Editor Hazel Henderson served on the Organizing Committee for the BEYOND GDP Conference, representing her colleagues at the Club of Rome . Ethical
Markets Media funded the GlobeScan Survey in 10 countries finding huge public support for this reform of GDP.
B E Y O N D G D P N E W S L E T T E R
Measuring progress, true wealth, and the well-being of nations
4 September 2009
European Commission adopts Communication “GDP and beyond”
At the closing of the Beyond GDP conference, Commissioner Dimas announced that the European Commission will present a policy paper that takes the ideas presented at the conference and moulds them into a road map for action. On 20 August 2009, the European Commission released its Communication “GDP and beyond: Measuring progress in a changing world“.
The Communication outlines an EU roadmap with five key actions to be undertaken now and in the near term. The text of the Communication is available in 22 languages.
The five key actions support the Commission’s aims to develop indicators relevant to the challenges of today-ones that provide an improved basis for public discussion and policy-making. The five key actions are:
* Complementing GDP with environmental and social indicators
* Near real-time information for decision-making
* More accurate reporting on distribution and inequalities
* Developing a European Sustainable Development Scoreboard
* Extending National Accounts to environmental and social issues
Live online video of presentation event for Communication “GDP and beyond”
The adopted Communication “GDP and beyond” will be presented and discussed with key stakeholders at an event on 8 September 2009 and will be streamed live online in 6 languages from 14:30 to 17:00 CET. Confirmed speakers include: Stavros Dimas (European Commission); Elisabet Falemo (Swedish EU Presidency); Aart de Geus (OECD); Pedro Diaz Muñoz (Eurostat); and Enrico Giovannini (Italian Statistical Institute). Speaker presentations will be followed by a discussion session with the stakeholders in attendance.
OECD World Forum, 27-30 October 2009 in Busan, Korea
The third OECD World Forum on Statistics, Knowledge and Policy will take place in Busan, Korea on 27-30 October 2009. The World Forum-organised by
the OECD and the government of Korea-is entitled “Charting Progress, Building Visions, Improving Life” and will bring together 1,500 high-level participants from 130 countries. The conference will focus on three core questions: 1) What does progress mean for our societies?; 2) What are the new paradigms to measure progress?; and 3) How can there be better policies within these new paradigms to foster the progress of our societies?. To find out more about the conference and to register, please visit the conference webpage.
Recent News
The Beyond GDP website continues to feature news updates on its Recent News page. Recent updates include:
Richesse, bien-être, progrès: comment refaire les comptes?
September 2009
Alternatives Economiques
Well-being must increase, not gross national product (in Swedish)
23 August 2009
Dagens Nyheter G.D.P. R.I.P.
9 August 2009
New York Times
Visit us at www.beyond-gdp.eu.
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This Newsletter is an initiative of the European Commission, DG Environment and DG Eurostat, together with Ecologic.