Accounting matters: Revisiting claims of decoupling and genuine green growth in Nordic countries

Ecological modernisation in the form of support to the notion of green growth remains the dominant discourse in environmental policy globally. Still, questions of limits to economic expansion and growth on a planet with finite natural resources have been at the core of environmental discourses at least since the 1970's. A recent effort by Stoknes and Rockstro center dot m (2018) seeks to unite notions of ecological limits with the concept of green growth by proposing genuine green growth as denoting a situation when growth respects planetary boundaries. Focusing on recent trajectories in emissions intensity, they highlight Nordic countries including Denmark as examples of such genuine green growth. In this article, we demonstrate that the specific conceptualization of genuine green growth and resulting claims about the Nordic countries rest on particular assumptions, specifically concerning national level carbon accounting frameworks and the size of the remaining global carbon budget. By opening up these assumptions for analysis we illustrate the partiality and potentially misleading nature of the conceptualization of GGG.

Automated summary

The concept of ecological modernisation supporting green growth remains dominant in global environmental policy, while the limits to economic expansion on a planet with finite natural resources have been a core issue in environmental discussions since at least the 1970s. Recent efforts aim to unite ecological limits with the idea of green growth by proposing genuine green growth as growth that respects planetary boundaries, with Nordic countries such as Denmark being highlighted as examples.