Instead of the "development at all costs" economic model dominating world affairs, new pluralist economic thinking is needed if the world is to successfully combat climate change and address inequity.
That’s the broad conclusion of several academic and development economists writing in the report,
Other Worlds Are Possible, the sixth report from the Working Group on Climate Change and Development.
"We have the unprecedented challenge of meeting human need in the face of climate change, resource scarcity and a deeply troubled world economy," the report’s introduction says.
"To this upheaval, there is unlikely to be a single other answer."
Chilean economist Professor Manfred Max-Neef captured the outlook of the report in the comment that the search for solutions must start with new models that, "above all else, begin to accept the limits of the carrying capacity of the Earth".
"We need to move from efficiency to sufficiency and well-being … The paradigm shift requires turning away from economic growth at any cost.
"Transition must be towards societies that can adjust to reduced levels of production and consumption, favouring localised systems of economic organisation. We need again to look to the inside."
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