Degrowth

I write in response to the recent critique by Terry Leahy of my article ‘Beyond green growth, degrowth, post-growth and growth agnosticism’ in JAPE (94, Summer 2024/2025).

While it is great to open this sort of debate, it is crucial, first and foremost, to clarify what is being argued. My article in JAPE should not be characterised as making an argument for ‘green growth’ – which is a position I reject as being poorly formulated, overly rigid and lacking in qualification and nuance. The key arguments I put forward in the JAPE article were actually as follows:  

participants in this debate need to be clearer, consistent and more precise in outlining their position and in the construction and use of concepts and terminology that they use to describe their position.
Economic growth is an aggregate measure that captures many diverse activities that range from environmentally helpful to harmful. The net environmental impact of economic is growth is inherently unstable and deeply dependent on a range of other variables. Given this, simplistic and fixed positions for (or against) economic growth are misconceived.

This is a brief response to Tim Thornton’s recent article for JAPE (94, Summer 2024/2025), ‘Beyond green growth, degrowth, post-growth and growth agnosticism’. I am not intending to go into the arguments he uses in detail but instead to explain the green growth and degrowth positions as I see them. I find his account of it confusing and somewhat misleading — and feel there is a point in setting the record straight.