tl;dr: The UN SDGs aim to foster global sustainability by 2030, yet their reliance on economic growth (Goal 8) creates contradictions with ecological objectives. We need a post-growth critique to reform the SDGs beyond 2030, emphasizing sufficiency and planetary boundaries.
The UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an ambitious framework for global action, has been heralded as a roadmap for tackling poverty, inequality, and environmental degradation. However, as I argue in my recent chapter on the Post-(Growth)-2030 Agenda, these lofty ambitions are undermined by a fundamental contradiction: the persistent reliance on economic growth as the engine for achieving sustainable development.
Goal 8—promoting “decent work and economic growth”—exemplifies the tension. While the goal of ensuring dignified employment is laudable, its coupling with sustained economic growth perpetuates a model fundamentally at odds with planetary boundaries. The idea that growth can be decoupled from environmental degradation remains largely unsubstantiated. The ecological economist Jason Hickel and others have demonstrated that absolute decoupling, where resource use and emissions decline even as economies grow, is more theoretical than practical.
The Contradiction of Growth-Centric Sustainability
Growth-oriented strategies assume that efficiency gains and technological advancements can offset the environmental costs of expansion. Yet, decades of evidence, from the Jevons Paradox to modern analyses of rebound effects, show that efficiency improvements often drive increased consumption elsewhere. Recycling rates stagnate, resource extraction shifts geographically but not sustainably, and the material intensity of digital economies challenges the assumption that a service-oriented economy is inherently greener.
This brings us to the heart of the matter: the SDGs’ framing of sustainability within a growth paradigm reflects a deeper reluctance to confront the limits of growth itself. The “Wedding Cake Model” proposed by the Stockholm Resilience Centre situates economic activity within the confines of social and ecological boundaries. This layering challenges the conventional hierarchy where growth is a prerequisite for solving social and environmental problems.
A Vision for a Post-Growth 2030 Agenda
To align the SDGs with ecological imperatives, we must rethink their structure and focus beyond 2030. Here’s what a post-growth-oriented reform might look like:
- Redefine Progress Beyond GDP: Replace economic growth metrics with indicators of well-being, ecological stability, and social equity. Genuine Progress Indicators (GPI) or expanded Human Development Index (HDI) metrics offer promising alternatives.
- Focus on Sufficiency and Subsistence: Encourage resource-light living and locally resilient economies. This isn’t about deprivation but recalibrating lifestyles toward ecological and social flourishing.
- Set Concrete Resource Limits: Introduce binding targets for global resource consumption, analogous to carbon reduction goals, to ensure fair and sustainable use.
- Enhance Solidarity and Redistribution: Strengthen global mechanisms for equitable resource allocation, recognizing the disproportionate consumption of the Global North and its impacts on the Global South.
- Embrace Democratic Decentralization: Localize economic activity and empower communities to make decisions that reflect their unique social and ecological contexts.
Toward Genuine Sustainability
The SDGs represent an important step in acknowledging interconnected global challenges, but their growth-centric assumptions undermine their long-term viability. By reframing development through a post-growth lens, we can prioritize what truly matters: a resilient biosphere, equitable societies, and the well-being of future generations.
As we approach 2030, let us not cling to outdated paradigms. Instead, we should seize this moment to craft a bold, inclusive, and ecologically sound vision for the decades ahead. Growth, as we know it, cannot sustain us; only sustainability itself can.
You can read more (in German/auf Deutsch) about this in my latest publication.