The review of reviews. To trigger the “industrial revolution at full gallop” to which the States have committed themselves to limit global warming will require a great deal of public money and unprecedented economic policy instruments. This is what indicates the report on the economic impact of climate action presented on May 22 to Elisabeth Borne by Jean Pisani-Ferry and Selma Mahfouz. However, if this report marks an undeniable political turning point, the framework of thought that it adopts remains very little innovative.
This is highlighted by the latest issue of the quarterly Political Economy. Devoted to “post-growth”, it partly takes up the perspectives outlined at a symposium entitled Beyond Growth which was held at the European Parliament in Brussels on 15, 16 and 17 May. The issue also opens with an interview with the organizer of this event, the environmental MEP Philippe Lamberts.
Far from “green growth”, which postulates the possibility of continuing to grow the economy while meeting the objectives of ecological transition, post-growth takes up some of the critical analyzes of “degrowth”, but wants to focus more constructively on the tools that will make it possible to branch off to another model. After an initial phase marked by massive investments, a period of reduction in economic activities will begin, followed by stabilization. To do this, it is necessary to rethink the nature of the major aggregates of the economy as well as their articulation.
Shaping a new imagination
The LowGrow model, developed by Tim Jackson and Peter Victor to pilot the transition, is the subject of a useful development. It is based on coherent stock flow modeling (SFC), capable of representing both stocks and flows of money and the physical stocks and flows of an ecosystem or the biosphere. The difficulty then is to identify the political consequences of these reflections. How, in an economy without growth, can solidarity be financed at national or European level, as well as between the rich and poor countries of the North and the South?
Throughout the articles that make up the dossier, the main issues of ecological macroeconomics are thus reviewed, with the imperative of integrating new attention to natural balances. As an instrument of legitimization and government, it must no longer simply lend credibility to political proposals and facilitate coordination between economic agents. Its role is now to shape a new imaginary, new collective representations in which the flows of money will be more clearly articulated to the material flows, and the technosphere to the biosphere.
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