Launch of Working Paper Series - Beyond GDP: The idea of global sustainability accounting

SD/WP/14/May 2022

To illustrate the idea of global sustainability accounting, we propose a new ledger that shows a highly aggregated and inclusive approach. With this, we respond to the call for new measures to complement GDP by the UN Secretary General. Our approach highlights the tension between human-centered and ecosystem-centered value systems. The ledger is also explicit about disservices the environment may provide to humans, and services that humans may provide to the environment (both can easily be absent in sustainability indicators). We believe that this approach will support debates that are inclusive of diverging environmental value systems and of diverging attitudes toward ecosystem restoration and technology. Most of all, it delivers an account that can compete with the seductive simplicity of GDP.