The climate crisis is a consequence of our economic system. Economic solutions, like carbon trading were supposed to be a problem solver. Despite such efforts, CO2 levels kept rising. Should we consider changing our economic system instead? And which role do environmental NGOs play in the battle for climate justice?
Joanna Cabello, activist and researcher on environmental justice and part of the Carbon Trade Watch collective, speaks about false solutions and grassroots activism. Joanna´s blog article "Where to begin with climate justice" is available here.
While agreeing with many points of van den Bergh's excellent review of the growth versus climate debate, I would like to point to a fundamental misrepresentation of the quoted research on degrowth: degrowth is not a strategy "aimed at reducing the size of the GDP". In fact, the degrowth proposition is that the relationship between fossil fuels/carbon emissions and GDP growth is mutual, and th...
In a recently published article in Nature Climate Change, Jeroen van den Bergh argues that neither degrowth nor green-growth strategies might lead to sufficient climate action and hence makes the case for a third option which he calls “agrowth”. While the understanding of degrowth reflected in the article can certainly be disputed – it comes across as mainly targeting a shrinking GDP – his conc...
Eine Grundüberzeugung des Postwachstumskollegs besteht darin, dass die Überwindung der blindlaufenden Steigerungszwänge moderner, kapitalistischer Gesellschaften einer komplexen, simultanen und mehrdimensionalen Transformation (oder Revolution) bedarf, die ökonomische, politische und kulturelle Veränderungen zugleich impliziert. Die wesentliche Aufgabe des Kollegs besteht darin, so genau wie möglich zu identifizieren, was genau sich ändern muss, um die ‚blindlaufenden‘ ökonomischen, politischen [...]
