Niko Paech: Freedom from Excess—by Design or Disaster

Niko Paech is one of Europe’s most prominent critics of economic growth, and his book *Liberation from Abundance* (2012) established him as the leading thought leader on the post-growth economy in the German-speaking world. The event will focus on the completely revised new edition of his degrowth classic.

On the post-growth economy:

The long-held hope that economic growth could be made sustainable or climate-friendly through technological progress—that is, decoupled from environmental damage—has long since been shattered by reality. The obvious failure of ecological modernization implies that only a reduction strategy—applied to industrial production, technology use, consumption, and transportation—can lead to the restoration of the ecological viability of human civilizations.

This is where the concept of the post-growth economy comes in. The question of its political feasibility points to a phantom debate; it no longer arises because the now virtually unstoppable deindustrialization of Central Europe will automatically lead to such a scenario.

About Niko Paech:

Associate Professor Dr. Niko Paech studied economics, earned his doctorate in 1993, completed his habilitation in 2005, and held the Chair of Production and Environment at Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg from 2008 to 2016. He currently conducts research and teaches in the Master’s program in Pluralistic Economics at the University of Siegen. His research focuses on post-growth economics, climate protection, sustainable consumption, sustainable supply chain management, sustainability communication, and innovation management. He is active in various sustainability-oriented research projects, networks, initiatives, and cooperatives.