During the last decade, demands from civil society for governments and policymakers to act against climate change have increased considerably. Many governments responded to said demands with commitments towards the Paris Agreement or the UN Sustainable Development Agenda for 2030. Strategies for the decarbonisation of the economies and a transition to more sustainable practices in all economic sectors became commonplace, with terms such as net zero or carbon neutrality embedded in many national and international action plans. But it would not be the first time that when economic and financial circumstances take a turn to the worse, environmental, climate or sustainable agendas are put aside to focus on the recovery of economic indicators.
The Covid-19 pandemic and now the cost-of-living crisis exacerbated by energy price increases and supply shortages linked to the invasion of Ukraine, are the newest examples where economic and sustainability goals may appear in conflict, with calls, for instance to abandon the European Green Deal. Even if at high institutional levels the abandonment of environmental and climate targets is not happening, we have seen amendments and more flexibility applied in some policies, such as agricultural ones, where sustainability requirements are being ‘relaxed’ in favour of facilitating markets functioning.
With this context in mind, this collection aims to contribute to the debate on the dichotomy between economic and sustainability interests, and how the pursue of economic growth creates (or not) imbalances between the three pillars of sustainability (economic, environmental, and social). We are interested on papers that adopt both theoretical or applied approaches through case studies, covering specific policies and/or countries. Comparative studies will be welcomed too. We are particularly interested on papers that can show the difference in approaches to economic and sustainability policies between Western/Non-Western economies, and between Emerging economies.
