Embedded growth obligation refers to a systemic requirement for continual economic expansion that is often intrinsic to contemporary financial and societal structures. It highlights how debt-based economies, competitive corporate strategies, and political incentives for steady progress drive an incessant push for increased production, consumption, and resource extraction. This paradigm can create a multitude of adverse consequences, including environmental degradation, social inequalities, and unsustainable pressure on finite resources. The term underscores the unsustainable nature of perpetual growth within finite ecological limits and calls for a fundamental rethinking of how we measure and achieve societal wellbeing, advocating for systems that prioritize resilience, regeneration, and integrated prosperity over relentless quantitative expansion.

See also: exponential growth, collective action, critical infrastructure, existential risk, systems thinking