Us degrowth powerpoint

Sustainable Economies, Without Growth

A Degrowth research agenda

Giorgos Kallis, ICREA Professor, ICTA-UAB

ERG Colloquium March 13, 2013

This presentation

• Part I: Growth is not the answer1. The un-sustainability of growth.2. The end of growth ?

• Part II: Economies without growth3. Why are we growth addicted?4. Institutions for Economies without growth.5. Exiting the economy.6. The politics of transition.

• Conclusion

My perspective: Ecological (macro)economics

• Inter- and pluri-disciplinary.

• Energy and the environment matter in economic growth.

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• Conclusion

We cannot both grow and avoid climate change

19802007

20500

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

World carbon intensity in CO2-eq/$ (data from Jackson, 2008)

ActualConvergence scenarioBusiness as usual scenario

Jevons’ paradox: we consume more because we become more efficient

Bet on a carbon revolution or a precautionary downscaling instead?

• 37 years till 2050, compared to 125 years for the industrial revolution.

• Productivity improved because of using more energy, not less.

Growth damages communities at the world’s commodity frontiers

• Growing social metabolism destroys ecosystems and indigenous cultures at commodity frontiers.

• Local communities in conflict with States and corporations.

www.ejolt.orgMartinez-Alier. J., Kallis, G. et al, 2010.

Social metabolism, ecological distribution conflicts and valuation languages,

Ecological Economics

http://www.ejolt.org/

Growth does not increase well-being in the long-term.

• Life satisfaction decreases with contractions and increases with expansions, but in the long-term it stays the same.

From Easterlin, R., et al, 2010. The Happiness-income paradox revisited, PNAS

Growth cannot not satisfy the desire for positional goods

• Positional goods are inherently socially scarce.

• Inferior access to positional goods leads to economic insecurity and poverty.

• Poverty in wealthy countries cannot be cured by growth, only by redistribution.

This presentation



• Conclusion

Growth in the West has slowed down

Source of data: World Bank

1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

-6

-4

-2

0

2

4

6

US (% growth change)

EU (% growth change)

Linear (EU (% growth change))

High oil prices preceded the crisisCrude Oil Prices and U.S. GDP growth

(graph from IbisWorld)

Peak-oil?

The end of cheap net energy

• Diminishing energy returns to energy investment (EROI) for new sources.

The limits of innovation• Urbanization, mass education

and the entry of women into the labor force were one-off processes. They now have marginal returns.

• The internet paradox: where is the growth from the internet?

• It is energy productivity innovations that matter, communication alone is not enough.

Limits to to growing capital

• 0.15 trillion $ looking for investment in 1950, 0.42 trillion in 1973, 1.6 trillion $ in 2010 and 3 trillions by 2030.

• Inequality exacerbates over-accumulation.

• Capital over-accumulation is a source of instability and booms and busts.

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• Conclusion

Why are we growth addicted?

• Growth as ideology and quasi religion.

Latouche, S., 2010. Farewell to Growth.

Norgaard, R., 2010. The environmental case for a collective assessment of economism.

Negative growth can have dramatic consequences

1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012

-10

-5

0

5

10

15

20

Greece GDP growth rate(%)

Greece Unem-ployment rate (%)

Source of data: CIA World Factbook

Negative growth does not have to be socially catastrophic

1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012

-6

-4

-2

0

2

4

6

Japan GDP growth rate(%)

Linear (Japan GDP growth rate(%))

Japan Unemployment rate (%)

Linear (Japan Un-employment rate (%))

Source: CIA World Factbook

Why Greece, and not Japan?

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• Conclusion

Money without growth

• Community currencies– Time banks.– HOUR currencies.– Parallel currencies.– LETS

• Monetary reforms– 100% reserve

requirements.– Public money.

Social security without growth

• A single, guaranteed-for-life, entitlement transfer.

• Financed by an energy tax.

• Incentives to work maintained.

Employment without growth

• Short-term employment boost from reduced working hours.

• Productivity gains translated to liberated time, not capital accumulation.

• Environmental benefits depend on complementary policies.

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• Conclusion

Local economies without wage-labour

• Proliferating culture of voluntary and forced “nowtopians”.

• Expanding cultures of cooperating and sharing in Europe as a result of the crisis.

Why do young people move to the countryside?

• New forms of living in the countryside (neo-rural experiences).

• Politicized moves and “life projects”, not mere life-style changes.

This presentation



• Conclusion

How and by whom?

• The prefigurative politics of the Occupy Movement and their relation to degrowth ideals.

• The institutionalization of degrowth objectives in Ecuador.

• Conservative variants of degrowth.

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• Conclusion

My messages

1. Economic growth is unsustainable; environmentally, socially and economically.

2. Time to ask new questions and think outside the box of growth.

Thank you!

[email protected]

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