Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist

by Kate Raworth

Travelling through Europe in 2015, I met Prakash, a student from India who was studying for an advanced engineering degree in Germany. When I asked whether he had opted to learn about ecologically smart technologies, he just shook his head and replied, ‘No, India has other priorities – we are not rich enough to worry about that yet.’ Surprised, I pointed out that almost half of India’s land is degraded, the nation’s groundwater levels are falling fast, and air pollution is the worst in the world. A flicker of recognition crossed his face but he just smiled and repeated his words, ‘We still have other priorities.’ In one quick conversation, Prakash summed up the economic story that has been circulating for decades: poor countries are too poor to be green. What’s more, they don’t need to be because economic growth will eventually clean up the very pollution that it creates, and replace the resources that it runs down. It’s a story that once appeared to be backed up by data, along with an iconic diagram to embed its message. But, despite its continuing grip on the imagination of politicians and publics alike, it has turned out to be a myth, in India just as in the rest of the world. ‘India has performed remarkably economically,’ points out Muthukumara Mani, a World Bank senior environmental economist, ‘but that’s not reflected in its environmental outcomes. “Grow now, clean up later” really doesn’t work.’