SE Academic Review 2023

13 ACADEMIC REVIEW 2023

This idea of an economy with limits is in contrast to the use of GDP growth targets which many governments still base their yearly success on. However, a continuously growing yearly target is impossible to achieve when the resources that fuel our consumption are finite. Raworth describes current consumption behaviour as being part of a ‘caterpillar economy’, where energy and resources are taken in for use but ‘lost’ at the end through pollution and climate damage (Raworth, 2018, p. 180). Instead, we need to recycle and regenerate the resources we use so that we do not put any additional strain on the environment. Raworth does not deny that growth is still possible in a green economy. However, she points out that over the history of industrialisation, GDP and carbon emissions have always been linked and to reach carbon neutrality, they must be decoupled. This does not mean relative decoupling where

PERMANENT REDUCTIONS TO CONSUMPTION IN A GREEN ECONOMY However, is a temporary reduction in consumption enough if we are serious about long-term, sustainable carbon neutrality? Kate Raworth’s (2018) Doughnut Economics suggests that we need to change the entire way we think about consumption in a green economy. Her book is centralised around the image of a ‘doughnut’, Figure 9. The inner ring defines the baseline ‘social foundation’ of society such as access to health, water and food. The outer ring describes the ‘ecological ceiling’ which sets the limit to the amount of climate damage we can do. Going above any of these limits would lead to climate disaster.

Figure 9. Doughnut Economy Model (Raworth, 2018)

emission growth merely slows down compared to economic growth. Growth must be achieved for the first time ever with no further release of carbon. Gates believes that this decrease in consumption only needs to be temporary whilst technology catches up, however Raworth believes otherwise. She believes that, moving forward, the UK may need to rethink what economic growth is defined by. Consumption is not infinite as defined by GDP’s exponential curve and the UK may need to get used to a society which is no longer able to grow.

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