Growth is Green: market ecology and roll-back neoliberal environmentalism

Ryan M. Katz-Rosene

Chapter Chapter 2 in The Growth–Environment Debate, 2025, pp 25-49 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter delves into a perspective that strongly refutes the second premise of the Growth–Environment Paradox- the idea that capitalist economic growth is representative of environmental damage. Instead, advocates of this discourse draw heavily from neo-classical economic theory and recent historical examples to argue that well-functioning free markets are precisely the tool which humanity can best use to address environmental externalities while also generating economic growth. Their main proposed response to the paradox is thus to call for the liberalization of markets and to ensure that environmental problems like pollution are commoditized or subjected to properly functioning pricing mechanisms. The chapter further explains how, for such “market ecologists” and adherents of “roll-back neoliberalism,” the absence of growth is interpreted as a major obstacle to environmental sustainability. The chapter begins with the story of a now famed wager, and concludes by covering some of the critiques and potential blind spots of this discourse.

Keywords: Green growth; Neo-classical economics; Market ecology; Roll-back neoliberalism; Externalities; Carbon pricing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035333516
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