At a time where the realities of the climate crisis are becoming more and more obvious and with ever more dire warnings being published by the IPCC, something needs to be done to ensure the lasting survival of our planet.
We live in an aspirational society with the vast majority of us in large towns and cities which amplifies the influence of crowds and advertising where the difference between your current life and happiness is just a spend away. As Tim Jackson said, we ‘spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need to make impressions that won’t last on people we don’t care about’. As of 2023, around 62% of UK GDP was driven by private consumption.
But why is consumption a problem? GDP growth and net CO2 emissions are directly linked and although they have shown slight signs of decoupling in recent years, until there is an absolute decoupling between the two, where greater growth does not lead to an increase in CO2 emissions, the goal cannot be to drive GDP ever higher. However, if the prevailing political classes in the UK are to be listened to, the solution to these issues is ‘green growth’ driven by higher wages and faster GDP growth but with a particular green flavour. This cannot be compatible with our commitments to ’net zero’ or to a ‘greener future’.
High levels of private consumption, not just in the UK but the wider Global North, are ecologically irresponsible; constant growth implies unlimited resources. We are consuming resources faster than the planet can replenish them and have been doing so for decades. At the same time, 13% of the world’s population are malnourished while 30-50% of all food gets lost post harvest to things like waste. It would take just 3% of the global food supply to feed those that are malnourished - that’s essentially saying that world hunger could be ended with just 10% of all the food that doesn’t even get eaten.
While outdated economic concepts like GDP still prevail, we will struggle to make a meaningful move away from ecological destruction. Ideas like the circular economy as lauded by The Ellen MacArthur Foundation offer modern ideas about resource reuse, showing the kind of future we could be working towards.
Any politician who claims to want to combat the climate crisis while touting ideas such as green growth, or who criticises their opponents on the basis of GDP growth is not serious. They fundamentally misunderstand the task at hand and that the solution is a fundamental rethink about our economy and wider society.