What if we changed the goal of our economy from GDP to wellbeing for all within planetary boundaries?
by Thomas Røkås and Christina Lund
OSLO, NORWAY – On a sunny June day, over 700 people gathered for the Norwegian Beyond Growth conference, NØKO 2025. As members of Rethinking Economics Norway and the Wellbeing Economy Alliance Norway, we were proud to co-host this event with 27 partners as a prelude to the Conference of the International Society for Ecological Economics and Degrowth.
With international keynotes like Kate Raworth, Max Ajl, Olivier De Schutter, and Julia Steinberger alongside national Indigenous leaders from the Sami Council and activists from the Palestine Committee engaging the participants, it felt as though seeds for a new economy were being planted in Norway.
The conference posed questions that are absent from our current public debate: What if we changed the goal of our economy from GDP to wellbeing for all within planetary boundaries? What would our welfare state look like in a post-fossil, post-growth future? How do we get there?
These questions are crucial in Norway, a nation of paradoxes. We are one of the world’s wealthiest countries, built on decades of oil and gas extraction, where profits have been managed through the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, commonly called “The Oil Fund”.
Can the seeds for a new economy take root in a petrostate?
Our economy is deeply entangled with the most carbon-polluting industry. At the same time, we pride ourselves on being a trusted democracy, a sustainability defender, with high levels of gender equality, and robust public services. This tension makes the conversation about a new economy both incredibly challenging and absolutely essential.
… there is a growing appetite for more progressive discussions
While the NØKO conference promoted heterodox perspectives and alternative economic visions, the debate in the run-up to this year’s national election this September, remains stuck on familiar ground. Headlines are dominated by attacks on the wealth tax, with campaigns sponsored by some of Norway’s richest business owners. Meanwhile, debates about increasing domestic inequalities, the climate and ecological crisis remain in the shadows.
Yet the conference demonstrates that there is a growing appetite for more progressive discussions. One participant at NØKO told us, “I thought I was the only one in Norway engaged in these questions.” It demonstrates both the distance between post-growth thinking and mainstream debate, but also the cracks beginning to open in the dominant economic narratives.
Over the past two years, the Norwegian people’s image of our common Wealth Fund as “an ethical investor” has been torn apart by grassroots investigations and pressure from activists and civil society. They have exposed our Oil Fund’s billion-kroner stakes in companies complicit in war crimes and human rights violations in Gaza and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. These revelations have forced the government’s divestment from several companies in recent weeks, including Caterpillar.
The once untouchable topic of the Oil Fund’s mandate is now under increasing public scrutiny, opening a space for a long-overdue national reckoning over its governance and ethical responsibilities.
cracks beginning to open in the dominant economic narratives
This sentiment was also echoed by Norway’s second national citizens’ assembly, Framtidspanelet, After months of deliberation about Norway’s wealth, 55 randomly selected citizens from across the country delivered 19 recommendations, including a clear message:
“The Fund should not primarily grow as much as possible, but do as much good as possible – in ways that are ethical and sustainable, fair in a global context, in line with Norway’s responsibility as a frontrunner, long-term, and for the benefit of future generations.”
The Fund should not primarily grow as much as possible, but do as much good as possible
While we are rather pessimistic about any new government coalition adopting transformational post-growth policies the next four years, the citizens’ assembly, NØKO and the mass mobilisations for Palestine have reminded us that progressive visioning and change rarely begin in parliament. It begins when people come together to imagine alternatives, demand accountability, and when cracks in the dominant story make space for new ones.
Nurturing the seeds planted in those cracks is the challenge ahead. It requires building broad alliances powerful enough to shift Norway’s economic imagination – from fossil wealth and endless growth, to one grounded in purpose, justice, dignity, nature and participation.
For more from NOKO 2025, you can watch all the plenaries on Rethinking Economics Norge’s YouTube.
Thomas Røkås
Chair of Rethinking Economics Norway & Core Group WEAll Norge
Christina Lund
Board member of Rethinking Economics Norway & Core Group WEAll Norge