Report Launch and Panel Discussion - 'Reboot Development: The Economics of a Livable Planet'

Past Event

Date
02 September 2025, 4:00pm - 6:00pm

Location
Lecture Theatre, Oxford Martin School
34 Broad Street (corner of Holywell and Catte Streets), Oxford, OX1 3BD

Image showing the details of an event. Text reads: Reboot Development: the economics of a livable plants. Report launch and panel discussion. There is an image of a digital globe on some leaves. Logos from The World Bank Group, The University of Oxford, Environmental Change Institute, and Oxford Martin School

Join this event for the launch of the World Bank’s flagship report, 'Reboot Development: The Economics of a Livable Planet', a landmark rethink of prosperity in an age of planetary limits. 

The report makes plain that environmental degradation is not a distant ecological concern but a present economic threat.  It presents new evidence showing how the essential endowments of land, air, and water—often treated as limitless—are under intensifying strain. Today, over 90 percent of humanity lives with degraded land, unsafe air, or stressed water systems.  New findings reveal how forest loss reduces rainfall, dries soils and deepens drought, how mismanaged nutrients create a nitrogen paradox, and how polluted air and water silently undermine health, cognition, and productivity. 

Yet the message is one of possibility. When stewarded wisely, natural assets can generate jobs, resilience, and inclusive growth.  The report shows that resource-use efficiency yields benefits that far exceed costs, and urges a shift toward cleaner sectors and producing “better things,” which generate more jobs per dollar invested. 

Join leading economists, scientists, and policymakers to discuss a practical agenda that places nature at the core of economic development—decoupling prosperity from degradation and charting a path to a liveable planet.

The event will feature a keynote by Richard Damania (Chief Economist for Sustainable Development at the World Bank), and a panel moderated by Professor Jim Hall (Professor of Climate and Environmental Risk, University of Oxford & Director, Oxford Martin Programme on Systemic Resilience), with Professor Johan Rockström (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research), Professor Phoebe Koundouri (Athens University of Economics and Business), Professor Robin Burgess (London School of Economics), and Professor Amy Dickman (University of Oxford).

This event is organised by the World Bank and Professor Jim Hall, Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Systemic Resilience.

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