Description
Book SynopsisLegacy answers one of the most important questions faces us today. What would an economy look like if it were to be sustainable and hence leave the next generation with the capabilities to choose how to live their lives, having addressed the great environmental challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss?
Trade Review'This is a powerful argument for valuing future generations which means saving and investing now so as to live sustainably.' David Willetts, President of the Resolution Foundation and author of The Pinch
'This is a hugely important book from a powerful thinker and writer. We are living with crumbling infrastructures, decaying social fabrics, excessive pollution and mass biodiversity loss. Our economies are not sustainable. Sir Dieter's sharp observation is that 'what is not sustainable will not be sustained'. Legacy clearly and potently charts a course from dystopia to utopia. If you care about the fate of humanity, you should read this book and recommend it to others.' Cameron Hepburn, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford
'Dieter Helm does not pull his punches in this forthright and powerful book. What is unsustainable can, he insists, not be sustained. To avoid disaster, we must transform how we live. Above all, we must all pay for the maintenance of core natural assets, instead of living well off their destruction. This will demand radical changes in how we live our lives, individually and collectively. Some will assert that the revolution he seeks is impossible. Helm counters that it is inescapable.' Martin Wolf, Financial Times
'Helm of Oxford university puts forward a passionate case for moving to a sustainable economy based on the principle that each generation bequeaths a stock of capital - physical and, far more important, natural - as good as what it inherited. To make this approach operational, we should embrace the twin ideas of 'polluter pays' and the 'precautionary principle'. Helm argues that implementing such ideas requires a concept of citizenship. Unfortunately, the challenges of making this idea work globally are daunting.' Martin Wolf, Financial Times - Best Economics Books of 2023
'A revolutionary work in several senses.' Edward Lucas, The Times
Table of Contents1. Introduction; 2. The next generation; 3. Taking precautions, building resilience; 4. The capitals; 5. Sustainable accounting and the balance sheet; 6. Polluter pays; 7. Public goods and zero marginal costs; 8. Sustainable consumption, deficits and debt; 9. Social justice; 10. Delivering the system plans; 11. A new constitution; 12. Conclusions: it could go either way.
