The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) is a 20th-century theory suggesting that economic development will eventually solve the environmental damage it creates. As Kate Raworth explains in Doughnut Economics, this concept, developed by Gene Grossman and Alan Krueger in the 1990s, mirrors the original Kuznets Curve. The EKC hypothesis posits that as a country’s GDP grows, local air and water pollution initially worsen but then improve after reaching a certain income level. This created a compelling narrative that “when it comes to pollution, growth—like a well-trained child—will clean up after itself” (177).

The proposed mechanisms for this trend were that wealthier citizens demand higher environmental standards, industries can afford cleaner technologies, and economies transition from manufacturing to services. Raworth argues against these claims, asserting that the EKC is a dangerous fallacy. She clarifies that citizen power, not just rising income, drives environmental protection. Furthermore, the curve’s limited data ignored the fact that high-income countries often outsource polluting industries, merely displacing rather than solving the problem. Most importantly, the EKC failed to account for global ecological impacts like climate change and resource depletion, for which consumption in wealthy nations shows a pattern of “rise and rise” (179), not the promised decline. The EKC’s reassuring promise is thus far unrealized; in Raworth’s opinion, ecological degradation is not an inevitable phase of growth but a direct consequence of a degenerative industrial design that must be fundamentally transformed.