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Degrowth of Infrastructure

Rupia workshop, resources caps 25-26 june 2011. Degrowth of Infrastructure. Francois Schneider Filka Sekulova Francois@degrowth.net Filka@degrowth.net. Recherche et Décroissance www.degrowth.org ICTA, UAB. 1. Definition 2. Infrastructure and economic growth 3. Rebound effect & Backfire

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Degrowth of Infrastructure

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  1. Rupia workshop, resources caps 25-26 june 2011 Degrowth of Infrastructure Francois Schneider Filka Sekulova Francois@degrowth.net Filka@degrowth.net Recherche et Décroissance www.degrowth.org ICTA, UAB

  2. 1. Definition 2. Infrastructure and economic growth 3. Rebound effect & Backfire 4. Why infrastructure degrowth 5. How to degrow infrastructures: frugal innovation, adjustment and transformation Outline

  3. Infrastructure is generally understood as the technical structures that support a society, such as roads, water supply, sewers, electrical grids, telecommunications. What is infrastructure

  4. Infrastructure from extraction to final waste treatment

  5. From Ellul perspective • The technical infrastructure is not a mere sum of individual elements. • Infrastructure has the characteristics of a system.

  6. Growth of infrastructure • The technological system continuously expands following the law of indefinite evolution (Ellul) • Like an ecosystem, it transforms and adapts until its limits (Giampietro).

  7. No external feedback • The infrastructure system lacks one of the essential characteristics found in any organized ensemble: reaction. It is not able to control its errors and dysfunctions, to react on its source and modify itself. • First of all we are not able to conceive the degrowth of infrastructure among the possible options

  8. Capacity to consume and produce • We introduce the concept of capacity to produce and consume, whose growth is highly dependant on hard infrastructure and its augmenting.

  9. Two reasons can explain the Jevons paradox • (concerning hard infrastructure, but not only): • - The more intensive use of infrastructure • - The extension of infrastructure

  10. Intensification with the rebound effect Infrastructures are congested € € € € € € We develop more efficient use of infrastructures € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € Rebound effect: free infrastructure is used to increase production and consumption

  11. Extensification with growth policies Production or consumption (economy) cannot grow because limits are met. € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € Capacity to produce and consume is expanded (growth policies) € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € Production and consumption expand € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € € Growth effect or backfire

  12. Factors limiting the capacity to produce and consume Natural Resources availability Hard Infrastructures Resource flows Time for work and consumption Capacity to produce and consume Creation of artificial needs Money Human Behaviour Institutional framework Un-satisfaction of needs Inequality Social and ecological Standards

  13. Intensification I More efficient use of transport system

  14. Rebound effect

  15. Improvement by Expansion

  16. Backfire etc.

  17. The Infrastructure dimension The growing efficiency of transport, energy infrastructure use does not reduce impacts such as congestion because transport and energy flows increase If demand does not fill capacity of infrastructure, it become “unprofitable” and there is a “crisis” of the infrastructure system.

  18. Infrastructure from birth to deaththe system evolves

  19. Democracy At present citizens have limited or no impact on the decision-making on large-scale infrastructure. Ecological impacts & limits to resources Infrastructure construction, use and disposal is associated with high level of polluting emissions, natural resource consumption (including land) which affects present/future generations and ecosystems’ sustainability. Why infrastructure degrowth

  20. Developmentist imaginary In the western imaginary roads, airports, large-scale shopping malls and ski resorts = development → large-scale infrastructure shapes the vision of what a developed society should look like. Infrastructure thus facilitates long-distance, more-efficient, market exchanges, impeding local convivial exchanges. Good life/well-being If infrastructure obstructs the satisfaction of basic needs of people (for sharing and socialization) it might impair well-being. The dominant presence of cars might impede good life: → less convivial and friendly environment, less space for social interaction and exchange, creates radical monopoly (Illich), noise and pollution. Why infrastructure degrowth

  21. A degrowth narrative? • Searching for coherence and complementarities in the degrowth alternative

  22. A system view of infrastructure Bicycle use Public transport use - Tolls on roads + Free space On roads + Traffic + + + + - Open Localism Congestion Road traffic capacity - + Size, length, number of roads

  23. Having a feedback: more democracy

  24. Having a feedback: more democracyProposals from Barcelona 2010 • Support communities fighting against large infrastructure projects. • Degrowth challenges centralized decisions for mono-functional use and the involvement of urban dwellers in transforming the social, political and economic relations in urban spaces. • Ecological degrowth neighbourhood plans (what areas to remove, to recycle, preserve, etc) need to be decided and implemented through collective decision-making.

  25. Frugal innovations

  26. Infrastructure related frugal innovation • Infrastructure related frugal innovation occurs when individuals reduce or stop the use of a specific product and technology, (cars, ski resorts, animal products, goods transported over long-distance). • As a result demand for these goods would decrease together with the infrastructure capacity required for their production.

  27. Adjusment and transformation • When the infrastructure of one element of the production chain decreases the other processes along the chain have to decrease as well. • For example, we shall consider a moratorium, but also the reduction of existing infrastructure.

  28. Some infrastructure projects must clearly be abandoned: nuclear, ammonia production, incinerators, high speed train and large scale dams.Some infrastructure must be limited: highways, long distance transportation and airports.Conversion of car-based infrastructure into walking, biking and open common spaces; Proposals from Barcelona 2010 I

  29. Cities would be reshaped and reformed on the basis of smaller scale and distance, and new expansion limited. Reduce urban sprawl. Urban life shall be relocalized keeping or developing its multifunctionality and its public spaces. Make ecocities for all, rather than for a gentrified minority. Build local social and ecological resilience in cities, use zoning to bring back nature in the city and keep neighbourhoods compact. Proposals from Barcelona 2010

  30. Combine frugal innovations with adjustment • First : adjustment involve a transformation of the societal metabolism. That is other frugal innovations along the societal metabolism. • Second: this frugal innovation involves an action at the level of higher material and energy flows, instead of acting at the level of the congestion problem.

  31. The total infrastructure capacity is determined by the lower capacity along the chain or we have a crisis (example waste crisis in Napoli).

  32. Road network or societal metabolism Optimise and expand Congestion knot Engineers and politicians see the problem there Goodwin

  33. Transformation and ajustment We shall see the problem there

  34. To conclude • Put the priority on reducing consumption and production levels: frugal innovation that allow the idea of limits. • Have adjustments of the capacity after this reduction. Accept a fair level of congestion as it prevents the increase of the system, resolving it by prevention rather than expansion.

  35. A few references • Grübler Arnulf, the rise and fall of infrastructures, Physica-verlag Heidelberg, 1990 • Odum HT, Odum, EC, 2001. A Prosperous Way Down, University Press of Colorado, Boulder, Co, USA. • Gorz, A. Partant F • Illich, I., 1973. Tools for Conviviality. Calder and Boyars, London. • Pfleiderer, RHH, Dieterich, M. 1995. New roads generate new traffic, World Transport Policy & Practice, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 29-31 • Polimeni, JM, Mayumi, K, Giampietro, M, Alcott, B., 2008. The Jevons Paradox and the Myth of Resource Efficiency Improvements. Earthscan, London, Sterling, VA, USA. • Ellul, J. The technological System • Goodwin, P. et al 1998 evidence on the effects of road capacity reduction on traffic levels,Traffic Egineering and Control, 348-354 • Niskanen,WA. Cato Journal, Vol. 11, No. 2 (1991). • Steering papers, moratoria on new infrastructure, and degrowth of cities, Degrowth Barcelona conference 2010 • Barcelona Proceedings www.degrowth.org • Schneider et al. Road traffic congestion : the extent of the problem, WTPP, Vol1, number1, 2002 34-41

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