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This policy brief argues that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is an insufficient measure of success and a barrier to financing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It advocates for G20 countries to adopt inclusive wealth indicators by 2025 to better account for long-term sustainability and human wellbeing.

The report argues that G20 countries must move beyond GDP as the primary measure of national progress to ensure an inclusive economic recovery and effective climate action. It proposes a stock-flow approach to measuring wellbeing that incorporates economic, environmental, social, and human factors, emphasizing that long-term wellbeing is determined by a portfolio of inclusive wealth rather than market income.

This report chapter examines the 'industrial metabolism' of the United States, arguing that the current industrial system is characterized by massive waste of natural resources, human potential, and financial capital. It contends that conventional economic measures like GDP are misleading because they count the costs of waste and social decay as economic growth, masking a decline in actual quality of life and the depletion of natural capital.