Building a new economy

As part of Horizon Europe, the EU launched a Mission for “100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030”. Demos Helsinki contributes to this as part of a European consortium of 33 leading city networks, research organisations, and urban stakeholders which are supporting cities in various ways to achieve their climate goals.

The Nordic Near-Zero Emissions Steel project is a working example of industrial transformation. The Nordic region stands at the global forefront of near-zero emissions steelmaking. Innovative actors in the field have been constrained by the very institutional apparatuses meant to represent them. The project is unique in that it is built on cross-value chain coordination. Not just producers talking to producers, the entire ecosystem is aligned around shared goals.

The neoliberal project is under pressure. However, years of discontent with the environmental risks and economic inequalities have not led to a collective and organised proposal for a new economic system. This report presents a landscape analysis of the organisations working in Europe to create an economic paradigm shift. Who and where are they? How are they contributing to this cause? What are the steps to foster a thriving and joyful movement that will create an economy that serves the people and the planet?

Even though economic instruments for sustainability purposes have long been implemented in the national policies across the Nordics, their effectiveness remains understudied. This project evaluates the effectiveness of environmental taxes and charges in shifting behaviours of consumers and producers towards a more sustainable direction in the Nordic countries.