ABSTRACT
In response business and corporations, as well as policymakers, have focused on: renewable energy; green building and energy-efficiency technology; energy-efficient infrastructure and transportation; recycling and waste-to-energy. This provides temporary “environmental fixes” to economic growth problems which shift the problem into the future without major changes to existing institutions and power structures or disrupting the goal of continued economic growth. Different approaches to the green economy, frequently termed degrowth, raise fundamental questions about the relationship between material prosperity and individual and social well-being, and emphasize spreading prosperity more equitably. In contrast to a view that the green economy can be accommodated within existing economic and social structures, it is argued that new forms of social and economic organization need to be developed which redefine prosperity and quality of life, and that these should be decoupled from the demands of economic growth.
