Download Towards a Low Carbon, High Well-being Future Creating Resilient

Towards a Low Carbon, High Wellbeing Future
Creating Resilient Rural Communities – Constrained Choices with
Infinite Possibilities
Ceiliuradh
28thth October 2009
Chris Pienaar
nef (the new economics foundation)
Living better, using less
 What do we want?
 Economic growth – mixed blessings
 Measuring what matters
 Towards a low carbon, high well-being
future
What future do we want?
Economics as if people and the planet
mattered:
•Well-being
•Social Justice
•Inter-generational justice*
*Brundtland formulation (UN):
“meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs”
Understanding well-being
 Individual’s subjective experience of their life
 A ‘dynamic process, emerging … through the
interaction between their circumstances,
activities, and psychological resources. Aside
from feeling ‘good’, it also incorporates a sense
of individual vitality, opportunities to undertake
meaningful, engaging activities which confer
feelings of competence and autonomy [and] is
also about feelings of relatedness to other
people’
Understanding well-being
Foresight Mental Capital
and Well-Being Project
e.g. to be
autonomous,
competent, and
connected to others
Experience
of life
Functioning well
and satisfaction
of needs
Enabling
conditions
e.g. material
conditions,
opportunities, social
norms
e.g. happiness,
satisfaction, interest,
boredom and distress
Psychological
resources
e.g. resilience,
optimism, selfesteem,
personality
Living better, using less
 What do we want?
 Economic growth – mixed blessings
 Measuring what matters
 Towards a low carbon, high well-being
future
Impacts of growth on…
 Environment
 Inequality
 Well-being
Earth in 1959
Earth in 2009
Growth and environment
Economy
Economy
Environment
Society
Environment
Neoclassical model of economy
Ecological economics model
“Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a
finite world is either a madman… or an economist”
Kenneth Boulding
Gone too far
16000
> 1 planet living
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
< 1 planet living
Global biocapacity
Global footprint
2000
19
61
19
63
19
65
19
67
19
69
19
71
19
73
19
75
19
77
19
79
19
81
19
83
19
85
19
87
19
89
19
91
19
93
19
95
19
97
19
99
20
01
Global hectares (millions)
14000
Impacts of growth on…
 Environment
 Inequality
 Well-being
Growing incomes?
300
250
200
150
GDP
100
median income
weekly income bottom 5%
50
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
Growth isn’t working
 Worldwide, during the 1990s, for every $100
added to the value of the global economy, only
60 cents found its way to those living below the
absolute poverty line of $1 a day.
Growth isn’t Working, 2006
Impacts of growth on…
 Environment
 Inequality
 Well-being
Scarce gains…
Real GDP per capita and subjective Life Satisfaction in the UK
200%
180%
GDP
160%
Life Satisfaction
140%
120%
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
1973
1975
1977
1979
1981
1983
1985
1987
1989
1991
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
Scarce gains…
 Among richer countries, little correlation
between GDP and well-being. Threshold
Hypothesis
 Recent studies by the Chief Economist at the
Inter-American Development Bank show that
economic growth correlates negatively with wellbeing
Living better, using less
 What do we want?
 Economic growth – mixed blessings
 Measuring what matters
 Towards a low carbon, high well-being future
National Accounts of Well-Being
 Based on data from
European Social
Survey, 2006
 c. 40,000 respondents
in 22 countries
 Over 50 questions on
well-being
National Accounts of well-being:
a structure
Personal well-being
Social well-being
Living better, using less
What do we want?
Economic growth – mixed blessings
Measuring what matters
Towards a low carbon, high well-being future
the fair and equitable distribution of social, environmental and
economic resources between people, countries and generations
Good lives do not have to cost
the earth
some challenges

Reduce over-consumption

Understand the regions fair share of resources and
interdependence between localities

Understand what supports a good life

Actively decide – explicit, consistent policies /
behaviour

Civic society, third, public and private sectors working
towards a common & just purpose

Framework of outcomes across local, sub-regional,
regional and national – social, economic,
environmental outcomes
Sustainable Outcomes Framework
Commissioner &
service user
priorities
Not pre-determined to
support innovation
1.
Activity
Sustainable
Community strategy,
Local Area
Agreement
2.
Output
3.
4.
5.
Service level
outcomes
-social
-economic
-environmental
Local Authority
Community
outcomes
-social
-economic
-environmental
Regional level
outcomes
- Low carbon
- Well-being
- Social justice
- Low carbon
- Well-being
- Social justice
National Outcome
frameworks
-social
-economic
-environmental
- Low carbon
- Well-being
- Social justice
Living better, using less, sharing
more
Action to support resilience characteristics – supporting
action in communities, and at appropriate scale
Ability of a system to absorb shocks
Self-organise : strong social organisations, activism,
mutual models, democratic voice
Innovate: understanding of common purpose
(economic & environmental literacy), open opportunity to
delivery in different ways
Learn: feedback loops, supported to experiment, coproduce
A resilient community?
Resilience can broadly be defined as the ability of a
system (social, economic or ecological) to cope with
external shocks as they arise. In measuring a system’s
resilience, the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change
Research refers to indicators that demonstrate the
system’s ‘ability to (a) absorb shocks and retain its basic
function, (b) self organize (social institutions and
networks), and (c) innovate and learn in face of
disturbances
A different approach
Invitation to the Local Economy Workshop – How
Communities Can Help Each Other to Build
Economic Sustainability
Plugging the Leaks Programme;
Enterprising Communities Framework
Making Spaces Delivery Model
Economic and Environmental Literacy Tools
Coaching Approach
Networks
Good lives don’t have to cost the earth

You: monthly actions you can take www.onehundredmonths.org/
. http://www.350.org/
Your community: Become involved in the transition town movement,
www.transitiontowns.org/
Use the Sustainable Communities Act www.lga.gov.uk
Use the tools and approaches at www.pluggingtheleaks.org
Your business: Balanced scorecard – looking at your triple bottom line outcomes,
deciding what you want to do about them.
www.pluggingtheleaks.org
Your Organisation: actively seeking to create positive local economic, social and
environmental outcomes from your mainstream spending and core business.
Good Corporate Citizenship http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/
Sustainable procurement www.procurementcupboard.org