If we want to save the climate, the economies of Western countries must shrink, says economic anthropologist Jason Hickel. He will address the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
Most parties in the House of Representatives still agree that economic growth has contributed to climate change. But hardly anyone wants to throw the baby out with the bathwater. For example, the VVD advocates more innovation and GroenLinks thinks growth is good, as long as it is not ‘at the expense of the world in which we live’.
In doing so, those parties are committing a major mistake degrowth-guru and bestselling author Jason Hickel (40). The economic anthropologist will visit the House of Representatives on Wednesday to proclaim his core message, namely that green growth is an illusion. Who really wants the CO2emissions are reduced enough to meet the climate targets, the economy must shrink.
Hickel became internationally known with books such as The Divide (2017) in Less is More (2020)which was released in the Netherlands as Less is more. How Degrowth can save the world. In it, he argues that Western economies are bloated monstrosities, producing products and services we don’t really need. If we only make what is necessary, Hickel thinks, people in other countries will not have to be exploited and the damage to the earth will be limited.
What are you going to say to the Dutch MPs?
“Among other things, I will tell you that Western economies, including the Dutch, fail in two ways. Firstly, they cause massive overproduction, which causes both ecological and climate damage. Second, at the same time, they are unable to meet people’s basic needs. Think of affordable housing, but also of free public transport. It is actually completely paradoxical what is happening, and that is because of our focus on profit, instead of what is really needed.
“We have to scale down the production of everything that is not necessary. Think for example of SUVs, cruise ships, the meat industry, commercial flights, fast fashion, etcetera. These are all matters that are not directly relevant to our well-being, but that have a major destructive impact on the planet. It’s insane that we keep producing these things while we’re in an ecological emergency.
“It is also important to stop using gross domestic product (GDP) as a measure of well-being. Look, according to GDP, $1,000 in bombs is worth as much as $1,000 in health care. Even the inventor of GDP, Simon Kuznets, warned that it should never be used as an indicator of progress.”
Mortgages and pensions, among others, depend on growth. How then?
“People are now subject to the vagaries of the market. They are trapped in a very unstable system, in which problems such as food insecurity have never been solved. In what I propose, that uncertainty is resolved by a job guarantee. People get decently paid jobs within collective projects that are socially and environmentally responsible, and therefore really matter. For example, in regenerative agriculture or improving public transport.”
The economist Branko Milanovic calls your plans ‘political suicide’.
“What someone like Milanovic doesn’t understand is that the policies I’m proposing would improve people’s lives significantly. After all, everyone gets what they need, within a social and just system in which things like healthcare, education and clean energy are offered free of charge. Any political party that takes steps in this direction will be popular.”
You want to reduce everything that is unnecessary in your eyes. How do you convince someone who likes to eat meat that it is also good to live with less meat?
“People often tell me that what I want can only be implemented by an authoritarian regime. But that is nonsense, it must and can indeed be a democratic process. Surveys indicate that most people in Europe and the United States are in favor of an economy that revolves around well-being rather than growth.
“In addition, official citizens’ councils in France, the United States and Spain show that citizens are asking for degrowth. They want to shrink the meat industry and reduce commercial air traffic. People recognize that those industries need to change, and this can be achieved within a democratic process.
“The media has created a distorted image of these things. And that is because the media sometimes favor companies. People are quite willing to make do with less. And above all, they want this to be done in a democratic and just manner. For example, a reduction in the number of commercial flights should not mean that the rich can still fly, and the rest cannot. We have to distribute the number of flights that will be available in the future fairly.”
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The Dutch economist Barbara Baarsma will also join us on Wednesday. She argues that economic growth is necessary for green innovations.
“Everyone agrees that technology is important for the energy transition. We must become more energy efficient and at the same time switch to more sustainable sources of energy as quickly as possible. But we cannot rely on those two mechanisms alone, because they are not moving nearly fast enough at the moment.
“The Netherlands has signed the Paris Agreement, which means a maximum temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius. The reduction of carbon emissions in the Netherlands that is required for this is now proceeding at a rate of 1.4 percent per year. At that rate, it will take more than 200 years for the country to be climate neutral. And will the Netherlands be seven times as much as its CO2burn through the budget.
“Green growth is therefore a recipe for misery. It is very unlikely that you can become more sustainable faster while increasing production, because more production always means more demand for energy. And more energy automatically makes it more difficult to go green faster. It’s like trying to walk down an escalator that moves upwards. We make it unnecessarily difficult for ourselves.
“Green growth scenarios rely too much on technical possibilities, where your CO2 catches and stores it from the air. Scientists warn that it is very risky to rely on this, because we simply cannot go back if this technology does not work well enough. Moreover, with high energy consumption you suppress the consumption of poorer countries. That is immoral and unjust.
“Proponents of green growth also fail to take into account the problem of using materials. Even if you solve the climate problem, more materials will contribute to the loss of biodiversity and damage to ecosystems. That can only be avoided if we reduce the production of things that are not necessary.”
Suppose the Netherlands wants to downsize its economy. Will it then give up its economic and therefore strategic position in the world?
“Many countries will be cautious regarding degrowth because they are concerned regarding their competitiveness. For example, governments do not want to unilaterally limit the use of fossil fuels because they are afraid that this will put them at a disadvantage. That is understandable. It is important that we work together internationally as much as possible, for example by concluding a treaty on the phasing out of fossil fuels. That is an urgent task.
“Don’t forget that the Netherlands is vulnerable because of its location below sea level. It can and must, like any other progressive country, take steps on its own. First, it must abandon GDP growth as a measure of well-being. Instead, it should focus on things we all want: less CO2emissions, more equality and justice. The current system is not going to magically solve those problems. It has never done that before.”
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Doubts regarding economic growth are now also creeping into the established order. What is the alternative?
Unbridled production and consumption has driven climate change and loss of biodiversity. The self-evident nature of economic growth is therefore increasingly under discussion.
