Global Economy

As global development finance falters, the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville offers a chance to rethink the system. It’s time to move beyond donor fixes and center justice, local agency, and structural reform.

In the era of multiple crises a new economic thinking is needed that integrates environmental, social and economic dimensions for the transformation of our economies. A joint, transatlantic project by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, the ZOE Institute for future-fit economies and Finanzwende Recherche developed a series of analyses and proposals on how to achieve this. The online dossier of our Brussels office offers videos, podcasts and articles related to the publication "Making the great turnaround work - Economic policy for a green and just transition".

This article wants to provide food for thought on what a long-term economic policy could look like. In the context of the climate crisis, increasing inequality, the loss of biodiversity and financial instability, the challenge is to craft a strategic approach that can set the course for long-term success.

As well as in 2008, the very necessary, unavoidable actions of central banks now in the Covid-19 crisis have massive side effects: cheap money is fostering asset price inflation, fueling inequalities. At the same time, central banks are still disregarding climate risk in the way they treat fossil assets as collateral.

The world economy has become the central battleground for hegemonic rivalry between Washington and Beijing. Several factors have led to this development, first and foremost the economic rise of China.