‘We can all have a good life and live within planetary boundaries’

See Yong Feng was one of the guest speakers at the Ecosocialism 2026 conference in Magan-djin/Brisbane on September 11–13. He explained in his presentation, “Degrowth and Ecosocialism”, how it would be possible for all people — in the Global South and Global North — to have a good life without crossing planetary boundaries.

See previously worked as an architect and returned to Singapore last year after completing a Masters in political ecology, environmental justice and degrowth at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He currently works in book publishing and organises with Singapore Climate Rally as well as the independent media network NIMBUS.

During the conference, See spoke with Green Left’s Peter Boyle about degrowth and how humanity can live within planetary boundaries.

You studied under Professor Jason Hickel at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He has been at the cutting edge of debates and discussions around ecosocialism and degrowth. What do you think are the most important areas of research that Hickel and his team have covered in the past couple of years?

Research has been done to quantify and prove to conventional economists — and other people who need to see the facts — the extent of the extraction and exploitation that’s going on.

A lot of the recent work on unequal exchange has calculated what is the amount of embodied labour, land, energy and material resources that Global North countries get from the Global South — essentially through cheaper prices. It shows how imperialism works within the global trading system that’s supposedly based on “fair” prices. This is in addition to the very visible imperialism: invading countries and other military interventions.

Their research makes a very strong point that ecosocialism needs to be anti-imperial and decolonial.

What this means in material terms is to stop extracting from the Global South to allow it the freedom to develop on its own terms; [for Global South peoples] to have the sovereignty to decide how they want to develop.