Degrowth causes resource wars – only growth-oriented methods of decarbonization solves.

Abandoning economic growth would weaken the scope for innovation, exacerbate perceived scarcity, and reduce resilience—and do so just as climate change was beginning to unleash its powerful effects. It would, in the face of scarcity and heightened uncertainty, set off a scramble for limited resources as people retreated for protection to their nation state in-groups. We can chastise all this as offensive to morality, but ignoring these human traits and historical lessons will most likely take us where we do not want to go. On the other hand, in my view, our moral compass should guide us all to try and avoid at all costs a return to a zero-sum world and a hyper-conflictual foreign relations scenario. History shows how, when the climate and environment start changing, what we should be most afraid of is intergroup conflict. And the only difference today, with respect to the past, is that human weapons are much more deadly. As societies find themselves between a rock and a hard place—facing catastrophic climate change on one side, and catastrophic conflict over bounded resources on the other—the escape route is narrow but, given the alternative, must be pursued.71 In abstract terms, it involves using technological innovation and human ingenuity to shift away from the logic that salvation can only come with national sacrifice for the global good, or fair-share valuations, to the logic that casts decarbonization efforts as investment opportunities. In practical terms, under this new logic, industrialized countries can be expected to act enthusiastically as early adopters for green technologies, attracted by the prizes of being at the forefront of the next industrial revolution and able to set its standards for years to come. In turn, this industrial revolution will reverberate through the world, following the standard paths of capitalism and globalization, propelled by the deep-rooted mechanics of emulation, and financed in part by foreign aid.