I didn't come up with the degrowth thesis myself but I will entertain the question even if you've answered it yourself.

The question doesn't really matter. Whether we want it or not, economics will ultimately be subject to the laws of physics. We cannot sustain infinite growth on a planet with finite resources and carrying capacity. We've known this as far back as 1966 when Kenneth Boulding touched on these ideas in his essay "The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth" [0].

Holding the global north accountable for their footprint is to me one of sanest and most civilized pathways considering the ensuing implications of alternative scenarios.

[0] http://arachnid.biosci.utexas.edu/courses/THOC/Readings/Boul...