Doughnut economics
Topic: Environment and Sustainable Development · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Doughnut economics is Kate Raworth's framework for a safe economy. Picture a doughnut with two rings. The inner ring is a social foundation: everyone's basic needs, such as food, water, health and education. The outer ring is an ecological ceiling, set by planetary boundaries. Planetary boundaries are Earth-system limits, and Rockström (2009) identified nine of them. The goal is to keep the economy in the ring between the two, without shortfall below or overshoot above.
Example
A country where many people lack clean cooking fuel falls short of the social foundation. A country with very high emissions per person overshoots the ecological ceiling. Doughnut economics asks both to move into the safe middle.
Don't confuse with
- Degrowth: degrowth calls for rich countries to shrink production and consumption. Doughnut economics sets targets for needs and limits, and growth is neither its goal nor its enemy.
Related concepts
- Sustainable development
- Plimsoll line of the economy
- Weak and strong sustainability
- Sustainable Development Goals
- Environmental Kuznets curve
- Pollution haven hypothesis
- Environmental decoupling
- Rebound effect
- Green growth
- Green economy