Sir Nicholas Stern , John Prescott and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have been weighing in on the growth debate in the run up to COP15 in Copenhagen. The major sticking point at COP15 is likely to be ‘burden-sharing’ – so it’s crucial that the debate about our macro-economic system, and its consequences for the climate, starts now, and gets the attention it deserves at COP15.  

In Prosperity Without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet, Tim Jackson, a top  advisor to the UK government, demonstrates  that it is necessary—and possible—to have increased and widespread prosperity without economic growth.

Here are some of the latest news articles and blog posts on the ‘growth debate’. Please post other interesting growth articles in our comments section!   

Sarkozy calls for a new international prosperity barometer  

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has urged the international community to use new ways to measure economic prosperity with more emphasis on the environment and a nation's social well-being.

Deutsche Welle  

Is Sarkozy's economic approach a tall order? Views for and against

Leading business and cultural figures give their reaction to the French president's view that economic success might be measured in other ways than GDP

guardian.co.uk   

Stern: Rich nations will have to forget about growth to stop climate change

Economic expansion cannot be achieved forever if greenhouse gases are to be curbed, warns the leading economist and author of the UK's government's report on climate change

guardian.co.uk   

Current economic growth model is 'immoral', says Prescott

With the world's population growing to nine billion by 2050, the Britain's former deputy PM predicts far more crucial and complex talks in Copenhagen than in Kyoto

guardian.co.uk   

Open Letter to the Queen

We, the undersigned, noted with interest the letter to Your Majesty of 22nd July 2009 from the British Academy in which they respond to your question about how the current economic meltdown was missed. They talked of a "failure of the collective imagination of many bright people" and a "psychology of denial".

abundancypartners.com

Why government spending is the solution, not the problem

Roosevelt Institute Braintruster Marshall Auerback makes a bold case for the advantages of fiscal activism over the monetary activism that helped cause the economic crisis–and will lead to social dysfunction if it continues to reign.

new deal 2.0 

Pioneering new prosperity

Growth and prosperity have historically come hand in hand. But we may need to rethink that connection

Livemint.com & The Wall Street Journal   

South Africa won’t commit to CO2 reductions if it hurts economy

Reuters      

Economic crisis gives us a chance of repairing climate damage

Large-scale investment to fix global finances is an opportunity to move quickly to a low-carbon economy

guardian.co.uk   

Propserity without growth? The debate has started...

Earthscan blog  

The war on capitalism: poor-mouthing our prosperity prospects

Yet [Obama’s] environmentalist agenda is just as dangerous. If passed, it will destroy America's free-market system. Like most liberal elitists, Mr. Obama is an incremental socialist.

Washington Times   

Do We Have to Outgrow Growth?

Following the  Nobel laureate Kenneth Arrow, Herman Daly has responded to my query about whether there is an upside to  the recent consumption slowdown, and to the broader question of whether humans can or should shift from their current growth-focused economic norms to  a new definition of progress.

NY Times Blog   

Ehrlich: carbon, growth, consequences

During the 1960s, when Drs. Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren were trying to anticipate the ultimate consequences of perpetual economic growth, they decided to try quantifying the process.

canada.com   

Media ineptitude? We’ve been framed...

As views that frame stories shape their message, “free market” and “growth” propagandists control the news.     

Economists just want you to be happy
San Francisco Chronicle
The very formulas for measuring growth and prosperity turn out to be biased such that environmental protections will always look like short-term caps on ...   

Climate to cut 4-5% of growth
Business Mirror
... in a 3-percent loss in [GDP] that is later offset by more than 20-percent growth over eight years of recovery and prosperity,” the report stated. ...   

Green Data Center Blog: French Ask More to Life than Money? Create ...
By Dave Ohara
The very formulas for measuring growth and prosperity turn out to be biased such that environmental protections will always look like short-term caps on growth, when, ultimately long-term growth and survival depend on preserving our ...