Economic Growth at Any Cost Fails Us All

Last week, powerful politicians and business leaders gathered in Davos, promising to “unlock new sources of growth” to solve the world’s many crises. Poverty, climate breakdown, and political instability—all, we were told, can be fixed if only we grow our economies a little faster. 

It is a familiar refrain that we have seen in countless other global gatherings—from the G7 to the G20 and IMF-World bank meetings in Washington D.C., But my six years of experience as the United Nations’ expert on poverty have taught me at least one thing: it is profoundly misguided. Economic growth is no magic bullet. And it certainly won’t solve global poverty. 

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Historically, the global economy everyone is so desperate to grow,  has funneled vast wealth into the hands of a few, trapped millions in insecure and poorly-paid work to boost corporate profits, relied on the plundering of natural resources and the exploitation of cheap labour in the Global South  and has caused irreparable damage to the planet.

This is not a system that has gone slightly off course. It is one that is fundamentally unfit for purpose.

At Davos, economic growth was not defended cautiously; it was celebrated. U.S. President Donald Trump boasted of growth “no country has ever seen before.” And Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, described the 3.3% global growth forecast as “beautiful but not enough. “

The response from the top, to any claims that growth may be causing more harm than good,, is to reach for “green growth”—the idea that, when done right, economic growth can be accompanied by a reduction in its ecological footprint.  China’s Vice-Premier He Lifeng’s Davos speech was littered with references to “global green and low-carbon development”,  “green production capacity”, “green finance”, and a “green and prosperous future”. Yet even under the best conditions, a growing body of evidence shows that the absolute decoupling of gross domestic product (GDP) from environmental degradation—growing the economy while simultaneously reducing resource use, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution—is impossible. Technological advances simply cannot compensate for an economic model built on ever-expanding production and consumption.     

As I told the UN Human Rights Council when presenting my 2024 report on Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth, the global economy, in its current form, will only ever serve a tiny minority. And it will always do so at the expense of the planet and the vast majority of people who live on it. 

Given the evidence at hand, it beggars belief that world leaders continue to shout from the mountaintops of Davos that we need yet more growth. One is left to wonder whether they—as members of the economic elite—stand to benefit personally, or if they have simply run out of imagination.  

Outside the conference halls, however, imagination is very much alive. This week’s first annual Reclaim the Economy Week reflects a growing global demand for fresh thinking, with individuals and collectives uniting to demand an economy that puts people and planet first.

And a new development model is emerging on the back of my report to the UN—one that breaks from the outdated formula of prioritizing economic growth first and attempting to redistribute through taxes and transfers later. 

This alternative approach to global poverty eradication is being built by a growing alliance of UN agencies, governments, civil society organisations, academics, trade unions, and others. Now, this approach is being translated into a Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth, which I will present to the UN later this year. 

The aim of the roadmap is not abstract theory, but practical change: a set of concrete policy options for governments in both the global north and south that shift economies away from profit maximization and towards the fulfilment of human rights. 

This shift requires better rewarding work according to its social and ecological value—raising wages for essential workers, while placing limits on pay in destructive industries such as fossil fuels or tobacco. And we can benefit from job-guarantee programs whereby the government guarantees a job to anyone willing and able to work. Our approach should also include debt cancellation and restructuring, because it is indefensible that 3.4 billion people live in countries that spend more on interest payments than on health or education.

The policies detailed in our roadmap will also guide governments towards deeper structural change: reclaiming economic decision-making, bringing democratic control to the financial system through the taxation of extreme wealth and investment in care and public services; restoring and protecting the commons; supporting just transitions to renewable energy and sustainable food systems; and holding corporations accountable for environmental destruction, labour abuses, and human rights violations.

These are the bold—but achievable—measures that could positively shape the next generation of efforts to end poverty, including the globally agreed development goals that will succeed the Sustainable Development Goals in 2030. Unfortunately, these pragmatic policies will remain out of reach as long as we cling to the belief that economic growth equals human progress.  

After nearly a century of being told that the most important metric in all of our lives is how fast the economy grows, this may sound radical. But it is far less reckless than continuing to defend an economic system whose rules are written by and for billionaires and multinational corporations—and then acting surprised when it fails everyone else.