Boosting Climate Justice by Boosting Economic Growth

Many considerations speak against economic growth. Climate justice is not among them—on the contrary. We argue that climate justice speaks for promoting GDP growth in the coming decades, even in rich countries. Growth strengthens adaptive capacity, can make up for a sizable fraction of climate impacts, and, above all, is a powerful tool for liberation from poverty. On mitigation, our claim is weaker: radical emission cuts require going all-in on clean technology, and clean technology progress shrinks the leverage of forgoing growth. Whether growth accelerates clean technology enough to outweigh its direct effect on emissions is uncertain—but this uncertainty is insufficient to undermine the overall case. We aim to serve both sides of the debate: growth proponents, as the politically dominant camp, rarely flesh out the arguments for their stance, let alone in terms of justice; growth sceptics often stop short of a clearly delineated conclusion. We supply both.