Sustainable growth or steady-state economy

In March, Kaarel Ots participated in the Nordic future economy podcast series, ‘Sustainable growth or steady-state economy’, which focuses on the extent to which it’s possible to continue growing the economy in the context of the green transition, and what could be a better alternative to the current economic model.

Kaarel and David Collste, post-doctoral researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, talked about sustainable economic growth and steady-state economy in a discussion held in English. The discussion was led by Madis Tilga.

Since the Second World War, economic success has been measured by gross domestic product (GDP). The more GDP grows, the better the economy is doing and the higher the well-being of the whole society. Increasingly more people are coming to the realization that economic activity itself must become less polluting, and ‘green economic growth’ is now being called into question, as any growth will ultimately have a negative impact on the planet’s resilience and regenerative power.