Economic growth has been described as an acceleration in the production of economic value.

It is usually measured by the rate of growth of gross domestic product or gross national product. Some people question what it means to base decisions on what is expected to increase gross domestic product.

We can rethink economic growth in many different ways. Indeed economists have been doing so for centuries. Nobel prize winner, Simon Kuznets, who studied how to measure income and inequality and the relationship between the two had strong ideas about how gross domestic product should and should not be measured; these ideas were controversial. Kuznets was rethinking the measurement of economic growth from a social perspective. Grossman and Krueger expanded on this and applied Kuznet’s ideas to the environment; they developed theories about what effect income growth has on the environment.

Another interesting initiative to rethink growth from both a social and environmental perspective may be found at: www.naturaledgeproject.net/TNEPOurCommonFuture-A20YearResponse.aspx

Green growth is also about rethinking growth and how we can grow more sustainably. Gross domestic product may increase, but are resources being depleted more quickly than income is growing? What is the effect of gross domestic product growth on the environment and thus the environmental resources available to each segment of society? How will each segment of society in turn affect the environment?

These issues and many more are explored in ESCAP publications
www.unescap.org/esd/environment/soe/2005
www.unescap.org/esd/water/publications/sd/GGBrochure.pdf