Legacy: How to Build the Sustainable Economy Paperback – 9 Nov. 2023

Anyone who is at all interested in our living sustainably - and everyone should be - should read this very approachable and authoritative book.

Helm is clearly the global leader in this field, the level of detail in here is astonishing. A total must read for anyone who is genuinely interested in a sustainable future...........after all........it will need paying for.

Clear analysis of the economics of our environment

A thoughtful framework for radical change to protect the next generation from the consequences of our short term addiction to consumption.It is broad in scope in terms of considering a wide range of assets (natural, physical, social), regulatory systems, constitutional arrangements and accounting. They would make a fundamental change in how governments and utilities are he’d to account.It starts from a centrist ‘expert’ view, with explicit criticism of left wing traditional Keynesian economics as well as neoliberal free market ‘just let the market own it and price it’ approaches.For me it understates some of the immense practical challenges of implementation. Simply coming up with a vaguely accurate ‘opening balance sheet’ for national accounts reflecting the current state of of infrastructure and natural environment will take years and will be hugely costly to achieve. This should not stop us starting, and indeed in pursuing, many of the suggested approaches.However, given time is of the essence, this conceptual framework needs really aggressive and specific set of detailed plans if they have any realistic possibility of being implemented quickly enough to save us from ourselves. I would have liked to see more of a more specific prioritised ‘Next steps’.But a great set of principles that courageous politicians could consider advocating.

Helm sets out the case to organise the economy very differently and to end the unsustainable and destructive path we have been on for decades. This path is unfair to future generations, and Helm suggests how things could work differently within a capitalist framework. A useful challenge to those who claim that some form of socialism is the only way to avoid environmental catastrophe. Capitalism could do the job, if we just switched the focus of the system away from short-term consumption.