Bringing together leading scholars of environmental policy and political economy, the book assess the impact and viability of green growth and outlines the alternatives

‘Green growth’ has become increasingly influential as a policy for addressing climate change while still delivering economic growth in both developed and developing countries. But the concept has major shortcomings. This book brings together various critical voices in assessing the ideology behind, and viability of, green growth policies, including case studies of the West, Asia and Latin America. It asks: Why green growth? What sort of society is organized around it, and to what purpose? And can green growth truly lead us to a more sustainable society?

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?’