Vol. 3 No. 1 (2018): Economic Growth
Articles

Agrowth Instead of Anti-and Pro-Growth: Less Polarization, More Support for Sustainability/Climate Policies

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  • Jeroen van den Bergh
Jeroen van den Bergh
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; VU University Amsterdam
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This image of the cover of this issue of The Journal of Population and Sustainability has the title in block letters on a grey-green background.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3197/jps.2018.3.1.53

Published 2018-12-01

How to Cite

van den Bergh, Jeroen. 2018. “Agrowth Instead of Anti-and Pro-Growth: Less Polarization, More Support for Sustainability/Climate Policies”. The Journal of Population and Sustainability 3 (1):53–73. https://doi.org/10.3197/jps.2018.3.1.53.

Copyright (c) 2018 Jeroen van den Bergh

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Abstract

An agrowth strategy, defined as being agnostic and indifferent about GDP growth, is proposed as an alternative to unconditional anti-and pro-growth strategies. It is argued that such a strategy can contribute to reducing scientific and political polarization in the long-standing debate on growth versus the environment. Hence, it can broaden urgently needed support for serious sustainability and climate policies. The exposition includes a novel graphical illustration, a summary of recent surveys of citizens and scientists regarding support for an agrowth position, and a discussion of implications for population growth and policies.

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