Human Economy report - Towards a wellbeing economy that serves people and nature

The economy depends on people, who depend on nature and the resources taken from it. Decades of
unfettered growth of extraction, production and trade have fuelled a cycle of large-scale destruction. This
overexploitation is the result of political choices. We as civil society organisations from many parts
of Europe demand political change that will steer us away from the current destructive economy towards a
socially and ecologically just one.

Oxfam Germany and the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) have examined the root causes of the
current crisis: past and present injustices between and within countries, the spiralling social, economic
and political inequality and associated concentration of power, and a fixation and structural dependency
on economic growth. This report focuses on the European economy and its role and responsibilities,
both globally and locally. It covers the domains in which people produce, distribute and consume
products and services, whether this is done via the market economy or through other mechanisms.

The safe and just space for humanity has a just social foundation and a hard ecological ceiling. To understand how we can arrive there, we need to see the bigger picture. Our interconnectedness today is
unprecedented, but the ugliest realities are kept well out of sight and mind for European consumers.