Question reference: S6W-01613
- Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 20 July 2021
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Current status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 12 August 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendations in Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta’s, The Economics of Biodiversity, that measures of economic success must be changed to guide Scotland towards sustainability, or risk endangering the prosperity of current and future generations, what work it is doing to develop alternative metrics of economic success as alternatives to GDP.
Answer
We are developing a cross-government framework, the Wellbeing Economy Monitor, to be published later this year. This work is grounded in Scotland’s National Performance Framework, to track progress towards our outcomes beyond GDP. It includes developing the four capitals approach to ensure we take a longer-term view and are able to join up effectively across Government, noting the inter-dependencies across the social, economic, human and natural capitals.
The National Performance Framework also contains a diverse range of measures of success including a new biodiversity indicator.
We also need to take account of the impact of our economy on nature in other countries. Zero Waste Scotland’s material flow accounts ( https://zerowastescotland.org.uk/research-evaluation/material-flow-accounts-mfa ) is an example of this.