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Panel 2 – Athens Room – Complementarity of Degrowth and Steady-State Chair: Christian Kerschner Brian Czech Degrowth toward an optimal steady state There are two alternatives to growth: steady state and degrowth. Steady state refers to a stabilisation of the economy, at any level. Both growth and degrowth neither are sustainable in the long run, so at what level do we want to achieve a steady state? It looks like peak oil will be the limiting factor to growth, although in some regions it may be water. Once we're over the peak, the dip afterwards is what concerns us. So we must determine what is the optimum scale for the economy, based on assessing various trade-offs based on a full public understanding. Various measures can be used to determine the optimum level, such as the Genuine Progress Indicator. But what is politically feasible to advocate? On the one hand we want to change the political context, but at any one given time we also have to address what is politically feasible. In some cases we will want to focus on degrowth and in others we will emphasise a steady state. But at some point in the process of degrowth we will want to stop and level off into a steady state. Joachim Spangenberg Growth and sustainable development What is sustainable development? (Brundtland Commission definition). People usually ignore the two key concepts in the definition by quoting only half of it. Therefore please use it only in full. Regarding the growth debate, most of the time people focus on the (negative) impacts of economic growth, rather than the (1) driving forces, orientations, and (2) pressures and mechanisms behind it. Therefore we need to incorporate all three aspects in our critique of growth, and to avoid addressing only the symptoms. While Western European discourse calls for carbon justice and reduced carbon emissions, this is in contradiction with other policies. For development to be sustainable, the economy must reduce resource consumption AND create additional jobs. Jobs, growth and the environment are reconciled (for the time being), if the Inequality of Sustainability is valid. This is a minimum condition rather than itself ensuring sustainability. This must be the starting point for discourse and policy. To ensure that the per-capita production decreases, we can decrease per-capita working hours. Growth politics is structurally anti-sustainable, pushing both ends of the inequality in the wrong direction. I want to urge you to overcome the preoccupation with the impacts of growth and focus more on the inherent anti-sustainability of the growth model. Christian Kerschner The steady state economy and degrowth: Contradiction or compatibility? Point of departure: challenging the growth paradigm. This has been challenged in terms of physics (Nicolas Georgescu-Roegen), socio-economically, ethically, environmentally, etc. Herman Daly's critique of growth was strong in theoretical terms based on economic history, and also in its holistic approach. Review of Ontological vs. Analytical, and Positive vs. Normative approaches. For Adam Smith, growth was a source of wealth but that it could not continue indefinitely. Thomas Malthus by contrast raised questions about the limits to growth. John Stuart Mill said that the steady state would be a "considerable improvement". Review of Herman Daily's Steady State Economy (SSE) concept. The main idea is that we need to minimise throughputs and maximise service. SSE as a goal but an unattainable goal. Review of economic degrowth's strengths and weaknesses. SSE and degrowth are complementary. Tommaso Luzzatti GDP growth: An inevitable lock-in? Starting point: Society has the right to choose among many choices. Is it really true that we need GDP growth? The issue of scale/size is political, but society needs to be informed about the consequences of alternatives to growth. Review of alleged reasons for growth: widening of choices, equity, reducing unemployment, etc. Should we be against GDP, against growth, or against growth-mania? We've developed an economic model with complementary funds and flows. In terms of the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, we can calculate how many resources need to be diverted to renewables.