This event has now passed. Watch the panel recording here: https://www.beyond-growth-2023.eu/lecture/focus-panel-12/
Join us at the European Parliament’s Beyond Growth Conference 2023 for a focus panel on ‘The Blue Doughnut – A framework for a well-being ocean economy beyond growth’.
The panel is chaired and organised by Member of the European Parliament Dino Giarrusso, in partnership with Seas At Risk and the European Environment Agency, and will feature a wide range of speakers including Kate Raworth, architect of the renowned doughnut economic model.
Get more information and register here!
Background
The ocean, covering over 70% of the planet, is the world’s largest habitat for wildlife and biodiversity. It’s also our most important carbon sink and essential for the planetary biogeochemical cycles that provide us with the air we breathe and the water we drink. However, while the land-based economy hits its growth limits, the ‘blue economy’ is heralded as a way to tap into additional profits. With ongoing overfishing, the boom of offshore renewables, shipping being projected to multiply over the coming decades, and the imminent threat of deep-sea mining, we can observe a dangerous ‘blue gold rush’ moment, to the detriment of both planetary and societal boundaries. It’s time to reframe the blue economy, before it’s too late.
Drawing on the concept of doughnut economics, the ‘Blue Doughnut’ is built on a social foundation, to reverse growing inequalities and prevent people from being left behind, and to ensure that humanity does not collectively overshoot planetary boundaries. Between the social foundation and the ecological ceiling lies a doughnut-shaped space that is both ecologically safe and socially just: a space in which humanity, and our planet, can thrive. The panel will discuss the Blue Doughnut concept as an alternative framing for the blue economy, and test its application on fisheries, shipping and in relation to the EU’s sustainable blue economy policy.
Posted on: 3 April 2023
