Transcript Prosperity without Growth?

Prosperity without Growth
Tim Jackson
4th March 2010
Rockstrom et al,
Nature 461, Sept
2009
The Dilemma of Growth
Life Expectancy at Birth
• Growth is unsustainable
• De-growth is unstable
Life expectancy at birth (years)
90
Cuba Costa Rica Chile
80
Malta
New Zealand
Japan
Iceland
Ireland
United Kingdom
Bahrain
China
70
United States
GDP = Labour x LP
India
60
Norway
Russian Federation
Gabon
South Africa
50
Botswana
Mozambique
Swaziland
40
30
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
30,000
GDP per capita (PPP $2005)
35,000
40,000
45,000
50,000
The Dilemma of Growth
Source: Prosperity without growth, Tim Jackson (London, Earthscan 2009)
x 130 improvement
CO2/$ < zero by 2100?
The Engine of Growth
• shareholder value
• creative destruction
Firms
Spending
Investment
Increasing
productivity
Households
Credit
• status consumption
• a life without shame
Income
Novelty
Price
A Better Prosperity?
Prosperity consists in our ability to flourish as human
beings – within the ecological limits of a finite planet.
• material flourishing: food, clothing, shelter
• social and psychological flourishing: identity, meaning,
participation in the life of society
• rethinking social goods and public spaces
A Better Economic Engine?
Ecological Investment
• low carbon transition
• ecological assets
• livelihoods
Ecological Enterprise
• provide capabilities
• support communities
• tread lightly
A Better Nature?
Novelty
Other
Self
Tradition
Economics for a
finite planet
Ecosystems
Ecological
investment
ecological
productivity
Ecosystem
services
Ecological
enterprise
Participation
Capabilities
improved
flourishing
People
‘The crisis doesn’t only make us
free to imagine other models,
another future, another world. It
obliges us to do so.’
President Sarkozy, September 2009
http://www.earthscan.co.uk/pwg