Beyond GDP

In September last year the United Nations General Assembly adopted a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be met by the year 2030. These range from poverty eradication and improvements in education and health to the protection of global assets, including the oceans and a stable climate. However, neither the SDGs nor their background documents explain how governments should judge the sustainability of the development programmes they undertake to meet the goals. It is currently taken as a given that the only way the SDGs can be met is for the world economy to enjoy healthy rates of economic growth. Unfortunately it is universal practice to interpret economic growth as growth in gross domestic product (GDP).