Our new paper, Wellbeing for People and Planet: How to Value Everyone and Everything on a Thriving Planet Beyond 2030, published today in The Lancet Planetary Health argues that many of the world’s most pressing problems—from climate change and biodiversity loss to rising inequality, loneliness, and declining trust in institutions—stem from a development model that prioritises economic growth over human and ecological wellbeing. As the world approaches the 2030 deadline for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), progress has fallen far short of expectations. Only a small fraction of the goals are currently on track. Rather than simply trying harder to achieve the existing targets, we need a more fundamental rethink of what development is actually for.
Humans are not Homo Economicus
Modern economic systems are based on a flawed understanding of human nature. Traditional economic theory assumes that people are primarily self-interested individuals seeking to maximise personal gain. Yet evidence from evolutionary biology, psychology, neuroscience, and anthropology paints a very different picture. Humans evolved as deeply social and cooperative beings. Our success as a species depended on our ability to work together, care for one another, and build strong communities. This matters because institutions built around competition, status, and consumption often conflict with our deeper social needs. The consequences can be seen in rising mental health challenges, loneliness, status anxiety, and social fragmentation. The pursuit of ever-higher levels of consumption does not necessarily make people happier, but it can place increasing pressure on the planet’s life-support and social systems. A successful future development model must be designed around what humans actually need to flourish: meaningful relationships, purpose, participation, security, and healthy ecosystems.
Moving Beyond GDP
Even Simon Kuznets, one of the architects of national income accounting, warned against using GDP as a measure of societal wellbeing. GDP counts many activities that damage wellbeing as positive contributions to the economy. Environmental destruction, pollution clean-up, defence spending, and rising healthcare costs can all increase GDP. Meanwhile, many things that genuinely improve lives—such as unpaid care, volunteering, community engagement, and healthy ecosystems—are ignored.
Around the world, alternative approaches are already emerging. Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness framework, New Zealand’s Wellbeing Budget, and the wellbeing initiatives pursued by countries such as Wales, Scotland, Iceland, and Finland all represent attempts to place wellbeing at the centre of public policy. Wellbeing—not economic growth—should become the primary goal against which societies evaluate success.
Three Transformative Shifts
Here are three interconnected transformations that could help create a wellbeing-centred future.
1. Democratic Renewal
Many citizens feel increasingly disconnected from political decision-making. There is growing evidence that citizens’ assemblies and deliberative democracy can improve both decision quality and public trust. Citizens’ assemblies bring together randomly selected members of the public to learn about complex issues, deliberate with one another, and make recommendations. Experiences in countries such as Ireland, France, and Belgium demonstrate that ordinary citizens are often capable of finding common ground on issues that traditional politics struggles to resolve. For example, a Global Citizens’ Assembly can help shape international priorities beyond 2030.
2. Economic Democracy
Economic institutions should also be redesigned to give workers more voice, ownership, and participation. Employee-owned firms, cooperatives, and democratically managed enterprises often perform well economically while also generating greater worker satisfaction and resilience. By reducing extreme inequalities within organisations and reconnecting people to the purpose of their work, economic democracy can improve wellbeing while reducing environmentally harmful status competition.
3. Land Justice and Ecological Stewardship
Land should not be viewed simply as a commodity. Land provides food, water, climate regulation, cultural identity, biodiversity, and countless other benefits that conventional markets often overlook. Yet current governance systems frequently encourage short-term extraction rather than long-term stewardship. Approaches that recognise Indigenous knowledge, community rights, ecosystem services, and intergenerational responsibilities would help reconnect people with the natural systems upon which all wellbeing ultimately depends.
A New Global Consensus?
Underlying all these proposals is a simple but powerful idea: development should be about creating the conditions for people and the rest of nature to thrive together. This is not a rigid blueprint. Instead, it offers a vision for a future where sustainable and inclusive wellbeing becomes the organising principle of society, where democratic participation is strengthened, where economic institutions serve people rather than the other way around, and where humanity recognises its dependence on the living world.
As the world begins discussing what comes after the SDGs, the question is no longer whether GDP growth alone is sufficient. Increasingly, the question is what we should be aiming for instead. The answer is clear: a future that values everyone, values nature, and measures success by the sustainable wellbeing of both people and planet.
To read the full article, click here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2542519626000483
The full citation is: Pickett, K. E., R. Costanza, R. De Vogli, I. Kubiszewski, J. McGlade, L. F. Mortensen, K. V. Ragnasdottir, S. Wallis and R. G. Wilkinson. (2026). Wellbeing for people and the planet: how to value everyone and everything on a thriving planet beyond 2030. The Lancet Planetary Health: 101475.
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