Shifting Gears: Moving Beyond Copenhagen

In 2050, just 40 years from now, it is estimated the some 30%, about 3 billion, more people will be living on this planet. For classic growth-oriented development, the good news is that this growth will deliver billions of new consumers who want a better lifestyle. For sustainable development, the bad news is that shrinking natural resources, environmental degradation, and climate change will limit the ability of all 9 billion of us to attain or maintain the consumptive lifestyle that is commensurate with the middle class in today’s affluent markets. To resolve this conflict one must redefine the political, economic and social agenda where the global population is not just living on the planet, but living well and within the limits of the planet. “Living well” describes a standard of living where people are secure and have equitable access to and the ability to afford education, healthcare, mobility, the basics of food, water, energy and shelter, and consumer goods. “Living within the limits of the planet”, means living in such a way that this standard of living can be sustained with the available natural resources and without further harm to biodiversity, climate and other ecosystems.

Areas of focus toward a vision of a sustainable economy in 2050:

• Population growth, migration/urbanization and demographics shifts.
• Evolutionary economics the toward structural/behavioral true-value economics that include true cost of the classic externalities of natural resource depletion and environmental impact.
• Property ownership rights of both hard assets (primary property vis-à-vis De Soto) and intellectual property.
• The definition of State, the boundaries of sovereignty, the effectiveness of governance and the role of existing and emerging multilateral institutions.
• The social and economic drivers of conflict and terrorism.
• The systemic and integrated (co-dependent) nature of economic and the food, water, energy and environmental ecosystems.
• The social systems of healthcare, education, social services and urban development.
• Globalization opportunities, threats and regulation related to trade systems, financial markets, healthcare (pandemic), environmental impact, wealth creation and social/cultural diversity.
• Social and technological creativity, breakthrough invention and disruptive innovation related to products services and business models and their diffusion.
• Entrepreneurship and risk capital as an engine of sustainable development in both developed and developing economies.
• Empowerment of individuals, particularly women and youth in the developing world, the development of leaders to create radically more eco-efficient solutions for improved business competitiveness, enhanced social equity and sustainable economic development.

Each area unto itself is technically challenging, socially complex, and presents potential intractable problems. Even understanding these problems requires the integration of diverse perspectives, insight into the interconnectedness and interdependencies and the factors that amplified or attenuate efforts to implement change.

This is the path we are about to embark upon. Hope you enjoy the journey.