Abstract

The discourse of ‘green growth’ has recently gained ground in environmental governance deliberations and policy proposals. It is presented as a fresh and innovative agenda centred on the deployment of engineering sophistication, managerial acumen and market mechanisms to redress the environmental and social derelictions of the existing development model.

But the green growth project is deeply inadequate, whether assessed against criteria of social justice or the achievement of sustainable economic life upon a materially finite planet. This volume outlines three main lines of critique. First, it traces the development of the green growth discourse quaideology. It asks: what explains modern society’s investment in it, why has it emerged as a master concept in the contemporary conjuncture, and what social forces does it serve? Second, it unpicks and explains the contradictions within a series of prominent green growth projects. Finally, it weighs up the merits and demerits of alternative strategies and policies, asking the vital question: ‘if not green growth, then what?’

'Green Growth offers us much insight and should be considered a significant contribution to the fields of sustainable development, political ecology and ecological economics. More profoundly, however, it helps us question whether the idea of economic growth can ever be meaningfully greened.'
Strategic Analysis

'Contains thoughtful analyses. The book's central message is that capitalism probably can't green itself.  Moreover, green growth is the latest ideological reshaping of the hegemony of capital. Recommended.'
Choice

'The volume is required reading for anyone who wants to understand the most pressing concern of our time.'
LSE Review of Books

‘Essential reading for all of us who wish to see a greener future.’
Derek Wall, Green Party of England and Wales

‘Read this important book for a set of excellent critical guides to alternatives to our destructive and wasteful economic system.’
Barbara Harriss-White, Wolfson College, Oxford

‘Sustainable development has fallen victim to the ideological determinism of free market economics. Is “green growth” really a solution to sustainable development? This book gives insightful responses to this question.’
José Goldemberg, former Secretary of the Environment for Brazil

‘A courageous, critical, and desperately-needed critique of the greatest illusion of our time. In one incisive and insightful chapter after another, the contributors eviscerate the neoliberal growth fantasy while offering an intellectual agenda relevant to contemporary struggles for the liberation of life in the twenty-first century.’
Jason W. Moore, author of Capitalism in the Web of Life

‘What you won't find in this book are stale dyads, recycled conceptual dead-ends, or any intellectual grandstanding. Instead Dale, Mathai, de Oliveira and their authors are to be commended for exemplary scholarship, and for charting a realistic path to a better ecological and social future.’
Sarah Bracking, University of Manchester and University of KwaZulu-Natal

‘A significant and thoughtful intervention. The range and breadth of scholars and practitioners in this compendium make it indispensable.’
Mahesh Rangarajan, author of Nature and Nation

‘The green economy is based on a simple narrative: a business model approach to the salvage of our globe. It is therefore highly opportune that this book critically reviews the green-growth paradigm, and offers alternatives.'
Barbara Unmuessig, president, Heinrich Boell Foundation

‘The Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) is delighted to be a part of this publication, which is expected to produce long-term gains by enhancing scientific and policy capacity on green growth in the context of sustainable development.’
Linda Anne Stevenson, head of communication and scientific affairs, APN

'[A]n exciting contribution to the literature on sustainable development and political economy.'
Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration

'A much welcomed contribution to the most significant debate of our time … Given the ‘do or die’ imperative radically to rewire our systems of production and consumption as quickly and justly as possible, Green Growth: Ideology, Political Economy, and the Alternatives is crucial reading for all.'
Marx and Philosophy Review of Books

Gareth Dale teaches politics at Brunel University. His publications include books on Karl Polanyi, the GDR and Eastern Europe, and international migration.

Manu V. Mathai is assistant professor in the School of Development at Azim Premji University. He received his PhD in energy and environmental policy from the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Delaware. He researches and teaches about the intersection of energy, environment and human development.

Jose A. Puppim de Oliveira teaches at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV-EAESP and FGV-EBAPE) as well as the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (COPPEAD-UFRJ) and Fudan University, Shanghai. He is also a visiting research fellow at United Nations University (UNU-IIGH), Kuala Lumpur. He was assistant director and senior research fellow at the United Nations University (UNU-IAS) from August 2009 to 2015. His academic interests are in the political economy of sustainable development, particularly in patterns of environmental governance and in the implementation of global policies at the local level.