Wackernagel: Basic economic strategy should be aligned with ecological necessities

Wackernagel: Basic economic strategy should be aligned with ecological necessities
By Marwa Nassar - -

Mathis Wackernagel – President of the Global Footprint Network – stressed that the basic economic strategy should be strongly aligned with ecological necessities.

He expounded that the ecological footprint impacts growth and value of assets in the future.

“What we want to generate is prosperity, we only have one planet, so the alternative is one planet misery,” he said, adding that the issue is “how do we make best choices to secure our prosperity.”

Wackernagel made the remarks on Monday during his virtual participation in the 4th Forum on Strategies for Transition to Green Economy that was held in Cairo under the theme of “From Vision to Implementation.” The event is organized by CSR Egypt.

He reviewed the human development index that should be compared on the other axis of how many resources are required to maintain this kind of development.

On the index, European countries are very high with regard to development, long lives, GDP and education. This should be compared to the resources in terms of how to maintain this development stable, he said.

He expounded that making lives better is linked to reducing the resources demand.

Wackernagel called on local companies to adopt ecological strategies, expounded that “those companies can deliver services in a way that also reduces the resources pressure on the planet.”

These companies will have many opportunities for saving the future, he stressed.

“By looking at the sustainability challenges, including climate change and the ensuing resource constraints, by understanding the underlying principles, we actually start to realize that basic economic strategy is strongly aligned with the ecological necessities,” he highlighted.

“If you invest in assets that are able to reduce at the same time also resource constraints, you are in a very strong position,” he accentuated.

“Wealth is important for societies, wealth enables the economic activities,” he said, adding, however, that “GDPs are somehow shortsighted because they do not look at all the economic forms.”

“We cannot generate income by depleting assets. This is not the real generation,” Wackernagel said.

“Actually, if you build assets that can operate in future..the value of assets is going up,” he said.

He underlined the importance of decarbonization more rapidly, noting that the market today understands the value of decarbonization and this is a good news.

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