Project Objectives
- To elevate the importance of planetary well-being and to shift the development paradigm from a narrow focus on economic and human well-being to one of planetary well-being.
- To issue a report every two years that assesses countries contributions to planetary well-being.
- To catalyze the interest of decision makers, and people in general, to develop policies that improve their country’s contributions to planetary well-being.
- To inspire action towards planetary well-being.
Rationale of the Project
Indices influence decisions, national policies, individual behaviour and shape our perception. How we define and measure “progress” impacts how we make “progress”. Countries have been measuring and driving economic growth since the Bretton Woods Conference adopted the Simon Kuznets concept of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 1944.
Recognizing that economic (GDP) growth is an inadequate measure of progress, various countries and institutions have been developing important instruments and indicators of social and ecological well-being as an alternative to GDP growth. For instance, the Human Development Index (HDI), published by the United Nations Development Programme ever since 1990, has driven human well-being. The Happy Planet Index, published by the New Economics Foundation in 2006, has created a narrative about how well countries are doing at achieving long, happy, and sustainable lives. The focus of these new efforts has been on human well-being or on preserving the ecosystem services necessary for sustained and inclusive economic growth.
Yet, considering the challenges humanity currently faces, there is a need to expand the focus on human and economic well-being to one of planetary well-being. Existing instruments do not fully make visible the contributions countries make to planetary well-being or rank them accordingly. Contributing to planetary well-being could be generally understood as a combination of taking care of the biosphere, the terrestrial and aquatic biomes, together with the human well-being, which can be measured through indicators on climate change, biodiversity loss, ecological degradation, etc. The Earth Charter’s understanding of planetary well-being centers on respect and care for the community of life, including all people and all other living beings, now and for future generations.
A new report and index is needed offering a different angle, using criteria based on the ethical framework of the Earth Charter and serving as a new barometer. The Earth Charter Index effort involves a process to identify and create indicators that measure how well a country is pursuing an agenda focused on this inclusive care and material sufficiency for all.
Project Background
Project Phase I (September 2020 – March 2022)
Between September 2020 and January 2021, a small team of four people collaborated in putting together the idea of a project to create a new index to measure contributions of countries to Planetary Well-being using the Earth Charter as a framework. The initial exercise focused on looking at the Earth Charter to identify key indicators that could be used to create such new instrument, formulate a set of criteria to select indicators, research to identify reliable data sources, collect existing data, plot, and put it together to develop a first draft pilot of what such index could look like.
The selection of the initial recommended indicators was based on the following five main criteria:
- The data used to construct the index should be authentic. The indices or existing indicators to be used should be widely used among countries and reported by authentic institutions, such as the data from the World Bank, the United Nations etc.
- The methodology of the indices or indicators should be reliable and valid.
- The data of the indicators should be accessible. and data should be updated frequently. (If not every year, then it should be every 3-5 years).
- The indicators should cover a large number of countries.
- The indicators should be comparable among countries, regions and worldwide.
Between February and June 2021, this pilot exercise/instrument, called proof-of-concept, was presented to several experts, through a series of meetings, to get their feedback. Significant support was received on the general concept idea with a strong recommendation to improve it and take more time to carefully select the indicators to avoid many false positives or negatives, as well as to seek support and collaboration from key organizations and individuals before moving on.
Between August and October 2021, the project idea and pilot instrument were then presented more widely to the ECI Council and Network and then made public through the ECI website and through a number of presentations in online meetings till November. An open invitation was made for contributions. Recommendations received involved the need for further research on indicators, consultation, and the creation a working group; as well as to ensure this effort would involve both, a quantitative and a qualitative report of countries contributions to planetary well-being.
Between December 2021 and March 2022, six meetings of an ad hoc small Working Group took place with the purpose to take a closer look at the Index idea, give feedback on the pilot instrument, identify “blind spots,” alternative indicators (in addition or different to the ones already used in the proof of concept) and data sources to bring into the effort of developing an EC Index.
The Working Group determined that using the proposed six quantitative indicators of the pilot instrument, did not accurately identify the countries whose development plans and practices most embodied Earth Charter principles and values. Moreover, that using these indicators resulted in many false positives and negatives. Although the original idea was to launch this new Index and report in June 2022, it was concluded that further work was needed to select alternative indicators and data sources; and to ensure that indicators selected be more closely linked to the Earth Charter principles and generate less false positives and negatives. In addition, that both quantitative and qualitative measures and information should be carefully gathered before the launch of this instrument. Therefore, decision was made to take more time for careful thought, research, and consultation on this.
Project Phase II (June – December 2022)
ECI invited some 20 experts to share, through articles, their understandings of what Planetary Well-being consists of, as seen through the lens of the Earth Charter, and to suggest indicators that best measure and evaluate countries’ contributions to planetary well-being. A Conference was held in December 2022 to further explore the concept of Planetary Well-being, and how such an index instrument and report could be developed to forge collaboration towards further work to evaluate and measure our contributions to Planetary Well-being.
Project Phase III (January – December 2023)
Building on the conference’s recommendations, the continuous work of a small team, and contributions of a working group, the Earth Charter Index of Planetary Well-being will be further developed and launched in 2023.
Project Phase IV (2024 and beyond)
- Promote the Index and the Report through events, presentations and workshops.
- To develop the capacity to generate an updated quantitative and qualitative report every two year
- Organize an Advisory Group with experts from around the world to contribute to the improvement of the instrument and in expanding the narratives on the importance to contribute to planetary well-being.
