The text, signed by 345 people from the world of academia, was presented this Saturday in Bilbao. They consider that an “unprecedented” crisis has been created in Euskal Herria and in the world, and have promoted a common vision to “not repeat the serious mistakes made in the past and to properly address the construction in a new future”.

The signatories believe that the COVID-19 crisis is a consequence of the development model that governs the world and that during these weeks the “weaknesses of the economic model” have been revealed: unemployment, precariousness, crisis of care, “false dichotomy between health and economic development”... Without continued growth, the economy is in crisis and there is one of the main weaknesses: the growth model reduces biodiversity and the risk of viruses and diseases. “The conservation of biodiversity, from this point of view, is a life insurance for our society and therefore a strategic investment, never spending,” the document states. It stresses that in the context of the crisis the environment has improved, such as air pollution, but that these positive consequences will end when they leave the state of emergency.

Five "strategic lines"

“We need a comprehensive vision to plan a resilient, sustainable and just after COVID-19 also in the Basque Country,” said academics, adding that the harms of non-adoption of measures would be incalculable. With a view to this planning, their proposals have been divided into five “strategic lines” that should be defined and implemented “without delay”.

The document proposes as a criterion for measuring the health of the economy the elimination of the growth rate of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Prioritizing other measurement instruments that take into account ecological and social variables, assuming that some economic sectors should be reduced, such as mining, and others to grow, such as social services. Along the lines of “production, investment and consumption policies”, they call for environmental constraints to be taken into account and for monitoring to be at the heart of: The implementation of the Universal Basic Income, the commitment to advertising, or the “dissemination and implementation of the concept of km 0”.

The third line focuses on the “design and implementation of progressive environmental taxation”, which is considered essential for tackling the climate crisis. The document proposes allocating the money resulting from this tax to finance the energy transition, and notes that the Basque Country has an ecological debt, derived from its development model. The fourth line, focused on the mobility model, contains a double proposal: the moratorium on large infrastructures and the strengthening of proximity networks with an emphasis on public and non-motorised transport. The last line is devoted to food sovereignty based on agroecology. They consider it necessary to reorganize the territory in order to produce and distribute healthy foods in decent working conditions.

All these measures, accompanied by the territorialization of activities and the “new forms of governance”, would bring, according to the 345 signatories, a more sustainable and just society. They have called on political representatives and Basque society to "not let the opportunity pass" and to reach the challenge in full.