Decoupling Debunked : Evidence and arguments against green growth as a sole strategy for sustainability
(2019)- Abstract
- Is it possible to enjoy both economic growth and environmental sustainability? This question is a matter of fierce political debate between green growth and post-growth advocates. Over the past decade, green growth clearly dominated policy making with policy agendas at the United Nations, European Union, and in numerous countries building on the assumption that decoupling environmental pressures from gross domestic product (GDP) could allow future economic growth without end.
Considering what is at stake, a careful assessment to determine whether the scientific foundations behind this “decoupling hypothesis” are robust or not is needed. This report reviews the empirical and theoretical literature to assess the validity of this... (More) - Is it possible to enjoy both economic growth and environmental sustainability? This question is a matter of fierce political debate between green growth and post-growth advocates. Over the past decade, green growth clearly dominated policy making with policy agendas at the United Nations, European Union, and in numerous countries building on the assumption that decoupling environmental pressures from gross domestic product (GDP) could allow future economic growth without end.
Considering what is at stake, a careful assessment to determine whether the scientific foundations behind this “decoupling hypothesis” are robust or not is needed. This report reviews the empirical and theoretical literature to assess the validity of this hypothesis. The conclusion is both overwhelmingly clear and sobering: not only is there no empirical evidence supporting the existence of a decoupling of economic growth from environmental pressures on anywhere near the scale needed to deal with environmental breakdown, but also, and perhaps more importantly, such decoupling appears unlikely to happen in the future. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/71c29d6c-06d6-4a90-8e3e-e0e8ef302174
- author
- Parrique, Timothée LU ; Barth, Jonathan ; Briens, François ; Kerschner, Christian ; Kraus-Polk, Alejo ; Kuokkanen, Anna and Spangenberg, Joachim H.
- publishing date
- 2019
- type
- Book/Report
- publication status
- published
- subject
- publisher
- European Environmental Bureau
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- 71c29d6c-06d6-4a90-8e3e-e0e8ef302174
- alternative location
- https://eeb.org/library/decoupling-debunked/
- date added to LUP
- 2022-07-25 11:53:27
- date last changed
- 2022-08-02 13:32:03
@techreport{71c29d6c-06d6-4a90-8e3e-e0e8ef302174,
abstract = {{Is it possible to enjoy both economic growth and environmental sustainability? This question is a matter of fierce political debate between green growth and post-growth advocates. Over the past decade, green growth clearly dominated policy making with policy agendas at the United Nations, European Union, and in numerous countries building on the assumption that decoupling environmental pressures from gross domestic product (GDP) could allow future economic growth without end.<br/>Considering what is at stake, a careful assessment to determine whether the scientific foundations behind this “decoupling hypothesis” are robust or not is needed. This report reviews the empirical and theoretical literature to assess the validity of this hypothesis. The conclusion is both overwhelmingly clear and sobering: not only is there no empirical evidence supporting the existence of a decoupling of economic growth from environmental pressures on anywhere near the scale needed to deal with environmental breakdown, but also, and perhaps more importantly, such decoupling appears unlikely to happen in the future.}},
author = {{Parrique, Timothée and Barth, Jonathan and Briens, François and Kerschner, Christian and Kraus-Polk, Alejo and Kuokkanen, Anna and Spangenberg, Joachim H.}},
institution = {{European Environmental Bureau}},
language = {{eng}},
title = {{Decoupling Debunked : Evidence and arguments against green growth as a sole strategy for sustainability}},
url = {{https://eeb.org/library/decoupling-debunked/}},
year = {{2019}},
}