The greenest kind of growth is degrowth

In the middle of the hottest European summer on record, under the sun glimmered a dozen solar panels installed on the ground, surrounded by rows of white tents and people from different countries walking by, many barefoot. That was my first impression of the Degrowth Summer School 2018, which took place from the 29 July to 2 August 2018 at the Climate Camp Leipzig. 

I was a delegate from Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Vietnam who came to the Summer School to learn about the Degrowth movement in the Global North, what it was about and what it looked like. Degrowth is a very new concept to developing countries like mine, if not never mentioned before. It has seemed to be more popular in developed countries in the Global North, which are rich enough to satisfy their citizens’ needs and thus further economic growth requires more and more pointless consumption. Even in the Global North, degrowth is still rarely mentioned, seemingly pushed into the background by the ideas of sustainable development or green growth, which, after all, still pursue the idea of infinite economic growth, just in a different way.

It’s not hard to understand why the idea of degrowth is still not very well known or discussed, and is almost taboo, even four decades after its birth, which was ignited by the publication of the report “The Limits to Growth” in 1972 (link).

At the first sight, it looks like a negative concept, perhaps because of its prefix. People might perceive it as recession, or giving up all modern convenience and going back to the stone age, or being anti-progress.

Looking at the life at the Climate Camp, it seemed they did have a point: All meals were vegan with little choices, cooked and served by volunteers. Toilets were dry compost. There were no fans or air conditioning to provide relief from the heat of the summer sun. How uncomfortable and inconvenient it would be, if this was what a post-growth life looked like.

In a globalized world dominated by capitalism, we are disconnected from the true cost of our consumption, the hidden prices that nature and vulnerable groups had to pay, as we do not know how our products were made and where they would go after we discarded them. By telling the life stories of different products on social media and training courses, I hope to strengthen Vietnamese young people’s connection with nature, realizing how much we depend on it for our survival and prosperity, and respect the stuff we have instead of going for disposable things; on the other hand we can also be aware of the human cost and raise our voice for fair trade and decent work places. 

Even though degrowth is more about developed countries, who have to assume their responsibilities for putting the whole planet at risk for their past—and current—development process, seeds of a post-growth world are now being seen in many places in the world. In Vietnam, I know business people who were successful by many measures, who decided to leave their jobs to build their own natural farms or social enterprises, promoting the regeneration of the country’s ecosystem. There are new businesses established by young people to develop good-quality, natural and eco-friendly products made in Vietnam, such as natural soaps, bamboo straws or cloth sanitary pads. These businesses cooperate and share the resources with each other instead of competing, and they have mutual bonds like a community working to build better lives, not as companies trying to maximize their profits.