Green growth and responsible expert testimony

Responsible experts try to avoid expert trespassing, i.e. making statements while presenting oneself as having more expertise than he or she really has. Avoiding trespassing may be difficult with multifaceted questions since the boundaries of expertise are not obvious. I ask how economists and other experts can avoid problematic trespassing when testifying on the compatibility of economic growth and environmental sustainability. I argue that even researchers in seemingly relevant fields often cannot present their views on this question as if they were relatively good experts. Since many fields conduct research relevant to this question, having strong expertise additionally requires interaction across research fields to ensure that one’s assumptions about aspects of the question outside one’s own expertise will be scrutinized. Responsible researchers consider their socio-epistemic position before presenting their view on the feasibility of sustainable economic growth, and other similarly multifaceted questions, as expert testimony.