Blue Planet Prize Story

What, then, does this mean specifically? How can we determine whether or not a country is developing sustainably? This is done through the accurate measurement of each country's wealth.

Professor Dasgupta was working on the original concept of sustainable development long before it became a familiar term among the general public. It is based on the concept of intergenerational equity. Professor Dasgupta carried out research on ways to ensure sufficient resources to satisfy the needs of the people at present and in future.

When he finished graduate school at the University of Cambridge in 1968, his area of specialization was the Ramsey growth model, a model of optimum savings for the future developed by Dr. Frank Ramsey. In 1974, a year after the oil crisis, he carried out research on how we could limit our consumption of petroleum and coalin order to have enough to pass down to future generations. In the same year, he was also trying to apply a concept developed by Professor John Rawls, a philosopher, to intergenerational equity. From the year 2000, he tried to measure sustainable growth, which was no easy task.

Take, for example, cutting down trees in a forest to build houses. The more trees we cut, the more houses we can build. If we cut too many trees, on the other hand, and the forest disappears, we won't be able to build any more houses.

Have you ever heard the term "gross domestic product," or GDP? Often heard in the news, GDP is a measure of a nation's annual production. However, GDP simply shows how many houses were built in the year. It does not show how many trees were cut down or how much our forests have shrunk.

Professor Dasgupta thought it necessary to count the trees in forests and compare that number with numbers in the past.

He thought that in order to measure real wealth for the present and future generations, it was necessary to consider not only how much we produce, buy and sell, but also how much stock we have remaining. This is because stock becomes a resource for future generations. If we cut down all the trees, future generations will not be able to build houses. However, if we care about trees now, there will be enough to pass down to the future.

Let's replace the word stock here with the word wealth. Wealth includes a wide range of things. It includes tangible items like roads and buildings as well as things like occupational skills and health, quantities that are important but less obvious. As you may already know, we should not forget nature as an element of wealth.

To measure such wealth, we need to determine the value of each element composing it. Natural resources are not produced by humans, so it is very hard to put a price on them. In addition, nature is not normally owned by anyone and many of the elements in it move. In many cases, therefore, natural resources have been underestimated or thought of as free. This is also the reason why humans used too much of them.

However, Professor Dasgupta thought it necessary to estimate the value of such natural resources as a part of our wealth, and he started measuring the value of each resource, resources such as forests, rivers, and land.

He adds up all the wealth in a country and includes it in what he calls an inclusive wealth index (IWI). Inclusive means including everything. He also divided the IWI by the population of the country to see if per-capita IWI increased or decreased in order to determine whether or not the country had sustainable development.

Professor Dasgupta also thought that establishing a system for the use of inclusive wealth, which Professor Dasgupta calls institutions, is also important. For example, if we have a firm water management system, it is easier to maintain water resources.

We have different systems for different groups of people. These different groups include individual households, the residents of small farming villages, the populations of big cities, and the people living in countries. In addition, the systems operate via a trusting relationship among people. Professor Dasgupta said that the quality of a country's systems significantly changes the level of the country's wealth.

The essential base that allows countries to become wealthy (productive base)

If there are two countries with a similar number of forests, the country whose government is willing to listen to the voice of the people may take better care of its forests. A combination of sufficient wealth and systems for the use of that wealth is the essential base that allows countries to become wealthy.

The results of value measurements using this new concept of IWI were reported at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in 2012. Professor Dasgupta gave advice when the report was being created and had a significant influence on it. They found that when IWI was applied, per capita inclusive wealth decreased in a substantial number of countries.

World vision

There are still some problems with the IWI that need to be addressed. It is still difficult to measure the value of natural resources, which makes it difficult to include them in wealth. However, said Professor Dasgupta, "It is much better to try because considering them is the first step."

Wealth will disappear if we continue using resources without thinking about maintaining them. What we found from measurement with the IWI shocked the whole world.

The government of India, where Professor Dasgupta spent part of his childhood, decided to implement Green Accounting from the IWI to review the country's economy and environment. Professor Dasgupta helped India to accomplish this, and he hopes many other countries will implement the index as a very useful way to review national policies. Many scholars are now interested and involved in IWI research.

Professor Dasgupta is in the 2^nd row, far right.
The person with a white beard standing in front of Professor Dasgupta is Professor Hirofumi Uzawa, the 2009 Blue Planet Prize laureate. Professor Uzawa is close friends with Professor Dasgupta.

Nature is often put aside when we think about the economy. Professor Dasgupta thinks that the wall between economics and environmental studies needs to be torn down. Nowadays, however, economists and conservationists are interacting more than they did in the past.

Professor Dasgupta says that our future depends on the individual's attitude.
He also wants children to know about nature and its systems, systems that help us in our day-to-day lives.

If you remember what you have learned here when you feel nature around you, a future with affluent resources and systems may await you.