What type of financing is compatible with Degrowth?

Question

Since Degrowth is a political, economic, and social movement based on ecological economics, anti-consumerism and anti-capitalism. I wonder what type of investment could be compatible with Degrowth.

For example: some of their proponents are Giorgos Kallis, Jason Hickel, and others.

What could be ethical investments for them?

I ask this because most proponents are professors and some also work for the UN, so they surely get good salaries. So what could it be that they do with their surplus that doesn't go against degrowth?

(The only thing that occurs to me is donation, but per my research that is not the case, unless they are donating it anonymously of course).

Answer 1

I'm not sure your post title matches your content, so I'll try to answer as best I understand your question.

In a post-growth world, investment wouldn't be a way of getting a financial return, it would be to fulfill a particular aim. I.e., you/society would invest in a wind farm because we need the energy out of it, not because we can sell the energy at a profit. Investment to make a profit is a basic function of a capitalist economy, and one that bakes growth into it's fundamentals.

So the word "investment" would mean something more like "we have an upfront cost to pay in order to get a societal benefit out of this thing we want to build/set up".

In order to get to a post-growth world, we need to undergo degrowth. Which means "investing" in the parts of the Global South which still need to grow, and "investing" in movements to try to make the Global North degrow.