"Not just another commodity": Leading economist backs Pope’s stance on poverty and environment

Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, who last year co-authored an appeal to the Pope for moral leadership on climate change, will back his recent encyclical and stress that humanity's attitude towards the natural world needs to undergo a fundamental moral shift. To view the damage that we are doing to the planet as purely an economic issue about how we use these commodities is a limiting vision. Our attitude to natural capital needs to be different, just as many of us would not treat human capital as purely an economic issue either - Partha Dasgupta The eminent economist, Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, will support Pope Francis' call for action on poverty and the environment at a conference in Cambridge today (Monday, 29 June), arguing that natural resources must be dealt with from a moral perspective and not as "just another commodity". Professor Dasgupta was one of the co-authors of an appeal issued to religious leaders last year following a meeting with the Pope, in which scientists asked for help in mobilising public opinion to stop the unsustainable destruction of the world's ecosystems. Speaking on Monday, at a conference examining the Catholic Church's new style of engagement under Pope Francis, Professor Dasgupta will praise the "sound economics and correct science" of the Pope's new encyclical on the environment, released earlier this month. In it, the Pontiff warned of serious consequences if the world fails to act on climate change, and called for moral action on the environment and global poverty.