To make progress towards mitigating climate chaos, and to avoid the grip of reactionary politics and the far-right, we need a coherent positive vision of a society in which everyone can achieve wellbeing within environmental limits. Organisations like Hot or Cool have been at the forefront of presenting that vision with our work on the Happy Planet Index, 1.5-Degree Lifestyles and the Beacon for Sustainable Living. Key to this work is the need to build a new definition of progress or success, and a new sense of what the purpose for the economy.
Yesterday, Greenpeace International, Earth 4All, Economy for the Common Good/Gemeinwohl Ökonomie, Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie and the Hot or Cool Institute, launched a statement calling for Germany to define a small set of headline indicators to measure progress. As we have argued before in our charter for measuring societal success, this process needs to be informed by citizens’ visions of what a good society looks like. This could take place through Citizens’ Assemblies, whereby representative samples of nation or invited to discuss what the priorities for society should be. Germany in particular could benefit from such a process. The collapse of the current government makes it clear that the country has lost its compass and needs a new positive vision if the far-right are not to overwhelm the country with their worrying reactive, albeit clear, vision of how Germany should be.
The statement was made to coincide with the premiere of the German version of a new film called Purpose, which took place at City Kino Wedding in Berlin. The film, directed by Martin Oetting, which follows two of the most inspiring protagonists who are striving for a wellbeing economy, Katherine Trebeck and Lorenzo Fioramonti. The film shows how passionate people can make a change in society, although it is of course never straightforward.
As well as the call for headline indicators, the statement also proposed a set of three policies which serve as examples of what a wellbeing economy could look like. Alongside Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie, Hot or Cool has endorsed in particular the call to reduce average working hours. In Germany the standard full-time working week is 40 hours, which is more than the 35 hours standard in the UK and France.
As has been argued by organisations such as the New Economics Foundation and Konzeptwerk, reducing working hours will reduce mental health problems and environmental impacts, while allowing more time for citizen participation and care work. It can be a crucial tool in the transformation of the economy, helping shift the economy away from carbon-intensive production, while securing jobs and workers’ rights. In our upcoming work on care, we will be exploring the impacts of a reduction in working hours more closely.
The new leader of the German Green Party Franziska Brantner, attended the screening of the film and spoke positively about the idea of citizen’s assemblies being involved in defining new indicators.
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View the statement (in German): Forderungen
