Prosperity without GrowthTim Jackson4th March 2010

Rockstrom et al, Nature 461, Sept 2009

• Growth is unsustainable

• De-growth is unstable

The Dilemma of Growth

GDP = Labour x LP

Life Expectancy at Birth

IcelandNorway

Ireland

Japan

United StatesUnited Kingdom

New ZealandMaltaChile

Bahrain

Costa RicaCuba

Russian Federation

China

Gabon

South Africa

Botswana

India

Swaziland

Mozambique

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35,000 40,000 45,000 50,000

GDP per capita (PPP $2005)

Lif

e ex

pec

tan

cy a

t b

irth

(ye

ars)

The Dilemma of GrowthSource: Prosperity without growth, Tim Jackson (London, Earthscan 2009)

x 130 improvement

CO2/$ < zero by 2100?

Households

Firms

IncomeInvestment Novelty

Price

Spending

Increasingproductivity

The Engine of Growth• shareholder value• creative destruction

• status consumption • a life without shame

Credit

Prosperity consists in our ability to flourish as human beings – within the ecological limits of a finite planet.

• material flourishing: food, clothing, shelter• social and psychological flourishing: identity, meaning,

participation in the life of society • rethinking social goods and public spaces

A Better Prosperity?

A Better Economic Engine?

Ecological Investment• low carbon transition• ecological assets• livelihoods

Ecological Enterprise• provide capabilities• support communities • tread lightly

A Better Nature?

Tradition

Novelty

Self

Other

Ecologicalenterprise

People

Ecosystems

Ecological investment Ecosystem

services

Participation Capabilities

ecologicalproductivity

improvedflourishing

Economics for a finite planet

http://www.earthscan.co.uk/pwg

‘The crisis doesn’t only make us free to imagine other models, another future, another world. It obliges us to do so.’

President Sarkozy, September 2009