Shift to a Wellbeing Economy
Green MP Caroline Lucas is backing an official petition in a bid to trigger a parliamentary debate calling on the Government to pursue a Wellbeing Economy in the run up to the COP26 climate summit. The petition will need to reach 100,000 signatures to make the debate happen.
The Commons Debate will focus on tangible alternatives to the current economic system such as the Wellbeing Economy and Doughnut Economics, and delivering policies that will shift away from measuring economic success solely by financial indicators such as GDP to supporting the environmental, social and public health imperatives, as well as the actions taken already in the UK and other parts of the world to adopt alternative economic approaches.
The Green Party’s ambivalence towards GDP, which provides a narrow view of economic success, is well known and is explicitly reflected in its policies such as EC311: The Green Party would therefore replace the conventional indicators with those that measure progress towards sustainability, equity and devolution.
The Green Party is working with the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAII) that facilitates cooperation and collaboration by bringing together individuals, organisations, local authorities and national government in implementing a Wellbeing Economy in the UK and globally. The measure of success in a Wellbeing Economy moves away from using GDP towards frameworks that evaluate different aspects of society including the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, Happy Planet Index, Humankind Index etc. While businesses will continue to have an important role in a Wellbeing Economy, the way they operate will need to change to prioritise the welfare of their workforce and the environment.
Some real-life examples of how a Wellbeing economy include the first world’s Wellbeing Budget published by the New Zealand Treasury in 2019. Scotland and Wales are already members of the Wellbeing Economy Governments alliance. On a local level, Wellbeing Economics Brighton take an inclusive approach by exploring the vast variety of wellbeing economics ideas.
Two thirds of the public want the Treasury to put wellbeing above growth and North Herts and Stevenage Green Party fully supports a Wellbeing Economy approach that prioritises the health and wellbeing of people and planet.
Call for action