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Harmful impacts of greenhouse-gas emissions, such as those from transport, are not accounted for in GDP.Credit: RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post/Getty

“Growth at any cost leaves us all poorer.” Those were the words of United Nations secretary-general António Guterres last week at the launch of a landmark report, Counting What Counts, which he commissioned from a team of researchers and policymakers (www.un.org/beyondgdp). It proposes how countries can move beyond gross domestic product (GDP), the world’s main indicator for the health of economies.

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