Leadership for A New Economic Paradigm
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The genesis of the Happiness Roundtable is the 2012 United Nations High Level Meeting Well-being and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm. Members Saamdu Chetri, Merle Lefkoff, John de Graaf, Laura Musikanski and Paul Rogers were leaders and members of working groups at that eventful meeting. Other members have guided and advanced the Happiness Movement. At the High Level Meeting, twelve recommendations were considered and consecrated. (See below and on page 157 of the official report). Happiness Roundtable members have made meaningful contributions to transforming our systems to set the conditions for these and other transformations for just, resilient, sustainable and happy societies, governments, ecosystems, and economies.
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Annex XI: Policy Recommendations emerging from the high-Level Meeting for consideration by governments
There was broad agreement at the 2nd April meeting at the United Nations that governments worldwide can immediately take practical steps towards adoption of the new wellbeing and sustainability-based economic paradigm. To that end, examples of the kinds of policies that are in line with the principles of the new economy, and which governments might consider for voluntary adoption, are suggested here.
Any effective policy must be compatible with ecological sustainability, fair distribution and efficient use of resources, and should contribute to the wellbeing of all life and to human happiness. Some policies will contribute to all these goals simultaneously. all these policies are proposed in the spirit of “adaptive management,” and recognise that we must learn from outcomes and adapt to the changing conditions and local circumstances. The following 12 policies are by no means a comprehensive list, but provide examples of initial steps in the right direction. Many are consistent with United Nations Environmental Programme’s “green economy” proposals, but also go considerably further in accord with the goals outlined in the 2nd of april High-level Meeting at the United Nations.
1. In order to move towards sustainable production methods, governments should first remove perverse subsidies for fossil fuels, chemical inputs in agriculture, and other activities that are harmful to the economy and environment. They should reinvest those subsidies in activities that promote sustainable wellbeing and happiness, such as green technologies and poverty alleviation.
2. In order to promote the widespread dissemination of technologies that protect the environment and alleviate poverty, and to enable lower-income nations to shift rapidly to sustainable production methods without loss of competitive advantage, high-income countries must share and transfer technology and information. To maximise the public benefits of these technologies, countries should pool their technological resources and treat the resulting information as part of the global social commons. To that end nations should also increase public investments in research and development for such technologies with the resulting information freely available to all. Nations should undertake to freely share and publish information on such technologies, including all subsequent improvements.
3. Public investment should heretofore be prioritised. Investments in sustainable infrastructure, such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, public transit, watershed protection measures, green public spaces, clean technology, support for green businesses, and measures to ‘green’ tourism. Health promotion and disease prevention, addressing the socio-economic, behavioural, spiritual, and environmental determinants of health; and supporting holistic life-long learning that includes vital literacies required for wellbeing, such as ecological, civic, cultural, health, nutrition, science, financial, and other literacies; incorporate traditional and indigenous knowledge; empower women; and ensure equality of opportunity.
4. In order to move rapidly towards sustainable agriculture, support small-scale local production and consumption; eliminate unsustainable subsidies; ensure public procurement from sustainable local sources; invest in rural sector public goods including farmer education in organic methods; incorporate traditional knowledge into agriculture research and development.
5. In order to promote the effective and equitable governance and management of the natural and social commons, governments should declare groundwater and open water, atmosphere, oceans, biodiversity, mineral resources, beaches, forests, cultural and sacred sites, etc., as common assets, and create common asset trusts at the appropriate scale. Such trusts must be legally obliged to manage these assets sustainably for the equitable benefit of current and future generations.
6. In order to dismantle incentives to excessive consumption, begin by banning advertising to children and eliminating perverse tax deductions by businesses for advertising.
7. In order to move towards local economies and fair trade systems that promote sustainable production methods and fair returns to producers, begin by government procurement from local, organic, and fair trade sources.
8. In order to reduce systemic inequalities: tax systems should capture unearned income such as earnings on land and currency speculation; reinvest that revenue in public goods; and take other measures to increase the progressivity of taxation. Governments should introduce work sharing policies that reduce overwork, increase leisure time, and prevent layoffs;
9. iIn order to value non-market assets and services, to measure progress more accurately and comprehensively, to internalise externalities, and to ensure that prices reflect actual social and environmental costs of production: a. Create Sustainable National Wellbeing accounts, which account for the value of natural, social/cultural, human, and built capital, stocks, flows and dynamics. [Recognising that such accounts constitute the essential foundation for the new economy, the Kingdom of Bhutan has begun to construct such accounts, and released the first valuations of natural, social and human capital in february this year.] b. Create comprehensive Wellbeing Measures of Progress. [The Kingdom of Bhutan has developed a Gross National Happiness (GNH) index consisting of nine domains — ecology, living standards, health, education, culture, community vitality, time use, good governance, and psychological wellbeing.] c. Work with other countries to build global consensus around these measures of value and progress in the medium term (1-3 years), towards a consensus building convention in 2014. d. Confine Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to its original purpose as a measure of marketed economic activity, and as a measure of what we pay for those activities. Therefore governments must cease using GDP as the core measure of national wellbeing, progress and prosperity —a purpose for which it was never intended. e. Explicitly acknowledge on the record and educate the public on the flaws of GDP-based measures when mistakenly used as wellbeing measures, and work with other governments to achieve short-term global consensus on the limitations of GDP-based measures as the EU, OECD, Sarkozy-Stiglitz Commission, and others have already done. Explicitly acknowledge the concomitant importance of valuing national, social/ cultural, and human capital.
10. In order to reward sustainable and wellbeing-enhancing actions and penalise unsustainable behaviours that diminish collective wellbeing, institute: (a) systems of “payments for ecosystem services” and cooperative investment in stewardship wherein the beneficiaries of ecosystem services shoulder the costs of stewardship or share them with the providers; (b) ecological tax reforms that tax pollution and the depletion of natural capital, with compensating mechanisms that avoid additional burdens on low-income groups.
11. In order to increase financial and fiscal prudence, implement measures to reduce speculation, ensure equitable access to and responsible use of credit, and require that financial instruments and practices contribute to the public good.
12. Work actively and in good faith, in collaboration with governments and civil society partners, towards an international consensus conference that will formally begin adopting the new economic paradigm by 2015.
There was broad agreement at the 2nd April meeting at the United Nations that governments worldwide can immediately take practical steps towards adoption of the new wellbeing and sustainability-based economic paradigm. To that end, examples of the kinds of policies that are in line with the principles of the new economy, and which governments might consider for voluntary adoption, are suggested here.
Any effective policy must be compatible with ecological sustainability, fair distribution and efficient use of resources, and should contribute to the wellbeing of all life and to human happiness. Some policies will contribute to all these goals simultaneously. all these policies are proposed in the spirit of “adaptive management,” and recognise that we must learn from outcomes and adapt to the changing conditions and local circumstances. The following 12 policies are by no means a comprehensive list, but provide examples of initial steps in the right direction. Many are consistent with United Nations Environmental Programme’s “green economy” proposals, but also go considerably further in accord with the goals outlined in the 2nd of april High-level Meeting at the United Nations.
1. In order to move towards sustainable production methods, governments should first remove perverse subsidies for fossil fuels, chemical inputs in agriculture, and other activities that are harmful to the economy and environment. They should reinvest those subsidies in activities that promote sustainable wellbeing and happiness, such as green technologies and poverty alleviation.
2. In order to promote the widespread dissemination of technologies that protect the environment and alleviate poverty, and to enable lower-income nations to shift rapidly to sustainable production methods without loss of competitive advantage, high-income countries must share and transfer technology and information. To maximise the public benefits of these technologies, countries should pool their technological resources and treat the resulting information as part of the global social commons. To that end nations should also increase public investments in research and development for such technologies with the resulting information freely available to all. Nations should undertake to freely share and publish information on such technologies, including all subsequent improvements.
3. Public investment should heretofore be prioritised. Investments in sustainable infrastructure, such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, public transit, watershed protection measures, green public spaces, clean technology, support for green businesses, and measures to ‘green’ tourism. Health promotion and disease prevention, addressing the socio-economic, behavioural, spiritual, and environmental determinants of health; and supporting holistic life-long learning that includes vital literacies required for wellbeing, such as ecological, civic, cultural, health, nutrition, science, financial, and other literacies; incorporate traditional and indigenous knowledge; empower women; and ensure equality of opportunity.
4. In order to move rapidly towards sustainable agriculture, support small-scale local production and consumption; eliminate unsustainable subsidies; ensure public procurement from sustainable local sources; invest in rural sector public goods including farmer education in organic methods; incorporate traditional knowledge into agriculture research and development.
5. In order to promote the effective and equitable governance and management of the natural and social commons, governments should declare groundwater and open water, atmosphere, oceans, biodiversity, mineral resources, beaches, forests, cultural and sacred sites, etc., as common assets, and create common asset trusts at the appropriate scale. Such trusts must be legally obliged to manage these assets sustainably for the equitable benefit of current and future generations.
6. In order to dismantle incentives to excessive consumption, begin by banning advertising to children and eliminating perverse tax deductions by businesses for advertising.
7. In order to move towards local economies and fair trade systems that promote sustainable production methods and fair returns to producers, begin by government procurement from local, organic, and fair trade sources.
8. In order to reduce systemic inequalities: tax systems should capture unearned income such as earnings on land and currency speculation; reinvest that revenue in public goods; and take other measures to increase the progressivity of taxation. Governments should introduce work sharing policies that reduce overwork, increase leisure time, and prevent layoffs;
9. iIn order to value non-market assets and services, to measure progress more accurately and comprehensively, to internalise externalities, and to ensure that prices reflect actual social and environmental costs of production: a. Create Sustainable National Wellbeing accounts, which account for the value of natural, social/cultural, human, and built capital, stocks, flows and dynamics. [Recognising that such accounts constitute the essential foundation for the new economy, the Kingdom of Bhutan has begun to construct such accounts, and released the first valuations of natural, social and human capital in february this year.] b. Create comprehensive Wellbeing Measures of Progress. [The Kingdom of Bhutan has developed a Gross National Happiness (GNH) index consisting of nine domains — ecology, living standards, health, education, culture, community vitality, time use, good governance, and psychological wellbeing.] c. Work with other countries to build global consensus around these measures of value and progress in the medium term (1-3 years), towards a consensus building convention in 2014. d. Confine Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to its original purpose as a measure of marketed economic activity, and as a measure of what we pay for those activities. Therefore governments must cease using GDP as the core measure of national wellbeing, progress and prosperity —a purpose for which it was never intended. e. Explicitly acknowledge on the record and educate the public on the flaws of GDP-based measures when mistakenly used as wellbeing measures, and work with other governments to achieve short-term global consensus on the limitations of GDP-based measures as the EU, OECD, Sarkozy-Stiglitz Commission, and others have already done. Explicitly acknowledge the concomitant importance of valuing national, social/ cultural, and human capital.
10. In order to reward sustainable and wellbeing-enhancing actions and penalise unsustainable behaviours that diminish collective wellbeing, institute: (a) systems of “payments for ecosystem services” and cooperative investment in stewardship wherein the beneficiaries of ecosystem services shoulder the costs of stewardship or share them with the providers; (b) ecological tax reforms that tax pollution and the depletion of natural capital, with compensating mechanisms that avoid additional burdens on low-income groups.
11. In order to increase financial and fiscal prudence, implement measures to reduce speculation, ensure equitable access to and responsible use of credit, and require that financial instruments and practices contribute to the public good.
12. Work actively and in good faith, in collaboration with governments and civil society partners, towards an international consensus conference that will formally begin adopting the new economic paradigm by 2015.