Responsible Growth for the New Millennium contends that economic growth is essential for development, but that it is not enough. It presents a vision of a responsible approach to growth – sustainable growth in consumption, healthfulness, human capital, environmental quality and social equity – that can achieve a far more equitable world in 2050.

Conceiving the sheer scale of the world economy in 2050 (as much as four times the current economy) this book raises stark questions: How resource and pollution-intensive will this economy be, particularly in the developing world? How will critical resources, such as biodiversity, be shielded from development pressures? How will we deal with impending water scarcity? Achieving responsible growth will require concerted efforts in establishing a more balanced relationship between rich and poor countries, opening up trade, fostering agricultural productivity, delivering water and energy, managing the environment and natural resources, building health and human capital, and attaining social equity and inclusion.
Three issues stand out: (i) dealing with near-term poverty and inequality; (ii) improving governance and capacity in developing countries; and (iii) the need to invest in technological public goods, particularly agricultural technologies for the tropics and treatments for infectious diseases. The alternative will be a world characterized by uncertainty, social unrest and environmental degradation.