Renewing the social contract for a safe, fair and sustainable future

The Green Economy Coalition proposes a new social contract to drive economic transformation, arguing that current economic systems fail to account for nature's limits and exacerbate inequality. The statement outlines five areas of action to transition toward inclusive green economies, emphasizing the need to integrate nature into economic balance sheets, adopt principles of wellbeing and justice, and ensure participatory citizen engagement in transition planning.

• The current global economic model is failing to achieve sustainable development, with the world spending $1.8 trillion annually to subsidize the destruction of nature and society.
• Economic systems remain largely blind to nature dependencies, despite the fact that over 1 billion workers rely on healthy ecosystems and 20% of countries face potential ecosystem collapse due to biodiversity loss.
• The Green Economy Coalition advocates for a transition based on five key principles—including wellbeing, efficiency, sufficiency, and justice—and utilizes the Green Economy Tracker to assess 21 policies across five themes to hold governments accountable.
• A just transition requires a new social contract that prioritizes the state's responsibility to protect human dignity and rights of nature, supported by participatory governance and citizen engagement.
• Global efforts to redefine the social contract are manifesting in specific national initiatives, such as the debate over an 'ecological constitution' in Chile and the Presidential Climate Commission's call for a social compact in South Africa.

APA

Mohamed, N. (2022). Renewing the social contract for a safe, fair and sustainable future. Green Economy Coalition. https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/news-and-resources/renewing-the-social-contract-transforming-economies-and-societies-for-a-safe-fair-and-sustainable-future

Chicago

Mohamed, Najma. Renewing the social contract for a safe, fair and sustainable future. Green Economy Coalition, 2022. https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/news-and-resources/renewing-the-social-contract-transforming-economies-and-societies-for-a-safe-fair-and-sustainable-future.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Mohamed |first1=Najma |title=Renewing the social contract for a safe, fair and sustainable future |publisher=Green Economy Coalition |date=23 May 2022 |url=https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/news-and-resources/renewing-the-social-contract-transforming-economies-and-societies-for-a-safe-fair-and-sustainable-future |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{mohamed2022renewing, author = {Mohamed, Najma}, title = {{Renewing the social contract for a safe, fair and sustainable future}}, publisher = {Green Economy Coalition}, year = {2022}, month = may, url = {https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/news-and-resources/renewing-the-social-contract-transforming-economies-and-societies-for-a-safe-fair-and-sustainable-future}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }