Existing structural interactions must be reimagined to function within planetary and social limitations.
Climate-linked catastrophes are manifesting faster than ever. According to the Global Risks Report (2022), ‘climate action failure’ is (yet again) amongst the top long-term threats to the world. And as is well established, extractive, exploitative and wasteful consumption and production are key contributors to the defining change of our times.
Given the unprecedented scale and urgency of the challenge ahead of us, incremental change or tinkering at the margins will not be enough. These conditions warrant transformations. Transformations that can bring order and accountability and reimagine extant systemic relationships to function within planetary and social boundaries. While creating and facilitating these transformations, we need to be wary of our tendency to approach problems with the same mindset that created them in the first place. The dominant narrative of Economics 101 with rational self-interested individuals trying to maximize their own benefits has been debunked. And as we think about transformative change, cooperation, rather than competition, must become a cornerstone of our policy narratives on public goods.
Such thinking will be critical as we embark on transformative change from a linear to a circular economy. Recent policy pronouncements indicate that a mission to achieve a circular economy has risen in the policy priorities at the highest echelons of the policy spaces in India. So how do we embark on fostering a culture of cooperation rather than competition? How do we move away from finger pointing to achieving solutions together? We believe that reformed cooperation systems will extensively support us to pivot away from the ‘Business As Usual’ (BAU) approach.
Role of businesses in these reformed cooperation systems:
The consumer class and consumption levels continue to grow globally, and businesses are key contributors, and beneficiaries, of such growth. One possibility is to continue business as usual and focus on the profit motive. The other, more sustainable, possibility is to re-align their goals and values, after assessing their impacts beyond their immediate supply chain – on the physical and natural environment as well as on the health of their consumers. With a reformed ‘sense of purpose’ businesses will be able to work more cohesively with their counterparts. This brings us to the next step they need to take, establish accountability across value chains. Businesses need to take responsibility not only of the product/service/value that they offer, but of the process that creates the same. This calls for intra-business cooperation, where big businesses partner with small and mid-sized businesses, support them in these sustainability transformations and thereby mainstream action on all fronts.
Role of consumers in these reformed cooperation systems:
As key ‘cogs’ of these reformed cooperation systems, consumers need to question processes that businesses adopt or create to bring them the desired product or serve. Accountability needs to be a part of a business’s ‘offerings’ and consumers should continue to push for this. Based on this questioning, consumers need to understand that businesses respond to their choices, and therefore consumers need to make the ‘right’ choices. Additionally, they need to ensure that the momentum of demand for superior quality, sustainable and safer products is maintained.
Role of Policymakers
Cooperation systems involve convening multiple actors with divergent interests, which is where policymakers play a key role. They must ensure that this engagement among all stakeholders takes places on an even keel, and that findings and outcomes from such engagements are integrated in processes leading to transformations. Policymakers also need to facilitate synergies and forge partnerships to strengthen these new cooperation systems. Also, policymakers need to provide credible signals and intent that they too are willing to facilitate cooperation rather than play a distant carrot and stick game.
As we grapple with complexity and uncertainty while also hoping to embark on transformative change, transformations can no longer remain on the margins, but must be at the forefront of all our policy processes. Untangling the political economy of transformations should also not be constrained by the language that led to the crisis we are in. We need a new vocabulary that empowers rather than emasculate, that talks of capabilities in addition to vulnerabilities and that creates space of dialogue and deliberation without hierarchical hectoring.
To many, these transformations and cooperation systems might seem like stepping into uncharted territories. To others, they might sound naive. However, sustained achievement of these transformations would demand cooperation systems that are collaborative and not competitive. We would need much more transparency (through healthy engagements) and working across siloes. These transformations will define our survival in the short-term and collective well being in the long-term. And for these, in addition to our role as policymakers, businesses and consumers, we would need to confront the fundamental values which all of us collectively stand for. That dialogue would not have to be constrained by boundaries of our many crises but seek inspiration from the grand societal and planetary transformation which we all have the potential to co-create and live through. Some noteworthy reports include:
Global Risks Report 2022 | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)
Growing consumption | Knowledge for policy (europa.eu)
[author title=”By Jasprit Kaur, Junior Technical Expert at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) India, with inputs from Dr. Ashish Chaturvedi, former Director-Climate Change and Circular Economy, GIZ India. ” image=”http://”]
