Redefining Prosperity

The Sustainable Development Commission 

COUNTRY
UK

WHAT IT IS
The economy is currently geared, above all, to economic growth. However in recent years, two other objectives have moved up the political and policy-making agenda: sustainability and wellbeing.

ORIGIN
The Sustainable Development Commission – SDC - is the Government´s independent adviser on sustainable development, reporting to the Prime Minister, the First Ministers of Scotland and Wales and the First Minister and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. Through advocacy, advice and appraisal, we help put sustainable development at the heart of Government policy.

OBJECTIVE 
SDC’s project on Redefining Prosperity aims to map out the relationships between these three aims – growth, sustainability, wellbeing – and ask what issues are raised. Do we have to choose between these aims? Can we combine them? What sorts of policies or approaches would we need to have?
These questions go to the heart of what sustainable development is about. Does it mean sustainability plus economic growth? Or is it about finding a compromise or balance between some sustainability and some growth? Or does development mean something different from growth? Does it mean progress towards increasing wellbeing? And is it possible at all to define and promote wellbeing?

CONTENT 
The project is divided into four main parts –

1. Visions of prosperity looked at different views put forward about what prosperity means. Economic growth, measured by increases in Gross Domestic Product, which basically means total national income in a year, looks attractive because it links closely with the assumption that most individuals aspire to increase their income. Researchers, on the other hand, have identified “alternative visions of prosperity” , which can be more compelling. Can government policy aims be revised to better reflect individual wants and hopes?

2. Economy Lite looked at the idea of decoupling – separating economic growth from the damaging environmental impacts it normally has. Can that link be broken, with cleaner, more efficient technologies? Is there any evidence that decoupling is already taking place in Europe and North America? Or is that an illusion created by the fact that we are increasingly importing manufactured goods from Asia and Latin America, giving them the environmental burden of our consumption? Does that mean decoupling for real is impossible, or are there still ways of achieving it?

3. Confronting Structure was about taking the arguments against continuing growth seriously and thinking through the consequences. If the economy no longer grows, or grows at a much slower rate, what happens to – unemployment, tax revenue, the ability to repay debt and pay interest, company profits and economic competitiveness? Can we imagine any government pursuing this line of thinking? Or will they be forced to because of economic pressures creating long-term recession?

4. Wellbeing Policy looked at the evidence about what contributes to people’s wellbeing, and asked - what follows? Should we wish for a set of economic policies designed to promote wellbeing? If so, would it differ greatly from economic policies intended to promote growth? What would the key differences be? Would there be a different approach to work and to the importance of the unpaid activities which keep community and family life going? Would the planning system give greater priority to local democracy and quality of life?

RESULTS
Redefining prosperity is planned to result in a major report from the SDC.

REFERENCE
http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/redefining-prosperity.html
http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/natlinfo/indicators/factsheet.pdf