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Inclusive wealth: a tool for the United Nations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2012

Anantha Kumar Duraiappah  and
Pablo Muñoz
Anantha Kumar Duraiappah
Affiliation:
International Human Dimensions Programme, United Nations University, UN Campus, Hermann-Ehlers Str. 10, 53113 Bonn, Germany. Tel: + 49(0)2288150601. Email: [email protected]
Pablo Muñoz
Affiliation:
International Human Dimensions Programme, United Nations University, Germany. Email: [email protected]
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Extract

The world's leaders, business leaders and the public at large are beginning to question, amidst the multiple social, environmental and economic crises, whether our present trajectory of economic growth is sustainable. We seem to force ourselves to believe that we can grow ourselves out of the multiple crises we face today. The notion of sustainable development and the call for going beyond just material wealth to gauge our wellbeing has long featured in much of the sustainable development, environmental and ecological economics literature. We are afraid the present preoccupation with the green economy will not provide the change we are looking for if we don't address the fundamental problem of what we are aiming to achieve and how we measure our progress towards achieving those goals. We fall into the trap many international agencies have made over the past six decades, where the means become the ends and the ends become an academic exercise (Chang, 2001).

Type
Commentary
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , June 2012 , pp. 362 - 367
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

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