Facing the crisis: Rethinking economics for the age of environmental breakdown

Article

Damaging human impacts on the environment go beyond climate breakdown to encompass most other natural systems, from soil to biodiversity. The current economic model in countries around the world drives this breakdown, and many of its underpinning assumptions, policies and narratives act as barriers to change.

A new model is needed to rapidly create societies that are more sustainable, just and prepared: bringing human activity to within environmentally sustainable limits while narrowing inequality, improving quality of life, and becoming better prepared for the accelerating consequences of environmental breakdown.

This is the first in a series of six short discussion papers that seeks to inform debate about the relationship between policy, politics and environmental breakdown, supporting education in economic, social and political sciences. This paper explores the role of social and economic systems – and the ideas, policies and narratives that underpin them – in driving dangerous environmental change. It discusses how these systems should change in order to improve the response to environmental breakdown.

This discussion paper series is part of a major IPPR research programme – Responding to environmental breakdown– that seeks to understand how to realise a more sustainable, just and prepared society in response to environmental breakdown.

Related items

  1. Towards a Communities Agenda 2.0

    Andy Burnham’s arrival in Downing Street creates an opportunity to go much further on the communities agenda than we’ve seen up to now. So what should more ambition look like in practice?
  2. Young male delivery cyclist working part-time, riding through city streets with food backpack on.

    Raising the bar: Strengthening living standards while banning exploitative zero-hours contracts

    Labour’s manifesto committed to banning exploitative zero-hours contracts as part of sweeping upgrades to workers’ rights.
  3. The Bank of England is watched over by a statue of the Duke of Wellington seated on his horse

    Beyond headroom: Why we need a better fiscal framework to fix the UK’s long term problems

    There has been long-standing debate about the UK’s fiscal rules and fiscal framework.