Alarmists claim the tech sector’s carbon footprint is mushrooming out of control. But they wildly misrepresent the facts. Not only is the ICT sector making significant progress in decarbonizing, but ICT is also a powerful technology that enables other sectors to become more energy efficient.

The Social Metrics Commission’s 2020 report on poverty in the UK is being published amidst the most significant health, social and economic crisis of modern times. When Commissioners first gathered in 2016 to begin to develop a new measure of poverty, we could never have anticipated that our third annual report would be released at such a time. However, the need for robust and agreed poverty measures and the Commission’s work is arguably greater than ever.

Economists have been cautioning about the rising inequality around the world for some time now. The rising concern over the uneven distribution of the fruits of capitalism forewarned of a future when capitalism would eventually need saving from itself. The Covid-19 pandemic is probably that moment. It has revealed the deep fissures running through what was presumed to be the most efficient system of allocating resources.

In this report, we present the results of three studies and a working paper written under this project, including policy conclusions based on all four studies.