ABSTRACT
This chapter in the Routledge Handbook of Degrowth (2025) presents a sequence of four stylised facts on the relation between economic growth and global inequality. First, global economic growth mostly benefits those who are already rich while, second, hampering the capacities for development of the poorest. Third, the richest people are the main cause of most cases of ecological breakdown which, fourth, harms the poorest first and hardest. This four-step line of reasoning is elaborated on to justify the need for degrowth. Degrowth is a planned downscaling of production and consumption in affluent regions of the world aimed at reducing environmental pressures so as to safeguard natural resources and environmental amenities for those whose needs remain unmet.
