Robert Holzmann: Viewing the future from the population-consumption-environment nexus

Welcome remarks by Dr Robert Holzmann, Governor of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank, the Austrian central bank, at the Global Economy Lecture, jointly organised with The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw), Vienna, 3 November 2021.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Dear Professor Dasgupta, ladies and gentlemen,

Welcome to this year's Global Economy Lecture, which is jointly organized by the Oesterreichische Nationalbank and the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies. Today, we have the pleasure of welcoming a very distinguished speaker who will talk about an exciting, albeit unusual, topic for economists.

Partha Dasgupta is Professor Emeritus at the University of Cambridge with a focus on development and environmental economics. He is well-known for the much-noticed Dasgupta Review on the Economics of Biodiversity, published earlier this year by the Treasury of the United Kingdom.

This review sets out a framework on how to account for Nature in economic science and policy. It makes three basic recommendations: first, shifting economic activities toward eco-friendly activities; second, investing in Nature to raise its productive capacity; and third, investing in resource-efficient production.