Amsterdam to embrace 'doughnut' model to mend
post-coronavirus economy
Dutch officials and British economist to use guide to
help city thrive in balance with planet
Daniel
Boffey
Wed 8 Apr
2020 07.00 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/08/amsterdam-doughnut-model-mend-post-coronavirus-economy
A doughnut
cooked up in Oxford will guide Amsterdam out of the economic mess left by the
coronavirus pandemic.
While
straining to keep citizens safe in the Dutch capital, municipality officials
and the British economist Kate Raworth from Oxford University’s Environmental
Change Institute have also been plotting how the city will rebuild in a
post-Covid-19 world.
The
conclusion? Out with the global attachment to economic growth and laws of
supply and demand, and in with the so-called doughnut model devised by Raworth
as a guide to what it means for countries, cities and people to thrive in
balance with the planet.
Raworth’s
2017 bestselling book, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a
21st-Century Economist, has graced the bedside table of people ranging from the
former Brexit secretary David Davis to the Guardian columnist George Monbiot,
who described it as a “breakthrough alternative to growth economics”.
The inner
ring of her donut sets out the minimum we need to lead a good life, derived
from the UN’s sustainable development goals and agreed by world leaders of
every political stripe. It ranges from food and clean water to a certain level
of housing, sanitation, energy, education, healthcare, gender equality, income
and political voice. Anyone not attaining such minimum standards is living in
the doughnut’s hole.
The outer
ring of the doughnut, where the sprinkles go, represents the ecological ceiling
drawn up by earth-system scientists. It highlights the boundaries across which
human kind should not go to avoid damaging the climate, soils, oceans, the
ozone layer, freshwater and abundant biodiversity.
Between the
two rings is the good stuff: the dough, where everyone’s needs and that of the
planet are being met.
On
Wednesday, the model will be formally embraced by the municipality of Amsterdam
as the starting point for public policy decisions, the first city in the world
to make such a commitment.
“I think it
can help us overcome the effects of the crisis”, said Amsterdam’s deputy mayor,
Marieke van Doorninck, who joined Raworth in an interview with the Guardian via
Skype before the launch. “It might look strange that we are talking about the
period after that but as a government we have to … It is to help us to not fall
back on easy mechanisms.”
“When
suddenly we have to care about climate, health, and jobs and housing and care
and communities, is there a framework around that can help us with all of
that?” Raworth says. “Yes there is, and it is ready to go.”
The central
premise is simple: the goal of economic activity should be about meeting the
core needs of all but within the means of the planet. The “doughnut” is a
device to show what this means in practice.
Marieke van
Doorninck, deputy mayor of Amsterdam
Raworth
scaled down the model to provide Amsterdam with a “city portrait” showing where
basic needs are not being met and “planetary boundaries” overshot. It displays
how the issues are interlinked.
“It is not just a hippy way at looking at the
world,” says Van Doorninck, citing the housing crisis as an example.
Residents’
housing needs are increasingly not being satisfied, with almost 20% of city
tenants unable to cover their basic needs after paying their rent, and just 12%
of approximately 60,0000 online applicants for social housing being successful.
One
solution might be to build more homes but Amsterdam’s doughnut highlights that
the area’s carbon dioxide emissions are 31% above 1990 levels. Imports of
building materials, food and consumer products from outside the city boundaries
contribute 62% of those total emissions.
Van
Doorninck says the city plans to regulate to ensure builders use materials that
are as often possible recycled and bio based, such as wood. But the doughnut
approach also encourages policymakers to lift their eyes to the horizon.
“The fact
that houses are too expensive is not only to do with too few being built. There
is a lot of capital flowing around the world trying to find an investment, and
right now real estate is seen as the best way to invest, so that drives up
prices,” she says.
“The
doughnut does not bring us the answers but a way of looking at it, so that we
don’t keep on going on in the same structures as we used to.”
The
Amsterdam city portrait was created by Doughnut Economics Action Lab, in
collaboration with Biomimicry 3.8, Circle Economy, and C40.
The port of
Amsterdam is the world’s single largest importer of cocoa beans, mostly from
west Africa, where the labour is often highly exploitative.
As an
independent private company it could reject such products and take the economic
hit, but at the same time almost one in five households in Amsterdam qualify
for social benefits due to low incomes and savings.
Van
Doorninck says the port is looking at how it moves on from dependence on fossil
fuels as part of the city’s new vision, and she expects that to naturally
evolve into a wider debate over other pressing dilemmas brought to the
forefront by the doughnut model.
“It gives
space to talk about whether you want to be the place where products are being
stored that are produced by child labour or by other forms of labour
exploitation,” she says.
Raworth
adds: “Who would expect in a portrait of the city of Amsterdam that you would
include labour rights in west Africa? And that is the value of the tool.”
Both
recognise the need for national government and supranational authorities to get
on board. Raworth’s last meeting just before the lockdown in Belgium was with
the European commission in Brussels, where she says great interest was
expressed.
“The world
is experiencing a series of shocks and surprise impacts which are enabling us
to shift away from the idea of growth to ‘thriving’, Raworth says. “Thriving
means our wellbeing lies in balance. We know it so well in the level of our body.
This is the moment we are going to connect bodily health to planetary health.”
 |
Economics is broken, and the planet is paying the
price.
Unforeseen
financial crises. Extreme wealth inequality. Relentless pressure on the
environment. Can we go on like this? Is there an alternative?
In Doughnut
Economics, Oxford academic Kate Raworth lays out the seven deadly mistakes of
economics and offers a radical re-envisioning of the system that has brought us
to the point of ruin. Moving beyond the myths of ‘rational economic man’ and
unlimited growth, Doughnut Economics zeroes in on the sweet spot: a system that
meets all our needs without exhausting the planet.
The demands
of the 21st century require a new shape of economics. This might just be it.
*The Sunday Times Bestseller*
*A Financial Times and Forbes Book of the Year*
*Winner of the Transmission Prize 2018*
*Longlisted for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of
the Year Award 2017*
‘The John Maynard Keynes of the 21st century.’
George Monbiot, Guardian
‘This is sharp, significant scholarship . . .
Thrilling.’ Times Higher Education
‘Raworth’s magnum opus . . . A fascinating
reminder to business leaders and economists alike to stand back at a distance
to examine our modern economics.’ Books of the Year, Forbes
‘There are some really important economic and
political thinkers around at the moment – such as Kate Raworth’s Doughnut
Economics.’ Andrew Marr, Guardian
‘An admirable attempt to broaden the horizons of
economic thinking.’ Martin Wolf, Books of the Year, Financial Times
‘A compelling and timely intervention.’ Caroline
Lucas MP, Books of the Year, The Ecologist
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