As green growth loses traction among researchers, ‘post-growth’ thought is no longer a fringe position

WHEN she took to the floor to give her State of the Union speech on Sep 13, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen largely stuck to the script. Describing her vision of an economically buoyant and sustainable Europe in the era of climate change, she called on the European Union (EU) to accelerate the development of the clean-tech sector, “from wind to steel, from batteries to electric vehicles”.

“When it comes to the European Green Deal, we stick to our growth strategy,” she said.

Her plans were hardly idiosyncratic. The notion of green growth – the idea that environmental goals can be aligned with continued economic growth – is still the common economic orthodoxy for major institutions such as the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).