25 'degrowth' policies for an independent Scotland

Rishi Sunak played an old trick last week as he looked to derail net-zero policies across the UK. Too often, the conversation around mitigating the climate crisis focuses on what individuals must do. As important as the actions of individuals are, they are dwarfed by the actions of government and business.

In the growth paradigm, we rely on "the market" to efficiently deliver lower emissions and reduce costs, but another institution, the Government, can do this much more effectively and justly. A degrowth economy is certainly not a deregulated economy!

Many of the initial degrowth policies would focus on businesses in Scotland. As consumers, we can only buy the products and services that are supplied. The Government would ensure that businesses carry out policies that will make a difference.

In many cases, the Government's job would simply be legislating what many businesses know is good for them. For example, this year, the International Energy Agency said: "More efficient use of energy – such as through waste heat recovery and cogeneration – can lower emissions and reduce costs.”

By initially focusing on actions in businesses, we create space for a lot of degrowth ideas to be taken up by society voluntarily at first. This is not the narrative we see from the UK Government. The reason is that they have very little interest in implementing anything that interferes with the market and no interest whatsoever in policies that actually mitigate the ecological crisis we see unfolding around us.

State institutions are also the focus for degrowth, used to shape a very different type of economy and society.

Degrowth policies stretch beyond reducing throughput and are generally highly redistributive. At the core of degrowth is the task of reducing the runaway income and wealth inequality in Scotland.

Within global north nations like Scotland, degrowth policies focused on the individual start by addressing the wealthiest in society. The actions and lifestyles of the wealthiest degrow before anyone else. In the UK, the top 1% emit 10 times as much carbon yearly as the poorest do in two decades. Their resource consumption is likely to be of a very similar level. After businesses and the state, where else could you possibly start if you wanted to be effective?

To bring a degrowth economy to life, here are 25 "degrowth" policies for an independent Scotland. As we covered in a previous article, the current constitutional arrangement does not leave the Scottish Government with enough power to affect an economic transition, and the chances of any of this happening as part of the UK is absolutely zero!

National scale:

1. A less powerful and more democratic central bank.

2. No markets for natural resources. An end to carbon markets and no space for other markets like biodiversity credits.

3. A reduction in financialisation across the economy, including access to credit, who creates that credit and the rate charged.

4. An end to neo-colonial extractivism, forcing Scotland to focus more on its own resources and also lead to a more level playing field with the global south.

5. An increase in support for the global South with materials and expertise being donated or exchanged with global South countries, including an increase in migration.

6. The use of empowered citizen assembles to drive change.

7. A significant refocusing of corporate governance and a move away from shareholder primacy.

8. A restructuring of the advertising, marketing and PR industries to reduce their influence.

9. A greater reliance on and use of fiscal rather than monetary policies.

10. Public ownership of utilities.

11. More land commonly held and used.

12. Prioritising food sovereignty.

13. Banning all new oil and gas fields.

14. Income and wealth caps.

15. Decommodification of social provisioning through universal basic services, not limited to public parks, gyms, transport, cinemas, meeting places, health, social care and education.

16. Support and development of open-source technology.

17. Reducing working hours across the economy.

18. The right to work and a job guarantee scheme.

19. More powerful worker rights.

Business and industry:

20. Set limits for businesses on resource use and waste.

21. Set energy efficiency targets.

22. Increased ease and ability to repair and replace products and also legislated interoperability.

23. Banning flying within Scotland for business, with exceptions for remote locations.

24. Support for non-profit cooperatives and social enterprises.

25. A shift from taxing earnings from labour to taxing wealth, resource use and environmental damage.

You will no doubt note that none of these policies force individuals, except the wealthiest in society, to give anything up. They are designed to encourage your wellbeing while returning the national economy to within current planetary boundaries and having a positive impact on global constraints.

Following the Great Depression in 1929, caused in part by the same issues of inequality and rampant financilisation that we have today, and for thirty years after WWII, several of these policies were used by Western Governments (1,7,9,10,18,19) to rebalance the economy.

Flight bans in France (23), interoperability laws in the EU (22) and nations who have announced they will no longer issue new fossil fuel licences (13), are already in place in progressive nations in the global north. Many of the policies are very popular with the electorate.

By design or by disaster

This is by no means an exclusive list. However, we hope we have given readers a flavour of the policies that would likely be discussed in Scotland should it take a very different approach to the economy.

Common among those who support degrowth is the belief that degrowth is inevitable: We deal with the need to drastically reduce throughput by design or by disaster.