As Greens, we know that using GDP as an indicator for growth is perpetuating a system that puts profit first and people and planet last.
Caroline Lucas wrote in a letter to The Guardian Friday 23 April that an obsession with GDP is driving the climate crisis:
There is a fundamental flaw in Boris Johnson’s approach to tackling climate change, and that’s the G-word – growth (UK to toughen targets on greenhouse gas emissions for next 15 years, 19 April).
On Tuesday, he spoke about “laying the foundations for decades of economic growth”. In his speech to President Biden’s climate summit, when he wasn’t talking about “cake, have, eat” (how did the interpreters cope with that?), he was saying tackling climate change would be about jobs and growth.
Jobs, yes. A green economy will lead to more than 1m new jobs in sectors ranging from renewable energy to caring in the next two years alone. But the endless pursuit of economic growth, as the lodestar of government policy, is what is driving the climate crisis.
Read the full letter at The Guardian.
