A keynote session to highlight the climate crisis is not just an environmental challenge - it is a systemic failure of an economic model built on perpetual growth, resource extraction and financial speculation. 

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Whilst mainstream approaches to Decarbonisation focus on green industrial expansion, clean technology and market incentives, they often fail to address the fundamental issue: an economy that demands ever-increasing production and consumption will always exceed ecological limits, regardless of how “green” [or “clean”] it appears.

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The North East stands at a crossroads. It can pursue the well-worn path of competing for investment and technological development in a race for “green growth,” or it can embrace a more radical, resilient alternative - one that prioritises well-being over GDP, sufficiency over expansion and ecological balance over corporate profitability. 

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Instead of chasing innovation for innovation’s sake, we must ask: how do we design an economy that enables communities to thrive within planetary boundaries?

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Through seven "interventions", this keynote presents a post-growth vision for the North East - one that redefines prosperity, prioritises local resilience and builds a truly Just and Sustainable future beyond the constraints of the growth paradigm.