Degrowth, Air Travel, and Global Environmental Governance: Scaffolding a Multilateral Agreement for a Smaller and More Sustainable Aviation Sector

In recent years, a growing body of literature on degrowth has compellingly identified limitations involved in decoupling economic growth from its environmental impacts. Despite this, the institutions governing the global environment continue to pursue “green growth” principles. In this article, we s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Global environmental politics 2023-11, Vol.23 (4), p.119-140
Main Authors: Katz-Rosene, Ryan, Ambe-Uva, Terhemba
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agreements
Air transportation
Air travel
Aircraft
Aviation
Capitalism
carbon offsetting and reduction scheme for international aviation (corsia)
climate change
Decoupling
degrowth
Economic development
Economic growth
Environmental governance
Environmental impact
Environmental policy
global environmental governance
Governance
International agreements
Multilateralism
Scaffolding
Scaffolds
Sustainability
Sustainable development
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Summary:In recent years, a growing body of literature on degrowth has compellingly identified limitations involved in decoupling economic growth from its environmental impacts. Despite this, the institutions governing the global environment continue to pursue “green growth” principles. In this article, we showcase how global environmental governance might differ if the degrowth critique were taken more seriously. We use the United Nations–based Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) to illustrate how a multilateral environmental agreement (MEA) might differ if its foundational premises were centered on degrowth as opposed to green growth. To do this, we develop a conceptual scaffold to support the construction of a degrowth-centered MEA on sustainable global aviation. While a degrowth alternative to CORSIA is admittedly unlikely given contemporary capitalist norms in global environmental governance, our proposed scaffold nevertheless adds to the growing body of work envisioning alternative scenarios for a just and sustainable postgrowth future.
ISSN:1526-3800
1536-0091
DOI:10.1162/glep_a_00714