Beyond GDP: A Global Commons for Accelerating Sustainable Development - Lecture

How can we move beyond GDP to understand and pursue prosperity while safeguarding natural systems and societal wellbeing?

In this talk Professor Phoebe Koundouri will present a human-centred and interdisciplinary economic systems approach that brings natural capital, ecosystem services, environmental pressures, resilience, equity and wider societal wellbeing into the analysis of economic development.

Drawing on a Beyond-GDP economic modelling framework, the approach explores how changes associated with energy transitions, water availability, land use, ecosystem degradation and restoration affect economies and societies. It makes it possible to examine not only impacts on production, consumption, investment and employment, but also the wider trade-offs, synergies and distributional consequences involved in different pathways towards sustainable development.

These insights are combined with climate, biodiversity, social and financial risk assessment to help identify transformation pathways that can support prosperity while protecting natural systems and improving resilience and equity. Drawing on her role as Co-Chair of the United Nations Global Sustainable Development Report 2027, Phoebe will explore how this integrated approach could underpin a digital Global Commons connecting science, policy and finance and help accelerate implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals to 2030 and beyond.

This event is part of the 'Rethinking Prosperity on a Finite Planet' event series.