The Environment Strategy for Scotland: Driving the Transition to a Nature Positive Economy - A Synthesis of Policy Levers for Governments

8. Infrastructure for new economies

To progress towards a nature positive economy requires a realignment of an existing economy with a range of values that look beyond the principle of economic growth fuelled by the throughput of natural resources (Barmes and Boait, 2020; Boarini and D’Ercole, 2013; Costanza et al., 2014c; OECD, 2018). Such a vision for a new economics is founded in the principles of wellbeing for nature and society (Costanza et al., 2016; Hough-Stewart et al., 2019; Wellbeing Economy Alliance, 2020). In order to flourish, the wellbeing approach needs a reconfiguration of society beyond the economic paradigm of growth as narrated by the capitalistic approach. It needs to broaden the scope of concerns to an integrated perspective that focuses on the wellbeing of people and nature, such that economies are based predominantly on equitable socio-ecological values rather than those of monetary and material wealth (Kenter and O’Connor, 2022; Lovins et al., 2018). Wellbeing economies are based upon values which take account of the stewardship of the whole, decentralization, relationality, and regenerativity (Waddock, 2020c), rather than neoliberalism’s market primacy, growth orientation, and profit maximization values (Faber, 2020; Institut Montaigne, 2020; Jackson, 2021).

The achievement of this transformation requires renovation of old infrastructures and implementation of new innovations organised under the concept of Economic Operating Infrastructure (EOI) for a wellbeing economy (Waddell et al., 2023). In this context, ‘renovation’ means transforming the economic landscape by integrating social, institutional, and physical infrastructures, processes and relationships that support connections between parts of systems and between systems.

The term EOI refers to elements of transformation systems, or integrated activities and efforts that are attempting to build new economies. Such elements include ideas, technologies, and innovative structural relationships and new institutional arrangements that foster equitable and thriving life (see Methods section). In the context of systemic transformations, EOI involves deep changes in the purpose of a system, performance metrics, and power structures and relations between stakeholders. This in turn influences operating practices (Waddell et al., 2021; Waddock, 2021).

These wellbeing EOIs support new approaches to economics that can be referred to as regenerative (Morseletto, 2020), circular (D’Amato et al., 2017; D’Amato and Korhonen, 2021; Ellen Macarthur Foundation, 2022, 2022), doughnut (Raworth, 2017a), and feminist (Bahn et al., 2020; Eisler, 2017; Nussbaum, 2003; Piaget et al., 2020).

Transitioning to nature positive actions requires the adoption of strategies that embed plurality of values as promoted by new economics approaches. Such transitions require recognition of the importance of the contribution of all members of society, with voice given to the least heard (zu Ermgassen et al., 2022).

The GANE (Global Assessment for a New Economics) initiative (www.neweconomics.net) undertook a non-systematic scoping review of “new economics” approaches from which it derived 10 core principles. A proposed set of wellbeing economics values upon which nature positive economies can be built is provided in Table 1 (slightly amended in a paper under review, Kenter et al., forthcoming). These principles reframe economics around ‘what gives life to systems’:

• stewardship of the whole (valuing and honouring whole systems, including planetary ones);
• co-creating collective value (optimizing wellbeing and dignity of all beings);
• governance through cosmopolitan-localism (cosmo-localist governance, or ensuring decisions are made at the lowest possible level while acknowledging the global context);
• generativity, reciprocity, and circularity (the concept that the Earth’s resources should only be used within its capacity for renewal);
• relationality and connectedness (the notion that humans are social beings existing in an interconnected web of interdependencies);
• equitable markets and trade (markets that honour full costing and pricing, fair trade, and community self-sufficiency)

Table 1. Values and principles promoted by new economics approaches investigated by GANE.

Stewardship of the whole

• Recognise that economies are embedded within societies and ecosystems, and the purpose of economics should be to maintain and improve human and planetary wellbeing
• Acknowledge that economies have fundamental biophysical and biochemical limits to growth
• Recognize that human-derived capital depends on nature

Co-creating collective value

• Consider equity and justice as central questions of economic inquiry
• Embed a positive understanding of freedom based on wellbeing, dignity, and sufficiency in all economic thinking, decisions, and actions
• Embrace pluralistic social and relational approaches that support social enfranchisement and the common good

Governance through cosmo-localism

• Recognise that economies are embedded within societies and ecosystems, and the purpose of economics should be to maintain and improve human and planetary wellbeing
• Take post-capitalist, decolonised economic perspectives
• Embed participation, deliberation, and cooperation as core to economic thinking and policy

Regenerativity, reciprocity, circularity

• Recognise that economies are embedded within societies and ecosystems, and the purpose of economics should be to maintain and improve human and planetary wellbeing
• Recognize that human-derived capital depends on nature
• Design economies to be regenerative and circular
• Acknowledge that economies have fundamental biophysical and biochemical limits to growth

Relationship-connectedness

• Embrace pluralistic, social, and relational approaches that support social enfranchisement, social needs and the common good
• Embed participation, deliberation, and cooperation as core to economic thinking and policy
• Embrace complexity and the need for inter-disciplinarity in addressing economic problems

Equitable markets and trade

All ten principles should be embedded into how markets and trade are designed

Transitions to a nature positive economy align with the concept of being positive to the values proposed in Table 1. Initiatives proposed by the JNCC, WWF and UNDP, suggest that to pursue this road it is necessary to:

• put people at the heart of economy, facilitating connectedness;
• advocate systemic economic reform;
• involve multi-stakeholder institutions as an essential element of reshaping governance and decision making for a nature positive economy;
• operate within planetary boundaries and working with nature to address societal challenges (European Union, 2022);
• provide benefits for both human wellbeing and biodiversity through implementing nature based solutions (Natural England et al., 2021; Nature4Climate, 2020; Economics for nature, 2022; WWF, 2020, 2022).