Myth 5

This chapter critiques the widespread belief that technological innovations and green consumerism are sufficient to achieve sustainability. The authors show how techno-optimism creates lock-ins in policy and business and reassures consumers that superficial changes are enough, while ignoring structural drivers of unsustainable consumption. The chapter explores the consequences of techno-optimism across policy, business and everyday life, highlighting how reliance on future technologies delays urgent climate action, promotes ‘comfortable consumption’ for affluent groups and exposes companies to path-dependency risks. It then dispels the myth by demonstrating that technology alone cannot offset rising consumption, green technologies are not sustainable by default, efficiency gains are undermined by rebound effects and the digital revolution has its own ecological and social burdens. Through evidence ranging from aviation, electric vehicles, smart technologies and resource extraction, the authors show that efficiency-focused strategies cannot deliver absolute reductions in environmental impacts. Instead, sustainability requires combining efficiency with shift and sufficiency strategies, addressing lifestyles, norms and demand. The chapter concludes with recommendations for policymakers, businesses and consumers. Policymakers should embed sufficiency in climate and energy strategies, apply precautionary governance and go beyond voluntary measures. Businesses should step outside the comfort zone of techno-fixes and experiment with sufficiency-oriented business models. Consumers, finally, can support change not only through individual choices but also through collective action and redefined visions of the good life based on sufficiency, care and alternative hedonism.