Klimaschutz durch Degrowth? – Ordonomische Anfragen an die Position radikaler Wachstumskrititk

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently published a favourable assessment of a group of authors who argue that climate protection can only be ambitiously advanced by foregoing growth – through zero growth or, even better, through negative growth. We reconstruct this specific degrowth argumentation and confront it with two critical questions from the perspective of the ordonomic research program. As a result, we feel compelled to answer the question raised in this article’s title in the negative. Our counter-arguments are: (a) Degrowth fails to recognize the civilizational advantages of the post-Malthusian growth society. (b) Degrowth does not take the climate challenge seriously enough. In particular, this specific group of degrowth proponents underestimates that the innovations considered necessary for climate protection presuppose entrepreneurial efforts and therefore require market-based performance incentives.