One year has passed since the announcement by the city of Barcelona to join what is known as the donut economy. Devised by the British economist Kate Raworth (in the image), this model proposes to stop seeking wealth at the expense of environmental limits and social justice.
In order to go from theory to practice, the Consistory has been working on the elaboration of a "portrait of the city to know what situation we find ourselves in from the social and environmental point of view", explains Irma Ventayol, director of services of the Office of Climate Change and Sustainability of the Barcelona City Council. At the same time, Ventayol indicates that conferences and sessions have been held to publicize this new economic model and "reflect on the great challenges and where we want to go". Kate Raworth herself has traveled to the city to participate in a conference and learn first-hand how the donut economy is landing in Barcelona in the city.
Back from the holidays, and with the results of the study under its arm, the Consistory will begin a third phase in which it must be established how the set objectives will be reached. It will coincide in that it will be just a few months before the municipal elections, which will take place at the end of May 2023. In Ventayol's opinion, this circumstance does not have to affect this city's commitment.
Behind this initiative is a group of professors from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Barcelona (UB), who proposed to the Barcelona City Council that it join the donut economy, although Ventayol points out that it was already part of the City Council's plans . “The city of Amsterdam began, which was followed by Copenhagen, and now there are many cities that have joined, including all those belonging to the C40 (a network that brings together large cities in the world committed to the fight against climate change )”, says Enric Tello, professor at the Department of Economic History, Institutions, Politics and World Economy at the UB and one of the promoters of the implementation of the donut economy in Barcelona.
The donut economy is also a matter of countries. A study published in the scientific journal Nature concludes that no country in the world is capable of satisfying the basic needs of its citizens without exceeding the limits of the planet and that those that do not exceed the limits of the planet are not capable of satisfying basic needs. of all its inhabitants. Among the former are Spain and most Western countries, while the latter include the poorest regions.
Daniel O'Neill, one of the authors of the study, gives the example of Sri Lanka, which is in the midst of a food crisis. "They do not exceed environmental limits, but the population is not guaranteed a minimum of well-being," explains the professor of ecological economics. In the case of both Sri Lanka and the richest countries, the solution to the current global and environmental crisis lies in the donut economy, according to O'Neill.
It is called a donut because the model is based on trying to live between two concentric rings: one outside, which delimits the ecological ceiling, that is, those fundamental biophysical processes that cannot be overcome if we want to guarantee the stability of the planet (climate change, loss of of biodiversity, etc.), and another interior, which defines the essential needs for life that any human being must have guaranteed (health, education, housing, etc.).
