LONDON, July 4 /PRNewswire/ --
As the G8 prepare to meet in Italy this week, the second global ranking
of the ecological efficiency with which the world's nations deliver long and
happy lives for the people who live there - the 'Happy Planet Index' -
reveals a surprising picture of the relative wealth and progress of nations.
- Latin America tops the Index with Costa Rica the 'greenest
and happiest' country. Nine of the ten highest-scoring nations are
Latin American
- The USA, China and India were all 'greener and happier' twenty
years ago than today
- The world's richest plummet from 1960s to late 1970s, with scores
still lower today than 1961
- The UK comes 74th, USA 114th out of 143 nations surveyed.
LONDON, July 4 /PRNewswire/ --
The report, The Happy Planet Index 2.0: Why good lives don't have to cost
the earth, published today, Saturday 4 July 2009, by nef (the new economics
foundation) presents the results of the second global compilation of the
Happy Planet Index (HPI). The new Index is based on improved data for 143
countries around the world, representing 99 per cent of the world's
population. The report, with a foreword by the ecological economist, Herman
Daly, shows that globally, we are still far from achieving good lives within
the Earth's finite resource limits. And, although there are signs of hope,
overall we are still heading in the wrong direction.
The HPI provides the first ever analysis of trends over time for what are
supposedly the world's most developed nations, the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD). The results are not promising:
- OECD nations' HPI scores plummeted between 1960 and the late
1970s. Although there have been some gains since then, HPI scores were
still higher in 1961 than in 2005. Life satisfaction and life
expectancy combined have increased 15 per cent over the 45-year period,
but it has come at an earth-shattering cost - an increase in ecological
footprint per head of 72 per cent.
- Of a group of 36 major nations it was possible to track over time
in detail, around two-thirds increased their HPI scores marginally
between 1990 and 2005, but the three largest countries in the world
China, India and the USA (all aggressively pursuing growth-based
development models) have all seen their HPI scores drop in that time.
LONDON, July 4 /PRNewswire/ --
"As the world faces the triple crunch of deep financial crisis,
accelerating climate change and the looming peak in oil production we
desperately need a new compass to guide us. Following the siren's song of
economic growth has delivered only marginal benefits to the World's poorest
whilst undermining the basis of their livelihoods. What's more, it hasn't
notably improved the well-being of those who were already rich, or even
provided economic stability. Now we must use the Happy Planet Index to break
the spell and chart a new course for a high well-being low-carbon economy
before our high-consuming lifestyles plunge us into the chaos of irreversible
climate change" says Nic Marks, founder of the centre for well-being at nef.
By stripping the economy back to its meaningful outputs (lives of varying
length and happiness) and the ultimate inputs (the Earth's finite resources)
the HPI is the definitive efficiency measure. It provides a clear guide to
what ultimately matters to us - our well-being in terms of long, happy and
meaningful lives - and what matters for the planet - our rate of resource
consumption. But the Index also provides clear signs of hope. Overall, the
HPI reveals that the world is heading in the wrong direction, but nations
that perform well on the Index provide valuable insights into how we could do
things differently:
- Costa Rica tops the Happy Planet Index 2.0. Costa Ricans report the
highest life satisfaction in the world, have the second-highest average
life expectancy of the New World (second only to Canada) and have an
ecological footprint that means that the country only narrowly fails to
achieve the goal of 'one-planet living': consuming its fair share of
the Earth's natural resources.
- Latin America tops the Index. Nine of the top ten nations on the Index
are in Latin America. The highest-ranking G20 country in terms of HPI
is Brazil, in 9th place out of 143 nations.
- Island nations perform well. Five of the ten small island nations
included in the HPI are in the top 20 per cent of the HPI rankings.
- Middle-income countries, like those in Latin America and Southeast
Asia tend to be the closest to achieving sustainable well-being. Our
current development model performs best at middle-income levels, but
even at its optimum, it is unable to deliver good lives that do not
cost the Earth.
LONDON, July 4 /PRNewswire/ --
In fact, the countries that are meant to represent successful development
are some of the worst performing in terms of delivering well-being within the
Earth's limits:
- Rich, developed nations fare poorly. The highest placed Western nation
is the Netherlands - managing only 43rd out of 143. The UK still
languishes midway down the table - 74th, well behind Germany, Italy and
France. It is just pipped by Georgia and Slovakia, but ahead of Japan
and Ireland. The USA fares particularly poorly, in 114th place out of
143.
LONDON, July 4 /PRNewswire/ --
No one country listed in the HPI 2.0 achieves all three goals of high
life satisfaction, high life expectancy and one-planet living. But the
differences between nations show that it is possible to live long, happy
lives with much smaller ecological footprints than the highest-consuming
nations. And there may be other positive pay-offs. For many in the West, the
struggle to increase incomes has come at the expense of our social capital
and mental health. The challenge for the West, the report says, is not to
continue increasing our monetary incomes, but to ensure meaningful lives, and
strong social ties. Often, achieving these aims means reducing the focus on
consumption, and freeing up time for other pursuits.
The HPI shows that good lives that do not cost the Earth really are
possible. Comparisons show that long, happy lives can be achieved with far
lower levels of resource consumption:
- People in the Netherlands live on average over a year longer than
people in the USA, and have similar levels of life satisfaction - yet
their per capita ecological footprint is less than half the size (4.4
global hectares compared with 9.4 global hectares). The Netherlands is
over twice as ecologically efficient at achieving good lives as the
USA.
- Costa Ricans also live slightly longer than Americans, and report much
higher levels of life satisfaction, and yet have a footprint that is
less than a quarter the size.
LONDON, July 4 /PRNewswire/ --
"The economy, communities, lifestyles and aspirations of a happy planet
will be very different to those that lock us into our current ecological
inefficiency. The Happy Planet Index suggests that the path we have been
following is, without exception, unable to deliver all three goals: high life
satisfaction, high life expectancy and one-planet living. Instead we need a
new development model that delivers good lives that don't cost the Earth for
all. We should look to the Happy Planet Index to guide us in that endeavour,"
says Saamah Abdallah, NEF researcher and the report's lead author.
The report sets out a 'Happy Planet Charter' calling for an unprecedented
collective global effort to develop a new narrative of human progress,
encourage good lives that don't cost the Earth, and to reduce consumption in
the highest-consuming nations as the biggest barrier to sustainable
well-being. The charter calls for:
- Governments to measure people's well-being and environmental
impact consistently and regularly, and to develop a framework of
national accounts that considers the interaction between the two so as
to guide us towards sustainable well-being;
- Developed nations to set an HPI target of 89 by 2050 - this means
reducing per capita footprint to one planet living, increasing mean
life satisfaction to eight (on a scale of 0 to 10) and continuing to
the gradual increase in mean life expectancy to 87 years;
- Developed nations and the international community to support
developing nations in achieving the same target by 2070.
LONDON, July 4 /PRNewswire/ --
In times of great crisis, come great opportunities. According to the
Happy Planet Index, now is the time for societies around the world to speak
out for a happier planet, to identify a new vision of progress, and to demand
new tools to help us work towards it. The HPI is one of these tools. But if
it is to be effective it must also inspire people to act.
Notes to editors:
FULL REPORT: http://tinyurl.com/HappyPlanet
DATA TABLE: http://tinyurl.com/HappyPlanetData
