Climate change: We need a post-growth world
OPINION: The worlds most important scientific report will be released this evening. But the latest climate science update from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is likely to paint a grim picture for the planet. A draft version of the report leaked last month suggests the severe impacts of climate change could be felt sooner than anticipated. The world may be approaching environmental tipping points, such as the melting of polar ice sheets and the gradual death of the Amazon rainforest. On the back of the extreme weather events of recent months, the final report should serve as the loudest wake-up call yet. READ MORE: * More pests, new diseases, starving pollinators: gardening in a changing climate * New Zealand best place 'to survive global societal collapse', study finds * Understanding China's climate change goals * Coal use has spiked. Is green electricity drifting off course? * Economy could rev up as we cut carbon, researchers say * Entrepreneurial Asia buzzing with green start-ups and ambitious climate change targets * Rod Oram: Citizens can be changemakers Scientists argue that we fundamentally need to decouple economic growth from the demands on the environment that are required to sustain it. As humanity has developed ever more advanced technology, we should have been able to do more with less resources. But that hasnt happened. Burgeoning global consumption has cancelled out most of the gains technology has made. The United Nations International Resource Panel estimates that global material demand for resources will double by 2060 if the current trend continues. We are consuming our way to disaster. One alternative is that economic growth, long associated with progress and improved wellbeing, should become a dirty term in rich countries anyway. Instead, they can adopt post-growth policies, which are designed to keep economies stable and support strong social outcomes without economic growth, an international group of researchers wrote in the journal Nature Energy last week. What does that mean in real terms? A raft of changes, ranging from greater use of public transport and flying less, to moving to plant-based diets, reducing food waste and reversing the throwaway culture that applies to everything from clothes to cars. The researchers point to Spain, which significantly outperforms the US in key social indicators, such as life expectancy that is five years longer, but has 55 per cent less GDP per capita. There are major equity issues involved, which need to be tackled by mandating a living wage, shortening the working week to ensure full employment, and offering universal access to public healthcare, education and public housing. Its morally problematic to expect the developing world to put the brakes on economic growth at the same rate wealthy countries do. Instead, say the researchers, GDP and other measures should converge at per capita levels that are consistent with universal human welfare and ecological stability. These are not new arguments. Our Climate Change Commission reflects some of them in its recommended policy changes to mitigate emissions, but points out that they would only hit GDP to the tune of 1.2 per cent by 2050 . The current obsession is getting back on the GDP growth path after the economic chill of the Covid-19 pandemic. But the real answer to saving the planet may well be making do with what we already have and sharing it around more fairly in a post-growth world.