what is uneconomic growth
uneconomic growth is growth that produces negative externalities which reduce the overall quality of life this is also known as unsustainable growth where the negative social and environmental consequences outweigh the short term value of an extra unit of growth making it uneconomic understanding uneconomic growthuneconomic growth happens when the marginal benefits of manufacturing more goods and a growing economy are outweighed by the negative social and environmental impacts it has become an article of faith in environmental and ecological economics although the idea of unproductive growth has been around for a while some of its philosophy has also been adopted by climate change conscious investors in the environmental social and governance esg space where large wealth funds and foundations have been divesting themselves of fuel stocks socially conscious investors have been avoiding fossil fuel stocks and making other ethical investment decisions in order to align the core of their investment strategy with their values greens champion the cause of uneconomicsthe concept of uneconomic growth and the steady state economy was popularized by world bank economist herman daly in the late 1990s ecologists like environmental activist david suzuki argue that the global economy is now so large that society can no longer safely pretend it operates within a limitless ecosystem 