Kate Raworth
Senior Researcher
Kate's research is focused on rethinking global economic growth in the face of planetary boundaries and global inequalities - including discussions of green economy, and new paradigms and measures of development. She has previously conducted research for Oxfam GB on climate change, adaptation and human rights, agricultural trade, labour rights in global supply chains, and designing research for advocacy and campaigning.
Prior to joining Oxfam GB she spent four years as Co-author and Economist of UNDP's Human Development Report. From 1994-97 she was a Fellow of the Overseas Development Institute, working with the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Zanzibar. She holds a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, and a masters degree in Economics for Development from the University of Oxford.
What's going on in the diagram above? Start with the outer ring. In 2009, a group of leading Earth-system scientists (Rockström et al) proposed a set of nine Earth-system processes (like freshwater use, climate regulation, and the nitrogen cycle) that are critical for keeping this planet in the stable state which has been so beneficial to humankind over the past 10,000 years. (That's the Holocene Epoch, and it's nothing to sniff... Read more
Assessing the G20's record on green growth means getting clear on the concept of decoupling. Sounds tedious, I know, but it matters. (If you want to understand income inequality, you need to know about Gini coefficients - likewise, if you want to understand sustainable growth, you need to know the difference between relative and absolute decoupling). It's set out below.
Relative and absolute decoupling: GDP and resource... Read more
In 2009, 29 of the world's leading Earth-system scientists drew up a set of nine 'planetary boundaries': critical natural processes that we must not breach if we want to maintain Earth's stable state of the last 10,000 years.
Like what? Like climate change, ozone depletion, and biodiversity loss. No small fry. They got bold and attempted a first quantification of these boundaries (eg setting a climate change boundary... Read more