Case studies of economic systems change in action

Adopting legislation that restores ecosystems and respects future generations

• Ecuador’s “Rights of Nature” ruling has halted plans to mine for copper and gold in Los Cedros, a protected cloud forest are unconstitutional and violate the rights of nature. 
• The EU’s new Nature Restoration Law will set targets to restore 20% of EU land and seas by 2030, and 90% of degraded habitats by 2050 
• Brazil’s ‘soy moratorium’ has produced a spectacular drop in Amazon deforestation. Companies have agreed not to buy soy from traders who get their supply from farmers who clear the rainforest, use slave labour or threaten Indigenous Lands.
• Wales Future Generations Act requires public bodies to think about the long-term impact of their decisions and to prevent persistent problems such as poverty, health inequalities and climate change.
• Similarly, the Balearic Islands’ recent Law for the Wellbeing of Present and Future Generations requires new policies to be assessed for their potential impacts on the ecological, economic and social wellbeing of present and future generations.

Evaluating economic success by its contribution to human and ecological wellbeing and adopting wellbeing frameworks

• This primer on alternatives to GDP outlines a wide range of approaches.
• Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness index tracks progress in areas like health, education, ecological diversity and community vitality and is used as a policy tool screening tool.
• New Zealand’s Wellbeing Budgets direct government spending towards agreed wellbeing goals and a wellbeing analysis is applied across all spending.
• The city of Amsterdam adopted Kate Raworth’s “doughnut” economic model to plan its post-COVID recovery. The framework priorities meeting people’s needs while respecting ecological limits.
• The Wellbeing Economy Governments partnership (WEGo) is a collaboration of governments interested in sharing expertise and transferrable policy practices to advance their shared ambition of building Wellbeing Economies. The partnership includes Scotland, New Zealand, Iceland, Wales, Canada and Finland.

Using participatory policy making and governance over natural resources and the commons, binding codes of conduct for Multi-national Corporations and corporate and financial transfer taxes

• The system of Popular Citizen Participation in Canoas, Porto Alegre, Brazil exemplifies a comprehensive model of citizen participation, involving citizens in policy design, implementation, and assessment for the city’s sustainable development.
• UN Human Rights Council has established an intergovernmental working group which is developing an international binding treaty to regulate the activities of  transnational corporations and other business enterprises with regards to human rights.
• The Swedish government has introduced tax breaks on repairs for consumer goods, with the aim of inspiring people to fix their broken items rather than throwing them out.
• Around the world, producer responsibility policies are used to reduce plastics.
• Brazil’s Cisterns Programme was introduced by a social movement of over 3,000 civil society organizations to implement a model of large-scale mainstreaming of rainwater harvesting and installing 1 million cisterns to provide water for millions of rural people.
• A Citizen-led carbon budget management system would use several models that are already defined to put in the hands of the citizens the capacity to decide the decarbonization roadmap: how to allocate the emissions required to sort out their present and future needs.

Redesigning economies as circular systems that eliminate waste and regenerate nature

• Rotterdam´s experience of the Circular Economy offers a groundbreaking approach.
• Kamikatsu, Japan, made a zero waste declaration back in 2023 and has achieved an 80% recycling rate. The town sorts waste into 45 categories, and local artisans upcycle materials into new products.
• Footprints Africa has collected hundreds of inspiring examples of circular economy initiatives across the continent.

Ending fossil fuel subsidies and investing in clean energy

• Ecuadorians recently voted to halt oil drilling in biodiverse Amazonian national park.