Scientists call for GDP replacement

Top scientists has called on the government globally  to replace the Gross Domestic Products (GDPs) as a measure of wealth with metrics for natural, built, human and social capital.

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in a press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet informed that 20 past winners of the Noble Prize for environment, the Blue Planet Prize made this call on Sunday.

They also called for an elimination of subsidies in sectors such as energy, transport and agriculture that create environmental and social cost, which currently go unpaid.

Governments, they also urged, to tackle over-consumption and address population pressure by empowering women, improving education and making contraception accessible to all.

The past Blue Planet Prize winners, NaijaAgroNet gathered presented a joint paper to government ministries from around the world at the United Nations Environment Programme's governing council meeting in Nairobi, Kenya.

They highlighted in their position presented by a United Kingdom's Chief Scientific Advisor, Bob Watson noted that the current system is broken.

"It is driving humanity to a future that is 3-5°C warmer than our species has ever known, and is eliminating the ecology that we depend on for our health, wealth and senses of self" he said.

Watson equally said there is need to apply human solutions that decision makers must be bold and forward in their thinking to seize them as there is no assurance that technological fixes will come fast enough.

The paper further called for the conservation and placing of high value on biodiversity and ecosystem services, as well as the creation of markets for them that could form the basis of green economies.

IIED Director, Camilla Toulmin, pointed out that sustainable development is not a pipe dream.

“It is the destination the world’s accumulated knowledge points us towards, the fair future that will enable us to live with security, peace and opportunities for all," she said.

'Yinka Awosanya

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