FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 18, 2015

2015 BLUE PLANET PRIZE:
ANNOUNCEMENT OF PRIZE WINNERS■ Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta FBA FRS ( UK )■ Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs ( USA )This year marks the 24th awarding of the Blue Planet Prize, the international environmental award sponsoredby the Asahi Glass Foundation, chaired by Kazuhiko Ishimura. Two Blue Planet Prizes are awarded toindividuals or organizations each year that make outstanding achievements in scientific research and its
application, and in so doing help to solve global environmental problems. The Board of Directors andCouncillors selected the following recipients for this year.
1. Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta FBA FRS ( UK )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 indeveloping countries in the context of a deteriorating environmental resource base; andthereby brought together previously disparate fields: development economics andenvironmental economics. In a wide ranging book on human well-being and the naturalenvironment he showed that the coin by which economic progress should be judged is acomprehensive measure of a nation’s wealth, and not GDP or the many ad hoc indicatorsof 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 ofbringing nature seamlessly into economic reasoning has had a huge impact on contemporary thinking.

2. Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs ( USA )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. Asa scholar, practitioner and senior advisor to governments and the United Nations hecontinues to have an enormous impact on the world.
Both recipients will be awarded a certificate of merit, a commemorative trophy and a supplementary award of
50 million yen.
The awards ceremony will be held on October 14, 2015 (Wednesday) at the Palace Hotel Tokyo (Chiyoda
Ward, Tokyo). The commemorative lectures by the prize recipients will be held at the United Nations
University (Shibuya Ward, Tokyo) on October 15.
*This press release may also be viewed on our web site at www.af-info.or.jp. from 15:00, June 18, 2015.
The photos of the recipients are available from the web site of the Asahi Glass Foundation.

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Report on the Selection Process (24th Annual Prize, 2015)
A total of 554 nominators from Japan and 694 nominators from other countries recommended
129 candidates. The fields represented by the candidates, in order of number, were ecology (33),multidisciplinary field (23), environmental economics and policy making (19), atmospheric andearth sciences (18).
The candidates represented 32 countries; 29 persons, 22 percent of the total, were fromdeveloping countries.
After individual evaluation of the 129 candidates by each Selection Committee member, thecommittee was convened to narrow down the field. The results of their deliberation were
examined by the Presentation Committee, which forwarded its recommendations to the Board of
Directors and Councillors. The Board formally resolved to award the Prize to Professor Sir
Partha Dasgupta FBA FRS, and to Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs.

For more information, please contact: Tetsuro Yasuda
THE ASAHI GLASS FOUNDATION
2nd Floor, Science Plaza, 5-3 Yonbancho Chiyoda-ku,
Tokyo 102-0081 Japan
Phone +81-3-5275-0620 Fax +81-3-5275-0871
e-mail: post@af-info.or.jp
URL: http://www.af-in fo.or.jp

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Attachment

Profile of the 2015 Blue Planet Prize Recipient
Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta FBA FRS ( UK )Achievements of Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta
Professor Dasgupta pioneered the unification of what had been two distinct subject areas of
economics: environmental and resource economics on the one hand, and the economics ofpoverty and development on the other. In order to successfully conduct the unification, he
studied the allocation of goods and services not only at the level of the macro-economy, but also
in household and village economies. Bringing together new insights and techniques of analysis
in the study of institutions within whose contours people extract resources, produce andconsume goods and services, engage in trade, plan against risk, and save and invest for theirown future and for the future of their children and grand-children, Professor Dasgupta
introduced nature as an essential object of interest into economic reasoning. And he did thatwith rigor and sensitivity. In two highly influential books, "Human Well-Being and the Natural
Environment" and “Economics: A Very Short Introduction”, he offered a summary of that workand also provided an account of sustainability analysis and policy analysis by demonstrating thatthey involve the same reasoning. Policy analysis is founded on the ethical requirement thatchosen policies will be based on an equitable allocation of goods and services across thegenerations. Sustainability analysis in contrast aims to assess whether a development path canbe depended upon not to jeopardise the well-being of future generations. Today it is customary
to judge economies by studying movements in their GDP, which is the market value of the final
goods and services produced there annually. Reporting work conducted jointly with Professor
Karl-Goran Maler of Sweden, he showed in contrast that to judge whether an economy's
development path is sustainable, it is necessary to study instead the movement of an inclusive
measure of the economy's wealth, which is the social worth of its entire stock of assets,
including not only manufactured capital and human capital, but environmental capital as well.
Wealth, which is a stock, measures an economy's overall productive capacity. Professor
Dasgupta showed that sustainable development amounts to growth of wealth (adjusted for
population and wealth distribution), not GDP nor any of the many ad hoc indicators of economic
performance that are currently in use. He showed that a country can increase GDP over a periodof time by mining its natural resources and degrading its environment, but that it would not beable to that on a sustained basis, because its wealth would inevitably decline. A Report ("Green
National Accounts for India: A Framework") by an Expert Group that was convened in 2011 by
the former Prime Minister of India, and which Professor Dasgupta chaired, provided a detailed
picture of the steps that need to be taken to create wealth accounts, much as private firms
construct balance sheets. The theory underlying wealth accounts has also been put to empirical
work on 120 countries in two successive Inclusive Wealth Reports (2012 and 2014), issued by
the International Human Dimensions Programme of the United Nations University. Thosepublications have confirmed Professor Dasgupta's worst fears, that in recent decades a numberof countries have enjoyed increases in GDP, even while they have de-cumulated their wealth.
Biographical Summary

1942
1962
1965

Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh
B.SC.(Hons.) in Physics, University of Delhi
B.A.(Hons.) in Mathematics, University of Cambridge
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1968
1968～1971
1971～1985

Ph. D. in Economics, University of Cambridge
Research Felllow, Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge
Taught at the London School of Economics as Professor of Economics (andProfessorial Fellow of St John’s College)(Lecturer 1971–1975; Reader 1975–1978; Professor 1978–1985)

1985～present Moved to the University of Cambridge
1989～1992
Professor of Economics, Professor of Philosophy, and Director of the Programin Ethics in Society at Stanford University
1991～1997
Served as Chairman of the (Scientific Advisory) Board of the Beijer
International Institute of Ecological Economics of the Royal Swedish Academyof Sciences, Stockholm
1994～2010
Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics, University of Cambridge
1997～2001
Chairman of the Faculty of Economics at Cambridge
2010～
Frank Ramsey Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Cambridge
2007～2013
Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University
2008
Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Manchester’s Sustainable
Consumption Institute (SCI)
2010～2011
President of the European Association of Environmental and Resource
Economists (EAERE)
2011
Chairman of the Central Government Expert Group on Green National
Accounting for India
Awards

1989
1991
1997
2001

2002
2004
2007

2009
2010

Fellow of the British Academy
Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences
Honorary Member of the American Economic Association
Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (formally the Academy of Science
for the Developing World)
Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences
Named Knight Bachelor for his services to economics
Volvo Environment Prize (joint with K.-Gmäler)
Fellow of the Royal Society
Recipient of the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award, 2007, of the American
Agricultural Economics Association
Co-recipient (with Erik Maskin) of the Erik Kempe Award in Environmental
and Resource Economics/Kempe Foundation
Member of Academia Europaea
Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge
Zayed International Environment Prize (Category Ⅱ: scientific and technologicalachievements)

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Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs ( USA )Achievements of Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs
Professor Sachs has re-appraised and proposed concrete solutions to the persistence of extreme
poverty*1 in various parts of the world, and the common problems that accompany it, such aslack of education, heavy disease burden, societal fragmentation, human insecurity, and violent
conflict. As advisor to the UN Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs), he has helped to shape the global effort to fight extreme poverty, hunger, and diseaseduring the past 15 years. He has developed a unique standpoint of “Clinical Economics” to show
how to evaluate challenges and devise appropriate economic and environmental policies in
specific geographic and historical contexts*2. Professor Sachs seeks for humanity to put an end
to the unbalanced pursuit of wealth in favor of a holistic approach of sustainable development,
one that integrates economic, social and environmental dimensions. He calls on the wealthy toacknowledge their responsibility to society and shoulder their fair share of the tax burden. Basedon this, in order to achieve sustainability and fairness, Professor Sachs proposes forgovernments, the private sector and individuals to cooperate, transform their values, and work tobuild societies filled with a new “mindfulness”*3 for humanity and for the natural world. He also
put forward a concrete eight-item proposal in the U.S. context as “goals for humanity to regain
its richness”*4. Now, at a time long since questions were first raised about environmental
problems, and when it has also become clearly apparent that the root cause of environmental
destruction lies in the economic activities of humanity and its lack of consideration of theconsequences for the future, there is great significance in the presenting of the Blue Planet Prize
to Professor Sachs, who is calling for concrete economic reform through the transformation ofvalues pushed forward by “Mindfulness.” It is also timely for the professor to receive this award
in 2015. This is the year in which the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for which
Professor Sachs has advanced the construction and substantiation of principles of sustainable
development, and which stand as a signpost for the whole world, are to be adopted by the 193
United Nations member states.
Annotations follow below:*1 Poverty
Professor Sachs’ comprehensive recommendations for enabling the residents of povertystricken regions to escape from the snare of extreme poverty, including pioneering investment
in health, and the transformation of agriculture from the seeds up to fertilizer and irrigation,
have delivered strong results. This is evident in the gains in public health, education and otherachievements under the Millennium Development Goals. These gains have reflected in several
areas specific recommendations put forward by Professor Sachs and the UN Millennium
Project, which he directed for Secretary-General Kofi Annan from 2002-2006. In recent years,
through the Millennium Villages Project (MVP), which he directs, he has demonstrated
progress in increasing agricultural production and improved rural health systems, including
progress against malaria, AIDS, and other killers, in rural sub-Saharan Africa.
*2 Clinical Economics
Clinical economics is a method of development economics created by Professor Sachs that ismodeled in part on clinical medicine. Clinical economics carries out a detailed “differential
diagnosis” of case-specific development challenges, including the political systems,
geography, geopolitical conditions and cultures of each particular country or region; and thenaims to design and implement appropriate aid and support policies that are science-based andevidence-based. In the case of extreme poverty, it firstly places emphasis on the importanceof impoverished nations taking their first steps towards economic development through5reforms and public investments that are grounded in local ecological, environmental, andeconomic conditions, and that are implemented with the support of development assistance.
Clinical economics was born out of the thorough re-examination of problems with theprescribed methods implemented during the 1980s and 1990s by international organizations
such as the IMF and World Bank with respect to the development of impoverished countries,
based on over-generalizations unresponsive to specific conditions. Clinical economics, bycontrast, aims at a more effective approach that matches the policy response to the specificconditions (historical, economic, and ecological) of poor countries.
The catalyst for Professor Sachs’ clinical economics was his experience in dealing with thesevere 24,000% hyperinflation problem in Bolivia, triggered by years of political instability
and global financial crisis. As an economic advisor to the Bolivian government in 1985, hehelped Bolivia to achieve a swift resolution to the inflation crisis. (He also helped to halt a
resurgence of hyperinflation that occurred immediately after this due to a plunge in the priceof tin in October 1985. At this time he ran into a confrontation with the IMF.) In addition,with regards to problem of the payment of Bolivia’s external debt, Professor Sachs
recommended the rebuilding of the country’s economy in a manner that made sense for boththe indebted country and its creditors; upon which the Bolivian government pressed for debt
cancellation instead of the debt servicing demanded by the IMF. Debt relief proved to be avital step in rebuilding the nation’s economy. In 1986, Professor Sachs proposed reforms for
Bolivia’s tax system, which were translated into the implementation of a higher tax rate forthe country’s wealthy classes, thereby helping to stabilize the nation’s finances. Professor
Sachs also successfully recommended the establishment of an Emergency Social Fund withthe objective of providing direct monetary support to the country’s most impoverishedcommunities, and of driving the development of infrastructure such as in rainwater storage,
irrigation and road construction and repair. Summarizing the professor’s accomplishments in
Bolivia, he helped to achieve the resolution of hyperinflation, the cancellation of external
debt, stabilization of the country’s economy and the introduction of social programs.
In addition, Professor Sachs has stated that in order for impoverished countries to rebuild
their economies and go on to achieve prosperity, it is essential for clinical economics toproperly analyze the state of each country from a geopolitical standpoint including natural
resources, climate, terrain, topography, coastal and inland areas, political relations and/or
wars with neighboring countries, internal political segmentation and ethnic minorities,
relationship with global markets etc. Almost 10 years after his experiences in Bolivia,
Professor Sachs worked as an economic advisor to governments in Eastern Europe,
particularly in helping to design Poland’s pioneering economic transition plan from
communism to a market-based economy. He has worked in China, India, and sub-SaharanAfrica, and has recently applied the lens of “clinical economics” to the United States, which
continues to experience a colossal underinvestment in public goods, growing environmental
crises, and an increasingly widening divide between the rich and poor.
*3 Mindfulness
Mindfulness refers to trust, sincerity and consideration for others with the aim of arriving at asource of profound, long-term happiness for humanity. Holding that “an economy that does
not reflect upon itself cannot protect the happiness of the nation’s citizens,” Professor Sachs
has argued that the idea that people have held until now that “the simple pursuit of wealthwill cultivate a sound and healthy society” is an illusion, and has pointed out, raising theUnited States as a real-life example, that society has become exhausted scrambling in the6pursuit of wealth, and that the moral virtues of trust, sincerity and consideration for others
have been dangerously diminished, notably in key elite communities such as finance.
Professor Sachs advocates for a society built upon this concept of “mindfulness” thattranscends differences in social class, race, religion and place of residence. Professor Sachs
raises the following eight categories of “mindfulness” that are important as an individual
human being, citizen and member of local society. The parentheses contain examples ofpaths to attaining them.
1) Mindfulness towards oneself (moderately disciplining oneself and freeing oneself frommass-consumerism)2) Mindfulness towards work (maintain a balance between work and leisure)3) Mindfulness towards knowledge (increasing opportunities for education)4) Mindfulness towards others (exercising consideration and harmonizing with others)5) Mindfulness towards nature (protecting the world’s ecosystems)
6) Mindfulness towards the future (taking responsibility to protect the wellbeing of future
generations)7) Mindfulness towards politics (encouraging public debate and sharing values regarding
group activities)
8) Mindfulness towards the world (accepting diversity as the path to peace)*4 Goals for regaining richness(In the case of the United States: detailed numerical targets have been omitted)
1) Raise employment and quality of work life2) Improve the quality of access to education
3) Reduce poverty
4) Avoid environmental catastrophe5) Balance federal budget6) Improving governance7) National security8) Raise citizens’ happiness and life Satisfaction
Professor Sachs is widely considered to be one of the world’s leading experts on economic
development and the fight against poverty. His work on ending poverty, promoting economic
growth, fighting hunger and disease, and promoting sustainable environmental practices, hastaken him to more than 125 countries with more than 90 percent of the world’s population. For
more than a quarter century he has advised dozens of heads of state and governments on
economic strategy, in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
Sachs is the recipient of many awards and honors, including membership in the Institute ofMedicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Society of Fellows, and theFellows of the World Econometric Society. He has received more than 20 honorary degrees, andmany awards and honors around the world. Professor Sachs is also a frequent contributor to
major publications such as the Financial Times of London, the International Herald Tribune,
Scientific American, and Time magazine. He has twice been named among Time Magazine’s
100 most influential world leaders. He was called by the New York Times, “probably the mostimportant economist in the world,” and by Time Magazine “the world’s best known economist.”
A recent survey by The Economist Magazine ranked Professor Sachs as among the world’s
three most influential living economists of the past decade.
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Biographical Summary

1954
Born in Detroit, United States
1976
Harvard University BA (summa cum laude), Economics
1978
Harvard University MA, Economics
1980
Harvard University Ph.D, Economics
1984-2002
Galen L. Stone Professor of International Trade, Harvard University(Assistant Professor, 1980-82, Associate Professor, 1982-83, Full Professor 1984-2002)
1995-1999
Director, Harvard Institute for International Development
1998-2002
Director, Center for International Development at Harvard University
2000–2001
Chairman, Commission on Macroeconomics and Health, World Health Organization
2002-present Director, The Earth Institute at Columbia University; Quetelet Professor of
Sustainable Development, Columbia University
2002-present Special Advisor the UN Secretary General on the Millennium Development
Goals (for Kofi Annan, 2002-2007; for Ban Ki-moon, 2007-present)
2002-2006
Director, United Nations Millennium Project
2005-present Co-Founder and Director, Millennium Promise Alliance2012-present Director, UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network
Awards

1999
2000
2002
2004
2005
2006

2007

2008
2009
2011
2012
2013

Commanders Cross Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland
Bernhard Harms Prize, Kiel Institute, June 24
The Distinguished Public Service Award of the Secretary of State's Open Forum,
June 28
Named one of 100 Most Influential People in the World, Time Magazine, April
Named one of 100 Most Influential People in the World, Time Magazine, April
Sargent Shriver Award for Equal Justice
The Memorial Sloane-Kettering Medal for Outstanding Contributions to
Biomedical Research, May 16,.
Honorary Dean, Western China Poverty Reduction Program, Sichuan
University, August 22,
University of California Berkeley School of Public Health International Public
Health Hero Award,
Padma Bhushan Award, awarded by the President of India, January.
BBC Reith Lectures, Winter/Spring
The Centennial Medal, The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Harvard
University, June.
The Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution International Advocate for PeaceAward
Pro Bono Humanum Award, Prix Galien, September 30
Named one of top 3 most influential economists of past decade, The Economist,
February 10
Dag Hammarskjold Inspiration Award, Dag Hammarskjold Fund for Journalists,
November 13
M.S. Swaminathan Award, Asia Initiatives, October 148

Remarks from the Award Recipients upon Notification of their Selection
Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta FBA FRS ( UK )Humanity's engagement with Nature is the most significant feature of our lives and in need ofurgent repair. And yet, we mostly avoid addressing it. The institution that is the Blue Planet
Prize signals that sad fact annually and brings environmental problems, both in the large and in
the small, to the world's attention. It is understandable that global environmental problems
attract public interest, but the "large" is made of the myriad of "smalls". Ultimately, if Humanity
is to make peace with Nature, the move will have to come from each one of us.
Understanding the way we at the individual level tread nature as we go about our lives is thenecessary first step to any resolution of the problems we face. In my own work I have tried over
the years to understand the ways in which poverty and wealth at the household level leave their
distinctive marks on Nature. So, it is both a great honour and an enormous pleasure for me thatthe perspective I have tried to introduce into our collective thinking has been recognized by theaward of the Prize.

Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs ( USA )I am deeply honored to receive the Blue Planet Prize and especially gratified to receive it in2015, the year that the UN member states will adopt the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Blue Planet Prize represents the commitment of the Asahi Glass Foundation to thewellbeing of the planet, and the prize is recognized worldwide for helping to spur the public’s
awareness of the critical and urgent challenges of sustainable development. This year, theworld’s governments, businesses, and civil society organizations have the opportunity to build
upon and expand the scope of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), by adopting SDGs
to end poverty, promote social inclusion, and protect the natural environment in all countries. I
am profoundly thankful that the Blue Planet Prize Committee has recognized my work infurthering the MDGs and in promoting the new SDGs through the application of science,technology, institutional innovation, and moral purpose.

Rigorous economic analysis anddemonstrated solutions around the world show that sustainable development is feasible. The
Blue Planet Prize serves as a great spur to action on behalf of humanity, and I am thrilled
therefore to be its co-recipient this year.

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