Growth or Sustainability ?

kabayiri

The Paris talks on climate change raise a challenging economic question.

What is the best approach, to base an economy on growth or sustainability?

India's choice seems clear :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-34929578

They see growth as the priority right now, at the expense of CO2 emissions.

Conventional current thinking would paint India as the bad guys then, right?

Well, perhaps not.

At least 300m of India's populace are off grid in terms of energy. Getting them on to the grid is the first step in raising the prosperity of India. With it, living standards will rise, and their outlook on world problems will change. (just as ours have).

But, then again, can we afford to wait that long? Could we solve the CO2 issues surrounding coal use?

CLAPTON

kabayiri wrote: »

The Paris talks on climate change raise a challenging economic question.

What is the best approach, to base an economy on growth or sustainability?

India's choice seems clear :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-34929578

They see growth as the priority right now, at the expense of CO2 emissions.

Conventional current thinking would paint India as the bad guys then, right?

Well, perhaps not.

At least 300m of India's populace are off grid in terms of energy. Getting them on to the grid is the first step in raising the prosperity of India. With it, living standards will rise, and their outlook on world problems will change. (just as ours have).

But, then again, can we afford to wait that long? Could we solve the CO2 issues surrounding coal use?

I'm not sure the maths supports your view

MPD

I think the best argument I've heard is that as economies develop they go from being manufacturing based to services based which is generally lower in emissions.
The whole selling stuff that no one is making. That's sustainable.