Doughnut Economics

“The economy has to grow, there is no other way”, is what most politicians and economists from either left or right tell us. And with that growth we can then fix inequality or pollution. But without growth there would be no jobs and no money to change anything, they say. Yet that “then” never arrives, and the destruction caused by our economies threatens our civilization as never before. The failure in our system is clear: infinite growth is impossible on a finite planet.

It’s time to abandon that suicidal paradigm and redesign our economies to align them with life on Earth, and to that means Kate Raworth provides us with a very interesting concept: donut economics.

The Donut is a compass for human prosperity in the 21st century, with the aim of meeting the needs of all people within the means of the living planet.

The doughnut is defined by 2 concentric rings:

• The social foundation: the basic needs that have to be covered to have a life of dignity and opportunity, in 12 areas internationally agreed in the Sustainable Development Goals of 2015 (water, food, health, education, income and work, peace and justice, political voice, social equality, gender equality, housing, networks and energy).

The ecological ceiling: the 9 planetary boundaries, as set by Rockstrom et al, beyond which lie unacceptable environmental degradation and potential tipping points in Earth’s systems: climate change, ocean acidification, chemical pollution, nitrogen and phosphorus loading, freshwater withdrawals, land conversion, biodiversity loss, air pollution and ozone layer depletion. 

Between these two sets of boundaries lies a doughnut-shaped space that is both ecologically safe and socially just: a space in which humanity can thrive.