The Environmental Value of Unconditional Basic Income Policies

This chapter analyses how two Basic Income policies (Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend and Maricá’s Citizen Basic Income) impact environmental/ecological perspectives. Firstly, the chapter addresses whether UBI can be considered an environmental policy, discussing productivism, green republicanism, and economic development. Subsequently, the author devises a framework to analyse the green element of UBI policies, consisting of six pillars: (i) the form of funding of the UBI, (ii) policy rationale (i.e., the governmental objectives that guided the policy’s implementation), (iii) the impact on the productivist perspective (work and consumerism) at the individual and collective levels, (iv) other public policies that accompanied the UBI with a more green-oriented focus, (v) the concern for economic freedom and democratic inclusion (republicanism) combined with other public policies, (vi) the circular-regionalist focus. Finally, each UBI policy (Alaska and Maricá) is addressed separately in light of this framework, according to which the environmental and ecological aspects of each selected policy are considered. The cases show environmental alignment according to Dobson’s concept of environmentalism. The chapter concludes by arguing that Maricá’s basic income represents a more robust UBI policy from an environmental standpoint.