Turning less into more: Measuring real GDP growth in the green transition

Abstract

Proponents of degrowth query the compatibility of ecological sustainability with economic growth and a capitalist system predicated on the ongoing expansion of economic output. This article deploys insights from constructivist political economy and recent literature on the politics of technocratic expertise to build upon and challenge this analysis. Using UK national accounting practices as a case study, it explores how current approaches to GDP measurement both facilitate and obstruct the treatment of reduced material throughput as increased economic output, of “less” as “more”. Rather than advancing an alternative to GDP growth, it highlights how tensions between the pursuit of growth and the pursuit of sustainability might be reduced using conceptual resources drawn from within established approaches to national accounting and GDP measurement. Although far from a panacea, changes in technocratic practices of national accounting could reduce economic and political barriers to green transition policies.