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Northern Ireland and the Transition to a Sustainable Economy

1 October 2009

Professor Tim Jackson presented his acclaimed work 'Prosperity Without Growth' to a packed audience at Queens University on Tuesday 29th September. Speaking afterwards he outlined the thinking behind the report...

‘Growing the economy is our top priority. This is vital if we are to provide the wealth and resources required to build the peaceful, prosperous, fair and healthy society we all want to see.’  (Northern Ireland Programme For Government)  

Sentiments like this are not hard to find. In fact, it would be fair to say that a single-minded allegiance to economic growth has been a defining feature of western development over the last fifty years. Those who question this wisdom are deemed to be lunatics, idealists or revolutionaries. I don’t believe I’m any of those things. But on Tuesday night at Queens University Belfast I delivered a presentation arguing that questioning growth is now inevitable.   

I presented the findings from Prosperity Without Growth, a report I wrote for the Sustainable Development Commission and presented to Government in April of this year. It’s challenging reading for those who believe in economic growth as the cure to our ills. For a start, the report finds clear evidence that our current financial crisis is directly linked to the pursuit of growth.  Our reliance on debt to finance the cycle of growth has created a deeply unstable system which has made individuals, families and communities inherently vulnerable to cycles of boom and bust, while increasing consumption does not make us happier.   

Tackling and eliminating inequalities wherever they exist is a laudable aim of the Executive in Northern Ireland, but inequality is higher in developed nations today than it was twenty years ago.  And while the rich have got richer, middle class incomes in western countries were stagnant in real terms before the recession.  Far from raising the living standard for those who most needed it, growth has let much of the world’s population down.   Perhaps most importantly of all, as any economy expands and grows so do the resource implications associated with it. 

These impacts are already unsustainable.  In the past quarter of a century the global economy has doubled, while an estimated 60% of the world’s ecosystems have been degraded.  A world in which things simply go on as usual is already inconceivable.  But what about a world in which nine billion people all aspire to the level of affluence currently enjoyed in Northern Ireland?  What would such an economy look like?  What does it run on?  Does it really offer a credible vision for a shared and lasting prosperity?   

Climate change, fuel security, collapsing biodiversity and inequality have moved inexorably to the forefront of the international policy agenda over the last decade.  It is heartening to see that they are at the forefront of much of the Executive’s work in Northern Ireland.  These are issues that can no longer be relegated to the next generation or the next electoral cycle.  They demand attention now. 

It may seem inopportune to be questioning growth while we are faced with daily news of the effects of recession, but allegiance to growth is the most dominant feature of an economic and political system that has led us to the brink of disaster.  Not to stand back now and question what has happened would be to compound failure with failure: failure of vision with failure of responsibility.  Figuring out how to deliver prosperity without growth is more essential now than ever.  Not just globally, but locally, here in Northern Ireland.

You can download a copy of 'Prosperity Without Growth?' here

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