The Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, has advocated opening the debate on degrowth in a clear and well-argued way, and at the same time rejects the idea that development must be measured based on greater consumption of raw materials.
Asked about the convenience of introducing degrowth into the Dubai climate negotiations, the minister said that this “is already implicit in many of the discussions here” and that it is very important that this debate “be opened and managed in a very clear, well-informed and argued manner.
“We are inducing a paradigm shift in which the concept of growth and prosperity are the first things that change. That is, I want well-being to grow but not measure growth on the basis of greater consumption of raw materials, which detracts from my wealth available to generate that prosperity,” the minister told Efe.
In this context, he stressed that the idea of ??maximum efficiency in the use of resources and that we must “contain ourselves within planetary limits” is very present in the debate on the European Green Deal (the European Union’s work plan to be emissions neutral in 2050 by transforming the economy while protecting nature and health).
The objective, to link social well-being with an economy that lasts and that offers wealth over time and not that “dies because it is liquidating the basis that makes that wealth possible,” he stated.
Although “it has taken us a long time”, this paradigm shift is becoming visible in packages related to circular economy, environmental economy, nature restoration and not just conservation or climate measures.
“To put it very simply, I believe that what is important is to change a notion that had been in force for a long time in our analysis: that for the economy to grow, sacrifices must be made from the social and environmental point of view” because, he warned , that has “very short legs.”
The only way to allow us to guarantee that the economy grows in a “lasting” way is by sealing a good “environmental and social alliance”, according to the minister, who has considered that although this “change in the entire configuration of the matrixes” is difficult to manage in a “cross-cutting, effective and widespread” way, it is already happening.
The degrowth debate “has a sophisticated, complex, important background” and “it is essential to be much more realistic with respect to the availability of resources and the replacement rate of those resources” if we want to guarantee social well-being and economic prosperity, he has asserted. .
