals back on track

Researchers need to reconcile these approaches, and consider resources besides energy, including materials, land and water. They need to examine the provisioning systems for housing, transportation, communication, health care, education and food. What social and institutional changes would improve provisioning? What types of provision have the most beneficial social and environmental outcomes? Such research can be done using empirical observation, as well as through modelling.

Take housing, for example. In many parts of the world, property markets cater to developers, landlords and financiers. This contributes to segregation and inequality, and can push working people out of city centres so they are dependent on cars, which increases fossil-fuel emissions. Alternative approaches include public or cooperative housing, and a financial system that prioritizes housing as a basic need rather than as an opportunity for profit.

Political feasibility and opposition

Growth is often treated as an arbiter of political success. Few leaders dare to challenge GDP growth. But public attitudes are changing. Polls in Europe show that the majority of people prioritize well-being and ecological objectives over growth (see go.nature.com/3ugg8kt ). Polls in the United States and the United Kingdom show support for job guarantees and working-time reductions (see go.nature.com/3uyhdjv and go.nature.com/3y8ujz5 ). The large numbers of workers who have left their jobs in movements such as the US Great Resignation or the Lying Flat protest groups in China show there is demand for shorter working hours and more humane and meaningful work. Nonetheless, political parties that have put forward degrowth ideas have received limited support in elections. That begs the question: where would the drive for degrowth policy come from?

Social movements and cultural change brewing below the surface often precede and catalyse political transformation. Social scientists should examine four areas. First, they need to identify changing attitudes and practices using polls and focus groups.

Assessing social aid: the scale-up process needs evidence, too

Second, they should learn from sustainable ‘transition towns’, cooperatives, co-housing projects or other social formations that prioritize post-growth modes of living. The experiences of countries that have had to adapt to low-growth conditions — such as Cuba after the fall of the Soviet Union, and Japan — also hold lessons.

Third, researchers should study political movements that are aligned with degrowth values — from La Via Campesina, the international peasants’ movement that advocates food sovereignty and agroecological methods, to the municipalist and communalist movements and governments in progressive cities such as Barcelona or Zagreb, which promote policies favouring social justice and the commons. Better understanding is needed of the obstacles faced by governments that have ecological ambitions, such as those elected this year in Chile and Colombia.

Fourth, a better grasp is needed of the political and economic interests that might oppose or support degrowth. For example, how do groups such as the think tanks, corporations, lobbyists and political parties that work to support elite interests organize, nationally and internationally, to scupper progressive economic and social policy? The role of the media in shaping pro-growth attitudes remains underexplored. Given the links between economic growth and geopolitical power, individual nations might be disinclined to act alone, for fear of facing competitive disadvantage, capital flight or international isolation. This ‘first mover’ problem raises the question of whether, and under what conditions, high-income countries might cooperate towards a degrowth transition.

Government action is crucial. This is a challenge, because those in power have ideologies rooted in mainstream neoclassical economics, and tend to have limited exposure to researchers who explore economics from other angles. Political space will be needed to debate and understand alternatives, and to develop policy responses. Forums working on this include the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, the Growth in Transition movement in Austria, the European Parliament’s Post-Growth conference initiative and the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Limits to Growth.

Climate change is costing trillions — and low-income countries are paying the price

Strong social movements are necessary. Forms of decision-making that are decentralized, small-scale and direct, such as citizens’ assemblies, would help to highlight public views about more equitable economies 13 .

Addressing the question of how to prosper without growth will require a massive mobilization of researchers in all disciplines, including open-minded economists, social and political scientists, modellers and statisticians. Research on degrowth and ecological economics needs more funding, to increase capacity to address necessary questions. And the agenda needs attention and debate in major economic, environmental and climate forums, such as the United Nations conferences.

A March 2022 editorial in this journal argued that it is time to move beyond a ‘limits to growth’ versus ‘green growth’ debate. We agree. In our view, the question is no longer whether growth will run into limits, but rather how we can enable societies to prosper without growth, to ensure a just and ecological future. Let’s pave the way.

Nature 612 , 400-403 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-04412-x

The authors declare no competing interests.

Fanning, A. L., O’Neill, D. W., Hickel, J. & Roux, N. Nature Sustain. 5 , 26–36 (2022).

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Green Growth: India’s strategy for Green Economy

Last updated on March 7, 2024 by ClearIAS Team

Green growth is one of the seven top priorities of the Union Budget 2023-24 for ushering green industrial and economic transition, environmentally friendly agriculture, and sustainable energy in the country. Read here to get a comprehensive understanding of India’s efforts towards green energy transition.

The Union Budget 2023-24 has envisaged several projects and initiatives spread across various sectors and ministries like Green Hydrogen Mission, Energy Transition, Energy Storage Projects, Renewable Energy Evacuation, Green Credit Program, PM-PRANAM, GOBARdhan Scheme, Bhartiya Prakritik Kheti Bio-Input Resource Centres, MISHTI, Amrit Dharohar, Coastal Shipping, and Vehicle Replacement.

The aim is to accelerate the momentum for green growth in the country by forwarding new-age reforms along with finding solutions to current challenges.

The green energy announcements in the budget play a key role in establishing India as a leading player in the global green energy market. India has been the fastest in renewable energy capacity addition among major economies since 2014.

Table of Contents

What is Green Growth?

Green growth means fostering economic growth and development while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services on which our well-being relies.

Green growth is not a replacement for sustainable development.

Learn more from: ClearIAS Study Materials

• It provides a practical and flexible approach for achieving concrete, measurable progress across its economic and environmental pillars while taking full account of the social consequences of greening the growth dynamic of economies.
• The focus of green growth strategies is ensuring that natural assets can deliver their full economic potential on a sustainable basis.
• That potential includes the provision of critical life support services – clean air and water, and the resilient biodiversity needed to support food production and human health.
• Natural assets are not infinitely substitutable and green growth policies take account of that.

Green growth policies are an integral part of the structural reforms needed to foster strong, more sustainable, and inclusive growth . They help in several aspects of growth-

• Enhancing productivity by creating incentives for greater efficiency in the use of natural resources, reducing waste and energy consumption, unlocking opportunities for innovation and value creation, and allocating resources to the highest value use.
• Boosting investor confidence through greater predictability in how governments deal with major environmental issues.
• Opening up new markets by stimulating demand for green goods, services, and technologies.
• Contributing to fiscal consolidation by mobilizing revenues through green taxes and the elimination of environmentally harmful subsidies.
• These measures can also help to generate or free up resources for anti-poverty programs in such areas as water supply and sanitation, or other pro-poor investments.
• Reducing risks of negative shocks to growth due to resource bottlenecks, as well as damaging and potentially irreversible environmental impacts.

Strategies for greener growth need to be tailored to fit specific country circumstances. They will need to carefully consider how to manage any potential trade-offs and best exploit the synergies between green growth and poverty reduction.

Green growth strategies also recognize that focusing on GDP as the main measure of economic progress generally overlooks the contribution of natural assets to wealth, health, and well-being.

They, therefore, need to rely on a broader range of measures of progress, encompassing the quality and composition of growth, and how this affects people’s wealth and welfare.

India’s Green Growth strategy

Green growth, from green credits to green energy to green mobility to green farming, was among the seven main priorities that the latest budget announced.

Indian green growth and energy transmission are outlined on three pillars:

• Increasing the production of renewable energy
• Reducing the use of fossil fuel in the economy
• Rapidly moving towards a gas-based economy in the country

Measures like ethanol blending , PM KUSUM Yojana, incentives for solar manufacturing, rooftop solar scheme, coal gasification, and battery storage in the Budgets of the past few years underlined the strategy.

Other initiatives like green credit for industries, PM Pranam Yojna for farmers, Gobardhan Yojna for villages, vehicle scrapping policy for cities, and Green Hydrogen and wetland conservation are also paving the way to achieve the same.

India has been the fastest when it comes to renewable energy capacity addition among major economies since 2014.

• India achieved the target of 40% contributions from non-fossil fuels in the installed electricity capacity 9 years before the target date.
• India achieved the target of 10% ethanol blending in petrol 5 months before time and emphasized that the nation strives to achieve 20% ethanol blending in petrol by 2025-26 instead of 2030.
• A capacity of 500 GW will be achieved by 2030.
• The launch of E20 fuel and emphasis on biofuels has brought new opportunities for investors.
• The development of waterways in India is being given priority to encourage water-based transport and greener cargo handling.

India has to increase its battery storage capacity to 125 gigawatt hours in the next 6-7 years.

• Funding has also been initiated for Battery Energy Storage Systems: a capacity of 4,000 MWH will be supported with Viability Gap Funding (VGF).
• The VGF support and greater thrust on pumped hydro are critical to helping India move towards meeting the Energy Storage Obligation targets.
• To further green mobility, the import of capital goods and machinery required for the manufacture of lithium-ion cells for batteries used in electric vehicles will be exempted from customs duties.

Under the National Green Hydrogen Mission , India is moving with a target of production of 5 MMT of green hydrogen.

• An allocation of Rs 19 thousand crores has been made to incentivize the private sector in this field.
• Other opportunities such as electrolyzer manufacturing, green steel manufacturing, and long-haul fuel cells are also being given importance.

The vision of “LiFE”, or Lifestyle for Environment , will move the country and world towards an “environmentally conscious lifestyle”.

India is moving forward firmly for the panchamrit and net-zero carbon emission by 2070 to usher in green industrial and economic transition.

Read: Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT)

Government Initiatives for Green Growth

Some of the other major initiatives driving India’s green growth are:

PM-KUSUM (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan) Scheme is aimed at ensuring energy security for farmers in India.

It is honoring India’s commitment to increase the share of installed capacity of electric power from non-fossil-fuel sources to 40% by 2030 as part of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) .

The scheme was launched in 2019 with 3 components:

• Component-A: For Setting up 10,000 MW of Decentralized Grid Connected Renewable Energy Power Plants on barren land.
• Component-B: For Installation of 17.50 Lakh stand-alone solar agriculture pumps.
• Component-C: For Solarisation of 10 Lakh Grid Connected Agriculture Pumps.

Gobardhan Yojana

India has the potential of producing 10 thousand million cubic meters of biogas from Gobar (cow dung) and 1.5 lakhs cubic meters of gas which can contribute up to 8% to the city gas distribution in the country.

Gobardhan Yojana launched in 2018, is an important component of India’s biofuel strategy. In this budget, the government has announced plans to set up 500 new waste-to-wealth plants under the Gobardhan Yojana.

The Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan (GOBAR-DHAN) scheme is implemented under the Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin -Phase 2, by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation under the Jal Shakti ministry.

India’s vehicle scrapping policy

This is a crucial part of the green growth strategy as it creates space for a cleaner fleet of vehicles.

The Vehicle Scrappage Policy launched on August 13, 2021, is a government-funded program to replace old vehicles with modern & new vehicles on Indian roads.

According to the new policy, commercial vehicles aged >15 years and passenger vehicles aged >20 years will have to be mandatorily scrapped if they do not pass the fitness and emission tests

The policy is expected to reduce pollution, create job opportunities and boost demand for new vehicles. Following the principle of Reuse, Recycle, and Recovery gives new strength to our circular economy .

The government will promote and facilitate one crore farmers to adopt natural farming through Prime Minister Program for Restoration, Awareness, Nourishment, and Amelioration of Mother earth (PRANAM).

The main objective of this scheme is to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and promote the balanced use of chemicals, promote green growth, and reduce the negative impact on the environment.

Green Credit programme

A Green Credit program to encourage behavioral change will be notified under the Environment (Protection) Act .

This will incentivize environmentally sustainable and responsive actions by companies, individuals, and local bodies, and help mobilize additional resources for such activities.

MISHTI and Amrit Darohar

‘Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats & Tangible Incomes’ or MISHTI, which will involve planting mangroves along the coastline and on salt pan lands, wherever feasible, through convergence between MGNREGA , CAMPA Fund, and other sources.

Amrit Darohar is another new scheme, that will be implemented over the next three years to “encourage optimal use of wetlands, and enhance biodiversity, carbon stock, eco-tourism opportunities, and income generation for local communities”.

Way forward

India has huge potential to lead the world when it comes to technology for Green Energy and it can forward, the cause of global good apart from generating Green Jobs.

Also, as the G20 President for the term, the concept of green growth being a priority area validates how sustainable development is a major vision of Indian policymaking.

The budget 2023-24 also identifies 100 projects to improve last-mile connectivity for industries like coal and ports, as well as activities that would not be considered green growth, such as building 50 extra airports.

Also, there are no funding resources for important initiatives like the National Mission on Himalayan Studies, the National Adaptation Strategy, and the National Climate Change Action Plan. This occurs at a time when Joshimath and several other Himalayan cities are undergoing land subsidence .

Thus, India has to make sure that funding is going towards low-carbon technology, as well as identify the economic sectors and environmental degradation hotspots and take action to remedy them.

Read: Green Energy Partnerships of India; Battery Energy Storage System (BESS); Zero carbon buildings

-Article written by Swathi Satish

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Essay on Green Growth for Competitive Exams

Essay on Green Growth : Green growth is one of the seven pillars of Union Budget 2023-24. It has become most important essay topics for All competitive as well as academic exam. Here we have written an essay on Green Growth which cover all the important points like What is Green Growth? What does green growth aims to achieve? and what is strategy for green growth?. Lets see essay on Green Growth .

Essay on Green Growth

In this rapidly growing population age, world is facing two challenges simultaneously. These are expanding economic opportunities for all in the context of a growing global population; and addressing environmental pressures. If any one of these left unaddressed, this could undermine our ability to seize the opportunities of economic development. Economic development is necessary but by exploiting our environment it will be of no use. Both of these issues can be addressed by adopting Green Growth which harmonize economic growth with environmental sustainability.

What is Green Growth?

In simple words, Green Growth means fostering economic growth and development in such a way which ensures that natural assets continually provide the resources and environmental services on which our well-being relies. It is a such economic growth and development that is environmentally sustainable. Green Growth is a new revolutionary development paradigm that envisages economic growth while at the same time ensuring climatic and environmental sustainability.

Green growth is neither opposing nor replacement of sustainable development but it focuses on practical and flexible approach for achieving concrete, measurable progress across its economic and environmental pillars. Download PDF of this Essay: Click Here

What does Green Growth aims to achieve?

The green growth aims to harmonize economic growth with environmental sustainability. It focuses on improving the eco-efficiency of economic growth and enhancing the synergies between environment and economy. Green growth policies are such structural reforms which are required to foster strong, more sustainable and inclusive growth which can unlock new growth engines. It aims to enhance productivity by improving efficiency in the use of natural resources by allocating resources to the highest value use, reducing waste and energy consumption and unlocking opportunities for innovation and value creation.

It also aims to open up new markets by enhancing demand for green goods, services and technologies. It contributes to fiscal consolidation by revenues through green taxes and by elimination of environmentally harmful subsidies. It also aims to reduce the risks of negative shocks to growth which can arise due to resource bottlenecks as well as damaging and potentially irreversible environmental impacts.

Strategy for Green Growth

Strategies for Green Growth should be tailored to fit specific country circumstances which focuses bring together social, economic, environmental, technological, financial and development aspects into a comprehensive framework. While focusing on GDP as the main measure of economic progress contribution of natural assets to wealth, health and well-being should be noticed. Every action for economic development should be taken with proper care of environment. Green Growth should be promoted by investments in long-term environmental sustainability in order to diversify and ensure economic resilience which enhances the synergy between environment and economy.

Trending Essay Topics: Check Here

Making synergy with environment for sustainable economic development is need of hour. Green growth has vision and potential for achieving the same by harmonizing economic growth with environmental sustainability. Green growth makes efficient use of natural resources, minimizes pollution and environmental impacts and paves the way of environmentally sustainable economic development which is essential for our well being.

Hope you liked this essay on Green Growth and it helped you in your exam preparation. This essay on economic growth is very important for all competitive as well as academic exams.

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