March 2012: One of the nine policy briefs produced by the scientific community to inform the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20), titled “A Green Economy for a Planet Under Pressure,” sets out the guidelines for the social and technological transformations needed for a new economic system, as well as the new ways in which humanity will need to measure and monitor this system.

Commissioned by the “Planet Under Pressure” international scientific conference, which convened in March 2012, in London, UK, this paper was compiled by the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change. It urges the international community to agree, at Rio+20, on an action plan for making the green economy a reality.

The brief presents several key points and policy recommendations and, among other things, stresses that: technology and investment in science must be approached as a social transformation process, rather than a technology transfer process; resource efficiency must be used to build the productive base of countries; humanity must strive for a “post-consumerism” and “post-materialist” society; the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) should undertake a thematic assessment of the green economy, and the social, ecological and economic consequences of such a future; an international scientific consortium should be provided with the resources to research new technologies to find solutions for ecological and societal boundaries; the international scientific community, spearheaded by the UN, should provide recommendations to redesign trade rules, financial flows and investment; and the UN Statistics Office should support countries to move beyond gross domestic product (GDP) and develop inclusive wealth accounts as a new macroeconomic indicator of human well-being. [Publication: Rio+20 Policy Brief: A Green Economy for a Planet Under Pressure]