Can our economies, like the universe, continue to expand indefinitely through ‘green growth’? A landmark EEB report finds that greater efficiency and renewables will not save the day alone. We also need sufficiency. Can green growth deliver the magic formula of growing our economies while protecting the ecosphere from future collapse?

If green growth cannot provide prosperity for people and the planet they live on, what can?

These items were the main course on the menu of a breakfast debate organised by the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) for the European launch of ‘Decoupling debunked – Evidence and arguments against green growth as a sole strategy for sustainability’. The report has already sparked significant interest following its international release in New York in the summer, and has already been discussed or mentioned in the German, Danish and British parliaments.

Despite the event starting at 8am, the early birds in attendance dug in enthusiastically to the lively debate between researchers and policymakers, including MEPs Helmut Scholz (European United Left), Michael Bloss (Group of the Greens). The findings of the report, whose lead author was Timothée Parrique of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, were presented by the contributing author Jonathan Barth of Zoe, the Institute for Future Fit Economies.

Read more about the debate and report findings here.