I'm really happy that Agata and I got to speak here as youth activist because I know that we carry a not so diplomatic reputation so I hope to live up to that promise I uh I want to actually also start by thinking uh Phillip for taking the lead on organizing this event because I know that what is perceived as radical changes with individual contacts that we are in and I find it radically Brave and courageous of you and your colleagues to put this conversation forward here and set a new bar for this institution [Applause] I
also want to acknowledge and thank all of the speakers staff and participants who made this event possible because I've seen incredible people that have proposed radical ways forward and I know that some of you have fought for these ideas for decades and I can only imagine how special it is for them to share it in a space like this so thank you for taking the lead on mainstreaming a conversation on d-growth beyond the stage of this hemicycle foreign what have we done here for the past three days we are fundamentally rethinking the global economy because
we must infinite growth on finite resources is not only a myth but it's extractivist and ruthlessly oppressive by Design in essence it is a system of Institutions which determine who wins and who loses in The Game of Life so when talking about growth and defending growth there is a very important first question that we need to ask ourselves who are we growing this economy for and what stories do we use to justify it I'm going to say something that is unfortunately controversial to this institution but it really shouldn't be if we move Beyond growth we
have to acknowledge what lays below our growth white supremacy colonialism and imperialism and I I really wanted to join Professor Sultana and the other speakers who made sure this is addressed white supremacy justifies a global system of exploitation and extractivism colonialism lays at the foundations of the European economy institutions corporate value chains trade deals investment agreements and geopolitical structures of wealth accumulation which means that there is no degrowth without decolonization [Applause] thank you [Applause] in our current systems our economies are growing for some of us on the backs of many of us not only must
we see and speak the truth about this system we also have to change it on every level talk about the dangerous systems of deadly growth everywhere with everyone and make sure that they that every conversation about climate change includes a conversation about its root causes and that brings me to a second question who are we including in the conversations about growth some of the conversations we had here may seem radical for people who are only able to think within a system of infinite growth and that's why we need to have these debates in a radically
different way and move from panels to real dialogue to some of the politicians that were on the stages these past days I do invite you to switch places sometime and listen to the real concerns and anger of people in this room [Applause] we need to take these conversations outside of these rooms and make sure that for all of the hundreds of fossil fuel lobbyists demanding growth there are thousands of us demanding degrowth [Applause] because if we don't manage to put these conversations into action we end up debating another 50 years without fundamental and systemic changes
and we don't have that time we don't have that time we all agree I often hear people tell me that change is complex and therefore slow I disagree I don't think change is complex I think an acting change is simply about changing the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of the world the idea of scarcity is artificial the obsession with growth is artificial and the whole concept of develop development and whatever that means is artificial [Applause] and it's a really really really good thing that many of us are not buying it anymore what we
need is an economy that scales down everything that is harmful and unnecessary as soon as possible and there's tons of empirical evidence that has established degrowth is fundamental to the remaining time in carbon budget we have to mitigate the climate crisis but as Julia Steinberger noted yesterday there is a massive disparity between the stories of scientists and the stories of policy makers we are not talking about scientific or economic feasibility we are talking about courage European leaders if you lack political bravery to make Paradigm shifting decisions then leave it to us [Applause] bring us into
real decision-making spaces organize people's assembly and make your decisions in collaboration with the people affected by your policies understand that the leadership that got us into this crisis will not be the leadership that gets us out we want a world of radical abundance a world in which many worlds are possible with an economy that serves our needs a society that celebrates our differences inside a new paradigm that feeds our souls we are fighting for Freedom not The Superficial freedom to work in jobs we don't like to sell things no one really wants we fight for
the Deep freedom to build meaningful meaningful lives without depending on growth I was asked to end this intervention with a note on next steps and I think that the necessary policy changes are very clear we need to redistribute wealth cancel climate debt Implement a universal basic income massively invest in loss and damage funds d-grow the economy in high income countries increase Universal Public Services reduce working time dematerialize and re-prioritize what it means to live a human life [Applause] as Europeans that means we have to be humble and acknowledge that we don't actually have all the
answers we need to learn from the global majority where decolonial thought leadership has originally developed degrowth thinking and as a movement as movements where do we go we need to make sure the conversation doesn't end here if you come from a movement or you belong to a movement right now and you commit to continuing this conversation Beyond this conference please if you can stand up if you consider yourself an activist and you commit to continuing this conversation Beyond this conference please stand up and if you are a politician a scientist or anyone who commits to
continuing this conversation Beyond this conference and when looking at my fellow panelists now you Philip please stand up [Applause] I I know that many of you have a lot more to say beyond what was said in this uh during the past three days and I want to share this stage with some of my fellow activists by reading some of their key messages that were left out of the conversation so I want to invite those who have a message to please show it to us [Applause] thank you [Applause] I I hope I hope that you can
read some of the messages that are on there but to make it easy I can voice some of the things that we can read on the boards growth kills lives stop the fossil fuel Lobby dismantle patriarchal systems that was one of my favorites too canceled debt land sovereignty now and abolish Fortress Europe [Applause] this right here is the movement of movements that Naomi Klein talks about and I want the end I want to end my speech with a quote from her only mad social movements can save us now and if that happens and we can
build a movement of movements well it changes absolutely everything [Applause] the movements that she's talking about already exist and they grow every day we have little time do we have many voices and we will keep speaking until infinite economic growth is an old story from the past thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause]
