12 år sedan
Stewart Wallis, New Economics Foundation: "Growth must take us where we want"
”Relying on GDP alone would be like driving a car only looking at the speedometer. The speed might be high, but what if the car is going straight down a ditch?” Stewart Wallis; Executive Director of the New Economic Foundation (nef) who participated with Global Challenge and the Swedish Environment Party seminar “Beyond GDP” on the 22nd of February; meant that, “we must begin with questioning what we need the growth for.”
”Economics as if people and planet mattered” reads the motto for the New Economic Foundations (nef), an advocacy think tank and research institute based in London. Figures are also based here on public opinion. When Stewart Wallis and Tim Jenkins, whom is responsible for The Great Transition Program at nef, presented their work on finding another measurement than GDP, had the assumption of “that which can be measured also can be done.”
– Thus it becomes even more important that we measure the right things, Stewart Wallis pointed out and showed a diagram where very few countries are capable of creating quality of life in a climatically sustainable manner.
High speed – In the wrong direction
To only measure GDP, purports Wallis and the nef, is like driving a car and only looking at the speedometer, without taking into account the engine temperature, fuel or RPM. GPS is also an ignored instrument.
In a worst case scenario, all the cars are headed towards the wrong direction, or right down the ditch. With this metaphor as a starting point, the conclusion is that, although it is important to slow down, lowering growth is not the solution to our problems. What is more important is to first set goals. Where shall we go? What do we want to do with our growth?
-We must start with the objective of growth, not the means to it, emphasized Stewart Wallis.
Model for Sustainable Growth
Tim Jenkins, leading The Great Transition program, showed how nef is now working on a tool for modelling that Peter Victor and others call a “low grow model.” In the near future, nef plans on launching a user-friendly web tool which anyone can can add different growth parameters to build a modelled picture of what kind of growth one will get.
– We must begin to measure both our health and our climatic footprint, says Stewart Wallis.
The seminar was arranged by Global Challenge’s expert group for green economy. More information on the expert group’s work: Chairman Eva Alfredsson, Growth Analysis.
