The world is facing a “polycrisis.” Climate change, economic inequality, environmental degradation, food and energy shortages, geopolitical conflicts, political instability, and the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic aren’t separate problems – they all feed into each other, creating a perfect storm that threatens our collective future. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres starkly warned, continuing on our current path risks “collective suicide.”
At the heart of these crises lies a fundamental problem with how we think about economics. For more than a century, mainstream economic thinking has been dominated by several beliefs that are either wrong or no longer fit for purpose, including: (1) that markets will magically solve everything if we just leave them alone; (2) that nature is something separate from human society and that protecting it only gets it the way of economic growth; and (3) that growth of GDP, is always good and can continue forever. This approach has brought us to the brink of global catastrophe.
But there’s hope. A growing movement of economists, researchers, and practitioners worldwide are behind new approaches that put human and planetary wellbeing at the centre of economic thinking. However, this new economic thinking is scattered and has been struggling to gain the influence needed to challenge the old ways of thinking.
Bringing it all together: ten principles for change
Our new study, published in Nature Sustainability, has identified ten core principles that unite 38 different alternative “new economic” approaches, from ecological economics to degrowth, from cooperative economics to Indigenous economic systems. These principles could provide the foundation for a coherent new mainstream economics that actually serves people and planet.
The holistic foundation
The first two principles establish a completely different starting point for economics. Instead of treating the economy as separate from society and nature, new economic thinking recognises that all economic activity is embedded within social and ecological systems. The goal isn’t just profit or growth – it’s holistic wellbeing for both people and the rest of nature. This requires interdisciplinary thinking that acknowledges complexity, and that can link together the contributions of many different disciplines.
Ecological reality
Three principles directly address our environmental crisis. New economic thinking accepts that there are fundamental limits to growth on a finite planet – we can’t have infinite expansion of material consumption. It recognises that natural capital cannot be infinitely substituted by human-made alternatives – we need healthy ecosystems, not just technology. And it embraces regenerative design, creating circular systems that restore rather than deplete.
Social justice at the core
Two principles put people and fairness at the centre. New economic thinking embraces holistic perspectives of human values and behaviour, recognising that people are motivated by much more than narrow self-interest – we care about dignity, sufficiency, community, and meaning. And it makes equity, equality and justice central concerns rather than afterthoughts, addressing the massive inequalities that current systems have generated and perpetuated.
Democratic economics
The final three principles transform how economic decisions get made. Relationality and social enfranchisement means economics should strengthen communities and serve the common good, not just individual wealth accumulation. Participation, deliberation, and cooperation should be built into economic systems, giving people a real say in decisions that affect their lives. And real improvement in people’s lives means moving beyond both the extraction-based capitalism that’s destroying our planet and the colonial mindsets that have marginalised Indigenous and Global South perspectives.
From crisis to opportunity
But the global polycrisis is also an opportunity. Major disruptions can create the conditions for ideas that once seemed impossible to suddenly become necessary and feasible. The Covid-19 pandemic showed us that rapid, dramatic changes in how we organise society are possible when we recognise the urgency of acting at scale and speed.
Transformative change often starts in small ways – innovative communities, pioneering businesses, forward-thinking local governments – before scaling up to transform entire systems. We’re already seeing this happening with renewable energy, cooperative enterprises, wellbeing approaches in governments, and community wealth building initiatives worldwide. The ten principles aren’t just academic theory – they’re already being put into practice. From New Zealand’s Wellbeing Budget to Costa Rica’s leadership on environmental protection, from the growth of cooperatives to Indigenous-led conservation, examples of the impact of new economic thinking are emerging everywhere.
The challenge now is building sufficient momentum to make these approaches mainstream. This requires ideas coming together with multiple movements to effectively challenge the old ways of thinking.
The good news is that the new economic thinking isn’t asking us to go backwards and won’t involve a reduction in wellbeing. Quite the contrary, it’s all about improving real and sustainable wellbeing. It’s offering a vision of prosperity that’s more meaningful, more sustainable, and more equitable than what we have now. It’s economics for a world where everyone can thrive within planetary boundaries – not just the wealthy few at the expense of everyone else. The stakes couldn’t be higher. Continuing with business-as-usual economics in the face of our polycrisis is a recipe for global disaster. Our future depends on whether we can make this transition in time. If we grasp the coherence of new economic thinking and embrace these ten principles, we have a roadmap for creating an economics that actually works for people and the rest of nature.
