Good Idea: Measuring prosperity beyond GDP

https://www.politico.eu/article/obsession-with-growth-is-destroying-nature-150-countries-warn/

More than 150 countries including China, India and EU members have signed off on a report by IPBES, the leading intergovernmental body for biodiversity assessment, concluding that GDP-focused growth is a primary driver of biodiversity loss. The numbers behind it: one eighth of all estimated 8 million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction, and 75 percent of the Earth's land surface has already been significantly altered by human activity.

The core argument is not anti-economy but pro-accuracy. Markets currently do not price what ecosystems actually provide -- pollination, climate regulation, water filtration -- so those services get consumed without appearing in any balance sheet until they collapse. The report calls out perverse business incentives, weak enforcement, and models built around ever-increasing material consumption as the structural causes.

The US was not among the signatories and has announced its withdrawal from IPBES. The EU, despite signing, is simultaneously running a deregulatory agenda aimed at relaxing environmental standards to boost competitiveness.

The full assessment is the result of three years of work and is the most broadly endorsed scientific statement on the link between economic models and nature loss to date.

#Biodiversity #Degrowth #Economics #PolicyChange #NatureCrisis #Sustainability #SystemsChange