February 2021
While we’re still catching our breath from last year, 2021 is well and truly here and with it comes plenty of positive news and events that are giving us hope for the year ahead.
- If you read any article this week, make it Future Crunch’s ‘99 Good News Stories from 2020’ wrap-up – the hopeful and inspiring news stories that didn’t make the headlines. From huge conservation wins and global health innovation to international border openings and emancipatory legislation, these are the developments and events propelling us toward the Next Economy.
- Today, the recently established Regen Melbourne network – co-founded by Small Giants Academy, Dumbo Feather, Circular Economy Victoria and the Coalition of Everyone – launched its FREE online workshop series, Exploring Doughnut Economics in Melbourne in partnership with Sustainable Living Festival. Using Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics model, participants will reimagine Melbourne’s social and ecological redesign post-COVID. The five-part workshop series runs until Monday 1 March, so register now!
- In this ABC article, research economist at the University of Melbourne and member of Regen Melbourne Warwick Smith outlines the shortcomings of traditional economic models, while proposing Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics model as a way to solve the ‘dilemma between environment and economic growth’.
- In really driving home Kate’s Doughnut Economics in this Hopeful Leadership Briefing, this TIME Magazine article on Amsterdam’s adoption of the Doughnut Economics model in April 2020 shows how cities can practically address social inequalities, housing issues and environmental concerns by reimagining their economic systems and urban planning. In response to COVID-19, Amsterdam’s city government has embraced the doughnut model as its way to “recover from the crisis, and avoid future ones”.
- We’re excited by the news of the Northern Territory becoming home to one of the world’s largest solar farms in a few years. Developer Sun Cable plans to start building the Australia-ASEAN Power Link project – a 10-gigawatt solar farm and battery – on a remote pastoral station that will provide Darwin’s electricity, as well as 20 per cent of Singapore’s energy needs through an undersea cable!
- After a nail-biting election campaign, Joe Biden’s inauguration to the United States’ presidency has snapped climate change back into national focus – and the world is watching. Already, President Biden has declared climate change a national security priority and has promised to boost development of renewable energy sources and establish interagency groups to promote environmental justice, among other momentous commitments.
Photo by Gayatri Malhotra
