B Timber, drinking water, steel or grain: “Overshoot Day” is the day on which humanity has used up everything that a self-sustaining nature can provide within a year. This day last fell in the Federal Republic on May 10thIf everyone lived like we Germans do, three Earths would be necessary.
Does Germany need more economic growth? No, writes Nick Reimer in his contrabecause further growth due to climate change is no longer acceptable. Yes, replies Simon Poelchau in his probecause the economy is not just about prosperity, but also about democracy.
Therefore, it is good news that the economy continues to grow only minimally. Because we can no longer afford economic growth; it uses up resources that we no longer have. The fact that our greed for raw materials is still so well satisfied is due to the perfidious plundering of other countries.
The dilemma can also be described from the perspective of the federal government: the decision is to comply with the Paris Protocol, i.e. to advocate for limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. However, the budget that we Germans still had available for this has been completely used up since spring 2024, as the Federal Government’s Advisory Council determined. So gas heaters are switched off, combustion engines are banned, and fertilizer is no longer used for agriculture.
This federal government is also lagging when it comes to climate protection: in 2025, emissions fell by just 1.5 percent, and the legally prescribed target – minus 65 percent by 2030 – no longer appears to be achievable.
Of course there is the dream of “green growth”: once the energy supply is switched to “fossil-free”, then the increase in GDP would be okay. Firstly, however, are just 20 percent of Germany’s energy supply renewable, although it was almost 56 percent of the electricity supply in 2025, there is still a long way to go to 100 percent “fossil-free”. Secondly, “green growth” also devours resources such as timber, steel or lithium: in a finite world, an infinite amount of these cannot be procured.
Enlightened left-wing politics should therefore begin to imagine a society without economic growth: How can resources be used better, energy saved, and the existing wealth of a society be better distributed? Anyone who continues to crave the growth fetish wants to leave our grandchildren a world without bumblebees, without Greenland, without Hamburg. A world with a devastated face.