Think tank calls for Sustainable Economy Act

The UK should introduce a Sustainable Economy Act so that the country can become environmentally sustainable, a think tank has said.

A new discussion paper by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) argues that the UK needs a new economic model to bring its activity within sustainable limits if it to tackle climate change.

The IPPR said the act will help the UK reduce its ‘full range of environmental impacts’ and not just greenhouse gas emissions, to ensure the country stays fit for the future.

Laurie Laybourn-Langton, IPPR associate fellow and lead author of the paper, said: ‘The Climate Change Act and the UK’s target of net zero decarbonisation by 2050 effectively places a greenhouse gas constraint on the economy. It is vital that similar constraints are extended to all the areas of environmental breakdown. A Sustainable Economy Act can do this.

‘We urgently need to rethink economics so that we can continue to live within the UK’s and the planet’s means – protecting the many natural systems that are crucial to everyone’s ability to lead good lives in a way that is just, sustainable and prepared.’

The IPPR’s report found that social progress in the UK has come at the expense of severe damage to the environment, which is leading to further economic instability.

One reasons for this is the UK’s ‘decoupling’ of economic activity from its climate goals, with the country relying on narrow measures like GDP to measure wellbeing and current policy programmes failing to make the rapid structural changes needed.

While the IPPR acknowledged the success of the UK’s Climate Change Act in spurring it to reduce its carbon emissions, it said that a similar Sustainable Economy Act would allow deeper changes to prevailing economic models.

These would include a new conception of prosperity and living standards, rapid growth in green investment, and a new leading role for local communities and the state.

The Act should be supported by a new Committee on Sustainability to give the government advice, as well as a new enforcement body to hold it to account, the IPPR said.

‘Environmental breakdown is an unprecedented challenge that requires a rapid structural change to social and economic systems of a scale and pace unseen in human history,’ Laybourn-Langton concluded.

‘We need a new story of how the economy works, for the benefit of whom, and how it relates to nature – and a new economic model that rapidly slows environmental breakdown. Our future depends on it.’

The report was praised by the Labour Party who called it ‘a welcome contribution’ to the debate about how to create a more sustainable economy.

John McDonnell, Labour’s shadow chancellor, said: ‘We urgently need collective action and a reimagined state, as the report points out, and we have to bear in mind the UK’s historical and international responsibilities to tackle climate change.

‘That’s why equality, justice, and international solidarity – commitments discussed in this report – are at the heart of Labour’s plans for a Green Industrial Revolution.’

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