Green growth and post-growth: navigating conflicting approaches to sustainability

This chapter explores the tension between economic growth and environmental sustainability in the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It examines the post-growth movement's critique of mainstream economic thinking, which prioritises continuous GDP growth, and contrasts this with the green growth advocated by many international organisations. These different approaches to the ecological crisis centre around whether the challenges of decoupling economic growth from resource use and environmental degradation can be overcome. I explore how mainstream economics argues that technology can allow for economic change which avoids many of the political and practical difficulties of implementing post-growth ideas. Whilst there are significant gaps between post-growth and mainstream economic perspectives, some areas of convergence exist typified by the increased interest in industrial policy and recognition of growth limitations in developed economies. This common ground, however small, suggests the terrain on which a new greener economy may be built.