The Comprehensive Rural Wealth Framework Aligning Energy and

The Comprehensive Rural Wealth Framework: Aligning Energy and Community and Economic Development in a Place-Based Rural Policy Presented to the Energy Transitions and Rural Communities Conference University of North Carolina Center for Climate, Energy, Environment and Economics Saturday, November 10, 2018 University of North Carolina Law School Chapel Hill, NC Charles W. Fluharty Founder & President Emeritus Rural Policy Research Institute

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“All great truths begin as blasphemies. ” --George Bernard Shaw

Promoting Growth in All Regions

Contributions to aggregate growth depend on few hub regions… …the fat tail is equally important - if not more - to aggregate growth…

The Framework for Regional Rural Innovation New Narratives & Networks Knowledge Networks & Workforce Quality of Place Collaborative Leadership E-ship & Innovation Critical Internal Considerations • Wealth Creation, Intergenerational Wealth Retention, and Appropriate Wealth Distribution • Youth Engagement, Retention, and Leadership Development • Social Inclusion and Social Equity Considerations • Specific Attention to Social Mobility and Inequality

NEWS: 2017 -18 Delta Creative Placemaking Initiative Grants Awarded - October 11, 2017 The Delta Regional Authority, in partnership with leading national arts and government organizations, is pleased to announce $309, 000 in seed investments for 16 community projects across eight states through the Delta Creative Placemaking Initiative (DCPI)

Time to leave GDP behind Gross domestic product is a misleading measure of national success. Countries should act now to embrace new metrics, urge Robert Costanza and colleagues 1 6 JA N UA RY 2 0 1 4 | VO L 5 0 5 | N AT U R E | 2 8 3

GDP measures everything except that which makes life worthwhile. - Robert F. Kennedy

Problems with GDP 01 02 03 G = Gross: It ignores the consumption of capital and natural resources D = Domestic: It measures production in the nation, state, or region without regard to ownership or distribution P = Product: It includes only those outputs valued in formal markets; ignores informal and voluntary activities, and externalities

Recent focus on wealth

Especially Rural Wealth

Are We Valuing What We Measure, or Measuring What We Value? Why this matters and what we can do about it

Eight Forms of Comprehensive Rural Wealth/Distribution Physical Financial Natural Human Intellectual Social Cultural Political

Characteristics of Comprehensive Wealth Flows versus stocks (wellbeing versus wealth) Individual wellbeing is fundamentally a flow measure GDP is our most common measure of income flow But well being is dependent on wealth Wealth is a stock—the net accumulation of assets and liabilities

Characteristics of Comprehensive Wealth Comprehensive wealth and multiple forms of capital 1. Financial capital Cash, deposits, stocks, bonds, futures contracts Claims on assets held by others 2. Built capital Buildings, machines, roads, bridges, parks, dams, transmission lines

Characteristics of Comprehensive Wealth Comprehensive wealth and multiple forms of capital 3. Natural capital Air, water, soil, forests, animals, minerals, etc. 4. Human capital Education, health, skills, experience, etc. 5. Social capital Social organization, networks, trust, markets, etc.

Characteristics of Comprehensive Wealth Comprehensive wealth and multiple forms of capital 6. Intellectual capital Knowledge, books, patents, music, etc. 7. Political capital Political networks, and trust and access in these networks, etc. 8. Cultural capital Art, architecture, music, literature, sense of history and place, etc.

Policy Implications A superior basis for assessing economic performance Considers benefits and costs of non-market effects Considers the returns to investment in the environment, education, health, intellectual property and social capital Clarifies the concept of sustainability Sustainability is growth in comprehensive wealth Recognizes the complementarity among types of capital Environment and health, natural capital and intellectual capital, for example

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. - Martin Luther King Jr.