GLOBAL STUDY ON NEW ECO-SOCIAL CONTRACTS

The report argues that existing social contracts are broken, exclusionary, and ignore planetary boundaries, necessitating a transition to 'eco-social contracts'. These new frameworks are proposed to be grounded in human rights, gender justice, and a 'contract with nature'. The document explores various pathways for implementation, including rights-based economies, the recognition of the rights of nature, and the inclusion of marginalized groups such as informal workers and Indigenous peoples. It provides specific regional analyses and case studies from Nepal, the MENA region, India, and Australia to illustrate how participatory processes and communitarian imaginaries (such as Ubuntu and Sumak kawsay) can inform these new societal agreements.

• The twentieth-century social contract is considered broken because it was based on an implicit bargain between economic growth and social protection that failed to be fully inclusive and ignored planetary boundaries, leading to environmental destruction and rising inequalities.
• A new eco-social contract is defined by seven core principles: ensuring human rights for all, establishing progressive fiscal contracts, transforming economies and societies to halt environmental destruction, creating a contract with nature, addressing historical injustices, achieving gender justice, and fostering new forms of solidarity.
• The report identifies three communitarian imaginaries—Ubuntu (Southern Africa), Eco-swaraj (South Asia), and Sumak kawsay (Latin America)—as eco-centric, relational worldviews that can inspire a bottom-up reimagining of the social contract by prioritizing nature over humans.
• To bridge the 'ecological divide', the report advocates for the legal recognition of the rights of nature, citing Ecuador as the first country to include these rights in its constitution in 2008, and noting similar movements in Bolivia, Uganda, New Zealand, India, and Bangladesh.
• In Nepal, the 2015 Constitution is viewed as the start of a new eco-social contract, driven by rights-based civil society activism and the contestation of marginalized groups, including Dalits and Indigenous peoples, despite ongoing implementation obstacles.
• Informal workers, who comprise approximately 61 percent of the global employed population, are historically excluded from social contracts; the report argues that a 'just transition' to a low-carbon economy must use a human rights-based approach to include them in social dialogue and protection.
• In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, climate change is identified as a threat to state legitimacy because it undermines the government's ability to provide protection and provision, but it also presents an opportunity to trigger more inclusive and sustainable social reforms.
• The report proposes a 'Rights-Based Economy' (RBE) as a pathway to a new social contract, based on five pillars: guaranteeing dignity and well-being, pursuing substantive equality, tackling power imbalances, working in harmony with nature, and democratizing the global economy.
• A just energy transition requires moving beyond technological changes to address 'extractivist and colonialist frameworks' and power asymmetries, suggesting the use of 'energy commons' and community-owned renewable energy cooperatives.
• In India, the report highlights the failure of the social contract for women and girls, citing pervasive violence and low labor force participation (20.3 percent in 2019), and suggests that bottom-up, technology-driven data collection (like the Safecity platform) can help hold institutions accountable.

APA

Kempf, I., Hujo, K., & Ponte, R. (2023). GLOBAL STUDY ON NEW ECO-SOCIAL CONTRACTS. Green Economy Coalition. https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/assets/reports/global-study-new-eco-social-contracts.pdf

Chicago

Kempf, Isabell, Katja Hujo, and Rafael Ponte. GLOBAL STUDY ON NEW ECO-SOCIAL CONTRACTS. Green Economy Coalition, 2023. https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/assets/reports/global-study-new-eco-social-contracts.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kempf |first1=Isabell |last2=Hujo |first2=Katja |last3=Ponte |first3=Rafael |title=GLOBAL STUDY ON NEW ECO-SOCIAL CONTRACTS |publisher=Green Economy Coalition |date=August 2023 |url=https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/assets/reports/global-study-new-eco-social-contracts.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kempf2023global, author = {Kempf, Isabell and Hujo, Katja and Ponte, Rafael}, title = {{GLOBAL STUDY ON NEW ECO-SOCIAL CONTRACTS}}, institution = {Green Economy Coalition}, year = {2023}, month = aug, url = {https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/assets/reports/global-study-new-eco-social-contracts.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }