Rethinking Well-being - How to keep Europe on the Sustainability Track
A joint WFC-Bertelsmann Stiftung seminar series in the European Parliament will address proposals to increase sustainability aspects in upcoming EU policy rervisions. Decision-makers from various backgrounds will analyze implementation possibilities for new sustainability concepts during three evening events in January and February.
The panel series is hosted by three Members of the European Parliament: Rebecca Harms, Jo Leinen, and Sirpa Pietikäinen.
Please find the detailed programme with panellists and the EU briefing paper on sustainability here.
How to shift the Traditional Growth Paradigm towards Well-being of Humans and our Planet
Chaired by Dirk Hendricks from the WFC EU Liaison Office, the kick-off discussion dealt with the issue of how to shift the traditional GDP growth paradigm towards an EU economic model based on a more comprehensive understanding of human well-being.
Facing a well-informed audience, Thomas Fischer, Brussels Office of the Bertelsmann Stiftung, opened the debate by presenting three guiding questions for the event series. To what degree has the traditional, growth orientated economic model lost its explanatory power in the context of the current economic crisis? Do we need a paradigm shift towards alternative models in Europe? And should the Washington Consensus on the liberalisation of markets around the globe be re-evaluated?
In her presentation, Dr. Maja Göpel, WFC, reminded the participants that economic growth has not an end in itself but that it represented a means to an end. View Dr. Maja Göpel's presentation.
Mr. Olivier Giscard d'Estaing from the international graduate business school INSEAD at Fontainebleau, stressed that we needed growth but that it ought to serve the right aim, namely to fulfil the basic need of the people. Please read an article by Olivier Giscard d'Estaing.
Finally Mr. Jakob von Weizsäcker, economist with the Brussels-based think-tank Bruegel, attracted the audience's attention to some dangers of a re-orientation of economic models awaz from the growth paradigm. View Jakob von Weizsäcker's presentation.
The panel series will be continued by the second session on February 3rd, where we will discuss a selection of most recent approaches to measusre human well-being. On February 23rd the series will be concluded by a third panel focusing on policy recommendations and lessons learned for the renewal of the EU's Sustainable Development Strategy (EU SDS) which is pending in spring 2011.
View the full summary report here, or contact Thomas Fischer (Bertelsmann Stiftung) or Dirk Hendricks (World Future Council) for further information.
Panel 2: Coming to Grips
How to capture and assess sustainable development in a changing world
On February 3rd, the Bertelsmann Stiftung and the WFC jointly held the second debate in the European Parliament dealing with the issue of Rethinking Well-being. How to keep Europe on the Sustainability Track. Taking the debate from the first meeting, the need to go beyond the current GDP-related growth paradigm, the starting point to the second panel focused on most recent tools and indicators to define and measure the well-being of societies.
- T. Fischer & R. Harms
Chaired by Thomas Fischer, Bertelsmann Stiftung, and opened by Dirk Hendricks, WFC’s EU liaison office, the four speakers – Enrico Giovannini, Jakob von Uexkuell, Raoul Weiler, and Willy de Backer – also discussed the question of how to increase the political impact of measurement tools aiming to capture and assess sustainable development in our changing world. Among the participants attending the event were MEPs Rebecca Harms (Germany), Vittorio Prodi (Italy), Claude Turmes (Luxemburg) and Indrek Tarand (Estonia) as well as Ziga Turk (Slovenia).
In his introductory statement Enrico Giovannini recalled the five main findings of the Stiglitz Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress:
- A shift from production to income that flows to households is needed.
- The Commission focused on the multidimensional concept of well-being, and not happiness, comprising several specific elements and the cross-cutting dimensions equity and sustainability.
- Subjective as well as objective measures are important.
- According to the Stiglitz Commission a major concern for the future is the question of how to merge democracy and information age.
- As follow-up to the presentation of its report, the Commission is currently organising roundtables all over the world to bring together relevant stakeholders and to define what well-being means in different national contexts.
- WFC-Founder Jakob v. Uexkuell
Jakob von Uexkuell started his presentation with the observation that quantitative changes in the economic system have become qualitative changes. From his viewpoint, mankind is confronted with the challenge to choose between sustainable “citizen values” and non sustainable “consumer values”. He then introduced the idea of a trusteeship economy.
Concentrating on solutions beyond the traditional GDP paradigm, Raoul Weiler, pointed out that we are experiencing not only limits to growth but also limits to waste. According to him the most urgent issue we have to address is the restricted capacities of our planet.
Willy de Backer stressed it is high time to move beyond the “GDP and Beyond” debate. He criticised that the narratives on sustainability had not sufficiently been taken up by the media so far and that there was no real impact on political decision makers.
- Left to right: D. Hendricks, O. Grasso (Prodi's Assistant), V. Prodi
During the discussion, De Backer warned the audience that the Europeans were losing the battle in green technologies against China. Mr Giovannini called it a mistake that we still adhere to the term “sustainable development” since it is based on altruistic assumptions. As an alternative, we should concentrate on propagating the concept of “vulnerability” of our societies which would also increase the pressure on policymakers to act.
View the full summary report here, or contact Thomas Fischer (Bertelsmann Stiftung) or Dirk Hendricks (World Future Council) for further information.
Panel 3: Cutting the Edge
How to realign the EU Sustainable Development Strategy
On February 23rd, the Bertelsmann Stiftung and the World Future Council (WFC) jointly held the last out of a set of three debates in the European Parliament dealing with the issue of Rethinking Well-being. How to keep Europe on the Sustainability Track. During this final panel (see above for others), the participants focused on possible implications of alternative concepts of wellbeing on the EU’s future growth and sustainability strategy.
Jo Leinen stressed in his statement the headline goal of the EU's new growth strategy - the so-called "EU 2020 Strategy" - had changed from competitiveness to sustainability, integrating economic, as well as social and environmental aspects. From this point of view the implementation of the EU's 20-20-20 climate and energy agenda would mark an important move towards renewable resources, even though 80% of Europe's energy would still come from non-renewable resources.
- D. Hendricks, J. Leinen, A. Wijkman
Former MEP Anders Wijkman started by the observation that, different from the failed Lisbon Strategy, the European Commission's EU 2020 paper would actually contain some entry points for alternative approaches to economic development. It would, however, remain difficult in the EU’s institutional setting to approach economic, social and environmental problems in an integrated way.
Conny Reuter focused on the economic crisis' effects on the living conditions of people in Europe. According to him we should stop "spending our time on discussing agendas" and focus on the huge development and social problems that we have to cope with in reality.
During the ensuing discussion Jo Leinen stressed the importance of finding new indicators for innovation and well-being such as health, decent work and good education. Anders Wijkman once again stressed that we should abandon our "throw away mentality" and introduce clear targets for energy and resource efficiency. Furthermore, the public would have to be informed more accurately about the backdrops and externalities of cheap production in other parts of the
world. Rebecca Harms endorsed this point and added that consumption patterns are not defined by well-informed elites but by the majority of consumers. Focusing on the political relevance of new concepts of well-being, Mr. Fischer asked how the EU 2020 Strategy and the EU Sustainable Development Strategy could possibly profit from the different sets of indicators
as they have recently been presented by the Stiglitz Commission, the OECD and the EU’s "GDP and Beyond" initiative.
As Conny Reuter put it in his closing remarks, the EU’s strategic priorities should concentrate on coupling solidarity between the rich and the poor as well as between the member states with sustainability. All panellists agreed that it would therefore be particularly salient to get into a constructive dialogue with forward-thinking representatives of the business community.
Please read the full summary report of the third panel event here.
