Growth Can Be Green: Natural Capitalism and Ecomodernism(s)

Ryan M. Katz-Rosene

Chapter Chapter 3 in The Growth–Environment Debate, 2025, pp 50-76 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter delves into perspectives which are more skeptical of relying solely on unfettered capitalism than market ecologists, but which are nevertheless optimistic about the possibility for growth to be made green. The members of the “Growth Can Be Green” discourse coalition are willing to entertain the idea that capitalist growth has generated some forms of environmental damage. However, they generally see no technical reason why socio-political economic conditions cannot change to create a situation wherein growth does indeed become green. In this chapter, I cover the idea of the Environmental Kuznets Curve, and point to examples of successful “decoupling” of GDP growth from its environmental impacts. I then discuss different schools of thought within this discourse, such as Natural Capitalism and Ecomodernism (which itself has numerous sub-variants and was borne from early work in Ecological Modernization Theory). The chapter concludes by discussing critiques of the Growth Can Be Green discourse.

Keywords: Technology; Environmental Kuznets Curve; Ecomodernism; Natural Capitalism; Decoupling; Ecological Modernization Theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035333516
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