Alternative Measures to GDP - 21st April 2026

Here are the climate-related sections of speeches by MPs during the Commons debate Alternative Measures to GDP.

Full text: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2026-04-21/debates/7F2CD2CB-2D55-4FEC-875A-026797623C23/AlternativeMeasurestoGDP

16:03 Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat)

Unfortunately, GDP is not just partial; it can be actively misleading, because it creates perverse incentives at the heart of Government. As the Wellbeing Economy Alliance observes, our current system has four interlinked flaws: it is unsustainable, unfair, unstable and creates unhappiness. Critically, neither the brake nor the accelerator works any more. Faster GDP growth will only worsen biodiversity loss and accelerate climate change. In a system where a fabulously wealthy former Prime Minister pays an effective tax rate of just 23%, it will almost certainly also worsen inequality. That is the trap that GDP has built for us. It is a metric that makes it structurally challenging to do the right thing, because doing the right thing does not always show up as growth.

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