Blue Planet Prize The Laureates

Born in 1942
Frank Ramsey Professor Emeritus of Economics, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge

Professor Dasgupta's pioneering work on welfare economics and environmental economics unified the concepts of intergenerational equity and sustainable development and pointed to their equivalence. He also pioneered the study of rural poverty in developing countries in the context of a deteriorating environmental resource base; and thereby brought together previously disparate fields: development economics and environmental economics. In a wide ranging book on human well-being and the natural environment he showed that the coin by which economic progress should be judged is a comprehensive measure of a nation's wealth, and not GDP or the many ad hoc indicators of well-being in common use today. He has used those findings to develop an ideal system of national economic accounts, which is being implemented in India and several other countries. His lifelong aim of bringing nature seamlessly into economic reasoning has had a huge impact on contemporary thinking.

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Born in 1954
Director, The Earth Institute, Columbia University

Professor Sachs has an impressive record of helping economies to overcome economic crises and achieve sustainable development. He has furthered human equality by applying his interdisciplinary and innovative "clinical economics," to resolve issues of governance, poverty, public health, education and the environment, helping to promote smallholder agriculture, social services, and economic development to overcome extreme poverty. As a scholar, practitioner and senior advisor to governments and the United Nations he continues to have an enormous impact on the world.

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