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An interview with Professor Robert Costanza | 05/09/2024

Navigating a Crisis-Driven World Towards a Fair and Green Economic Transformation

Professor Robert Costanza joined the PAGE Family in 2023 with the objective to lead the development and delivery of a series of virtual and face-to-face New Frontier dialogues as well as written media pieces. 

He led the recent PAGE New Frontiers Dialogue series in collaboration with UNITAR. The dialogues took place online between 20 June and 10 July across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Themes such as building resilience to shocks, driving circularity and technological innovation through targeted policy, deepening collaboration with international finance institutions and reinforcing the energy transition were identified as key levers for a green economy transition. The dialogues involved the PAGE community, funding partners, government representatives, Resident Coordinators and RCO Economists.

Professor Costanza is currently writing a brief on the New Frontiers Regional Dialogues. In the meantime, he agreed to comment in an interview with PAGE the insights gathered from the discussions.

Who is Professor Robert Costanza?

Robert Costanza (PhD, FASSA, FRSA) is a professor of Ecological Economics at the Institute for Global Prosperity, University College London.  His areas of expertise include: ecological economics, ecosystem services, integrated socioecological modelling, social traps and addictions, and governance institutions. He is the author or co-author of over 600 scientific papers and 30 books. His work has been cited more than 150,000 times in Google Scholar with an h-index of 141.

Portrait, Robert (Bob) Costanza, PSU's new head of Sustainability and 3 latino students involved with the Latino Student Success Initiative. Monica Sarmiento(cq), junior; Mario Quintana (cq), sophomore and Leti Ayala (cq), senior. Photographed Wednesday 9/8/10 on the PSU campus. Photo by Fred Joe / www.fredjoephoto.com / 503-701-6663

Q1. Why is it important to move beyond GDP when assessing societal progress and is the world ready to make this move?

GDP was never designed to measure societal progress but it is currently being widely misused for that purpose. GDP only measures market activity, some of which is best avoided, like the costs of crime and pollution. It does not account for inequality or the positive contributions of household labor, volunteer work, or the informal economy. Alternatives like the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), which do account for these issues, show that in many countries genuine progress has stalled and is declining since around 1980. But there is more work to do to build a broad consensus around indicators of sustainable well-being to guide policy. The Wellbeing Economy Governments (WEGo) group, for example, has begun to incorporate sustainable well-being as their primary policy goal.

Q2. What are the challenges and opportunities for developing countries in leapfrogging from mere GDP growth to a broader notion of sustainable well-being?

Developing countries must seize the opportunity to redefine what development means in the Anthropocene. They do not need to repeat the mistakes of the Global North, whose focus on GDP has led to considerable social and environmental harm. They can, instead, join with the WEGo group of countries and create a new development paradigm that can improve the sustainable well-being of all humans and the rest of nature – a paradigm that can achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals and avoid the addiction to GDP growth at all costs.

GDP was never designed to measure societal progress but it is currently being widely misused for that purpose. GDP only measures market activity, some of which is best avoided, like the costs of crime and pollution. It does not account for inequality or the positive contributions of household labor, volunteer work, or the informal economy.

Q3. What did the New Frontier dialogues bring forward to the debate on accelerating a green economic transformation?

The points raised above are critical to achieving the transition. The dialogues emphasized that small changes in the current system would not be enough to achieve the green economic transformation that is needed. Transformative change will require a change in the fundamental goals of the system and the new technologies, policies, and institutions, needed to achieve it.  Overcoming our addiction to the growth paradigm and all its interconnected policies and institutions will require societal therapy. The transformation must take account of the special interest who benefit from the current system and will resist changes and make the transition in a way that does the least harm and the most good. The new system will improve sustainable well-being for everyone, but the public must be informed of that fact and support the transition, while overcoming the deluge of advertising and misinformation they are engulfed in.

 

The dialogues emphasized that small changes in the current system would not be enough to achieve the green economic transformation that is needed. Transformative change will require a change in the fundamental goals of the system and the new technologies, policies, and institutions, needed to achieve it.  Overcoming our addiction to the growth paradigm and all its interconnected policies and institutions will require societal therapy.

Q4.  What are the strengths of an initiative like PAGE in this regard?

PAGE can provide education, dialogue, and deliberation among key policymakers. It can also engage with the broader public to help describe the positive future that is possible and the changes needed to get there. Transformative change will require a movement of movements and PAGE can join and support WEGo, the Club of Rome and many other groups and movements to create the necessary critical mass.

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