On the 10th December I attended an event about how social inclusion measures, and investment decisions, assist in a just and sustainable transition.  There was a panel of high profile, influential speakers including Lord Nicholas Stern (who authored the highly cited review on the Economics of Climate Change) and Nick Robins from the London School of Economics.

My concern was that the framing of the discussion was firmly rooted in the ‘economic growth paradigm’. Lord Stern advocated for the world economy to continue growing at 3% per year and said it would double in size in the next 25 years. Nick Robins said that a ‘just transition’ was now of interest to investors as it provided “an opportunity for growth”.

The fundamental problem that we face currently is that economic growth is directly linked to unsustainable resource use. It is, therefore, troubling when world leaders come together to ostensibly talk about radical carbon emissions reductions, but are firmly stuck in the system that caused the problem in the first place.

 

 

The chair of the meeting, Vic Van Vuuren of the ILO, gave a personal anecdote of how one needs to break the mould with a shift in thinking and actions, and yet this is exactly what is not happening in terms of economics. The whole reliance on conventional economic growth to solve all our unemployment and development issues seems to be a mantra that is not being questioned.  

To effectively tackle climate change we need innovative solutions as to how to allow for human progress, environmental protection and social justice while radically cutting back on emissions. For leading voices at the COP meetings to expect that we can magically do this without shifting away from resource-linked economic growth is gravely irresponsible. 

Later in the day I attended a discussion forum where these exact issues of alternative development pathways and de-growth were discussed. Encouragingly, there was strong youth representation, but unfortunately this was on the fringe, outside the main venue, and far from being able to have political influence.

Which I guess means we have lots to do if we are to ever get leaders to consider the difficult, thorny subject of deep and meaningfully changes in the way we address climate change.  

Richard Halsey at COP24 in Poland, 10 Dec 2018