Creating a new kind of economy is crucial if we want to tackle climate change and avoid the mounting social problems associated with the rise of economic inequality. The Great Transition provides the first comprehensive blueprint for building an economy based on stability, sustainability and equality.
In the first part of this report we make the case for change. In Part 2 we sketch out some of the steps we would need to take to make a reality of the Great Transition.
In the Great Revaluing, we make the case that building social and environmental value should be the central goal of policy-making.
In the Great Redistribution, we show how a redistribution of both income and wealth would create value as resources are moved from those who do not need them to those who do.
In the Great Rebalancing we make a positive case for markets, but only once markets have been set up in such a way that prices reflect true social and environmental costs and benefits, and when those markets operate within scientifically defined limits.
(...) in the Great Localisation. Here we argue for an expanded concept of ‘subsidiarity’ – the idea that decisions are best taken at as local a scale as possible.
The Great Reskilling continues this train of thought, starting from the position that greater local production will require us to relearn many skills that have been forgotten.
In the Great Economic Irrigation we outline how finance could facilitate many of the changes proposed in this report. For public finance we differentiate between tax and spending and between national and local levels.