There are absolutly policies, which are in effect enabling degrowth. For one things like a well run cap and trade system(no offsets) for emissions, working hour limits and other worker protections, public health care to take out risks of working less, earlier retirment for workers, enabling sharing of resources with liberaries, public transport and so forth, and quite a few more. Sitting back and relaxing is certainly a viable path, but it is not like politics can not pay its part.
Also for the last point, the key metric is per capita income. An Indian billionaire is just way worse for the climate then an English bus driver. The narrative should be from rich to poor no matter what and the middle just transitions to green energy. You get a lot of problems, when using the West vs rest of the world. For example China and the EU have pretty similar per capita emissions today.
Yeah I mostly agree here, but there are two extra bits I’d want to add:
For one things like a well run cap and trade system(no offsets) for emissions
See how you had to add a bunch of clarifying comments, so if I point at a bunch of existing cap-and-trade systems you’d have to sigh and say “no, this one also sucks”? That’s what I mean when I say that any idea we can create will immediately get re-interpreted into something completely toothless. I’m not saying we don’t need to fight here, I’m saying that Degrowth doesn’t have a marketing problem. Even the places with a carbon tax charge way too little. The fangs are a feature.
The narrative should be from rich to poor no matter what
I agree here but also, the poorer countries have vastly superior sustainability options because waste is simply much harder to deal with there. You can’t throw a plastic bottle away because there’s no rubbish bin to put it into. There’s no garbage trucks, everything is more or less recycled because the government doesn’t do that job. The places are also more dense and walkable by necessity, because people can’t afford cars. The “rich” countries need to rebuild back what the poor countries already have. Someone from a richer country ipso facto must emit more, so it’s all about re-aligning society to be more sustainable.
There are absolutly policies, which are in effect enabling degrowth. For one things like a well run cap and trade system(no offsets) for emissions, working hour limits and other worker protections, public health care to take out risks of working less, earlier retirment for workers, enabling sharing of resources with liberaries, public transport and so forth, and quite a few more. Sitting back and relaxing is certainly a viable path, but it is not like politics can not pay its part.
Also for the last point, the key metric is per capita income. An Indian billionaire is just way worse for the climate then an English bus driver. The narrative should be from rich to poor no matter what and the middle just transitions to green energy. You get a lot of problems, when using the West vs rest of the world. For example China and the EU have pretty similar per capita emissions today.
Yeah I mostly agree here, but there are two extra bits I’d want to add:
See how you had to add a bunch of clarifying comments, so if I point at a bunch of existing cap-and-trade systems you’d have to sigh and say “no, this one also sucks”? That’s what I mean when I say that any idea we can create will immediately get re-interpreted into something completely toothless. I’m not saying we don’t need to fight here, I’m saying that Degrowth doesn’t have a marketing problem. Even the places with a carbon tax charge way too little. The fangs are a feature.
I agree here but also, the poorer countries have vastly superior sustainability options because waste is simply much harder to deal with there. You can’t throw a plastic bottle away because there’s no rubbish bin to put it into. There’s no garbage trucks, everything is more or less recycled because the government doesn’t do that job. The places are also more dense and walkable by necessity, because people can’t afford cars. The “rich” countries need to rebuild back what the poor countries already have. Someone from a richer country ipso facto must emit more, so it’s all about re-aligning society to be more sustainable.