Do We Need to Rethink Our Endless Pursuit of Economic Growth?

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Tim Jackson is director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity. He says economic growth has lifted countless people out of poverty, increased life expectancy and education levels. But on a finite planet, we're already exceeding our planetary boundaries by burning too much coal and gas,. overfishing or covering the earth in plastic waste. We need to pursue a more radical goal of ditching growth altogether - putting the planet and its inhabitants first.

A key goal of governments around the world is economic growth – continually increasing production and consumption to keep GDP rising. But can our economies grow on a rapidly warming planet with finite resources? According to a recent UN report, the only way left to limit the worst impacts of the climate crisis is a “rapid transformation of societies”. In our third Cop27 special, Ian Sample speaks to ecological economist Tim Jackson about the myth of eternal growth, other ways to think about progress and prosperity, and what an economic system in balance with our planetary system might look like. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod