Another signatory included Sir Partha Dasgupta, Zenghelis\u2019 colleague at the University of Cambridge, who authored the government\u2019s review on natural capital. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is jargon for how we should look after nature<\/a> and learn to live in harmony with the biosphere, which is the ultimate provider of life and wellbeing. Instead, our current systems deplete and degrade the environment on which we depend,\u201d Zenghelis explained.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of focussing on GDP, to the near exclusion of all else,\u00a0we propose a focus on comprehensive wealth accounting on the principle that measures of wealth and income offer perhaps the greatest insight into well-being and, importantly, its sustainability.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more:<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n Why the government might decide to stick with GDP<\/p>\n \u201cGDP isn\u2019t going anywhere. It underpins many global financial systems and still captures the news Zenghelis added: \u201cThe aim should not be to replace GDP, but to refine our understanding of it and rebalance policymakers\u2019 attention.\u201d <\/p>\n He explained that GDP is a standardised metric, and it is rigorously measured and comparable \u201cThis has made it a powerful statistic for measuring the flow of economic activity,\u201d said Zenghelis.<\/p>\n \u201cMoreover, even though GDP does not measure happiness and wealth<\/a>, or freedoms and rights or love and respect \u2013 all things we care deeply about \u2013 it does correlate with many other things we care about like health, scientific prowess, equality under law and equal opportunity. Cast your eye on a list of countries from high to low GDP and they will tend to reflect a ranking of human freedoms, \u201cIgnoring GDP would therefore be ill-advised. GDP does what it does, and it does it well. But it misses out a lot that matters too. For example, chopping down a forest raises GDP as it provides a flow of production and income. But it lowers our stock of wealth, which would enable us to live better in the future. A race to maximise GDP can therefore have very negative consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n Zenghelis suggests that there is merit in a \u2018dashboard\u2019 approach, keeping abreast of a range of indicators relating to wellbeing, as outlined in the UN\u2019s Sustainable Development goals or SDGs, but he added that this framework must not be too broad. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cTrying to amalgamate all aspects of well-being lacks a unifying theoretical foundation. No single number can measure everything we care about,\u201d Zenghelis said.<\/p>\n \u201cGDP is therefore a powerful metric, but it is the wrong compass for the most pressing challenges ahead. By design, it overlooks the assets that truly sustain wellbeing: natural capital, human skills, social trust, and knowledge. A country can grow its GDP while quietly running down the very wealth that underpins long-term prosperity.<\/p>\n \u201cThe case for moving beyond GDP is not about discarding it. GDP remains robust, standardised, and highly informative about economic activity, and it correlates with many outcomes we value. But it is incomplete. Treating it as the primary measure of progress risks systematically misreading economic success, sending humanity into grave danger. <\/p>\n \u201cA focus on comprehensive wealth \u2013 a disciplined framework grounded in economic theory \u2013 captures the full portfolio of assets that generate wellbeing over time. This is because sustainable wellbeing depends on the stock of wealth, not just the flow of income. This is the critical shift: from measuring how fast we are moving, to whether we are moving in the right direction, on a path that can endure and allow humanity to flourish.\u201d<\/p>\n Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this?\u00a0Get in touch and tell us more<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n Change a vendor\u2019s life.<\/p>\n Buy from your local Big Issue vendor every week \u2013 and always take the magazine. It\u2019s how vendors earn with dignity and move forward.<\/p>\n You can also support online: Thank you for standing with Big Issue vendors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dimitri Zenghelis, an associate at the Bennett School of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, said he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3669,2823,254,5999,23,5,6,1746],"class_list":{"0":"post-22941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-analysis","9":"tag-economics","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-explained","12":"tag-green-party","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-zack-polanski"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116475663643412780","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
agenda whenever growth figures surprise or disappoint,\u201d said Davidson.<\/p>\n
across countries and (to an extent) through time. It has undergone decades of international investment in the tools, surveys and methodologies to properly construct it.<\/p>\n
democracy, gay rights, infant mortality and cultural prowess.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776060517_614_35-birthday-subs_FINAL_v3_800x250.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
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