Green growth

[15][14] The report "Growth Within: A Circular Economy Vision for a Competitive Europe" predicts that there are many opportunities in recycling, producing longer-lasting products and offering maintenance services from the manufacturer.

[18] According to the International Labour Organization, a shift to a greener economy could create 24 million new jobs globally by 2030, if the right policies are put in place.

Also, if a transition to a green economy were not to take place, 72 million full-time jobs may be lost by 2030 due to heat stress, and the temperature increases will lead to shorter available work hours, particularly in agriculture.

[26] Based on this metric, it has been claimed that some developed countries have achieved relative or even absolute decoupling of material use from economic growth.

[27] The DMC, however, does not consider the shift of resource use which results from global supply chains, which is why another proposed metric is the material footprint (MF).

While solar, wind, and nuclear energy have nearly no negative interactions with the environment when generating electricity, there is waste and emission connected to material extraction, manufacturing, and construction.

Nuclear,[60] wind,[61] and solar energy[62] can all be beneficial and used together to combat climate change and kickstart green growth.

A 2020 two-part systematic review published in Environmental Research Letters analyzed the full texts of 835 papers on the relationship between GDP, resource use (materials and energy) and greenhouse gas emissions.

The first part found that "the vast majority of studies [...] approach the topic from a statistical-econometric point of view, while hardly acknowledging thermodynamic principles on the role of energy and materials for socio-economic activities.

A potentially fundamental incompatibility between economic growth and systemic societal changes to address the climate crisis is rarely considered.

"[12] A 2020 paper by Jason Hickel and Giorgos Kallis published in New Political Economy concludes that "there is no empirical evidence that absolute decoupling from resource use can be achieved on a global scale against a background of continued economic growth" and that "absolute decoupling from carbon emissions is highly unlikely to be achieved at a rate rapid enough to prevent global warming over 1.5°C or 2°C, even under optimistic policy conditions."

[67] The Degrowth movement is opposed to all forms of productivism (the belief that economic productivity and growth is the purpose of human organization).

Another 2020 study shows that the pursuit of ‘green growth’ would increase inequality and unemployment unless accompanied by radical social policies.