Countries must move beyond tracking economic growth using measures of gross domestic product (GDP) and incorporate environmental and social dimensions into a new measure of wealth if they are to avoid an escalating series of climate, biodiversity and poverty crises.

That is the view of 20 former winners of the Blue Planet Prize, sometimes dubbed the 'Nobel Prize for the environment', in a new paper to be presented to government ministers at a meeting of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya, later today.

The group will also call for the removal of fossil fuel subsidies, worth an estimated $409bn a year globally, as well as the end of support for traditional transportation and agricultural methods that do not account for their environmental costs.

'The immense environmental, social and economic risks we face as a world from our current path will be much harder to manage if we are unable to measure key aspects of the problem,' the paper says.

'Green taxes and the elimination of subsidies should ensure that the natural resources needed to directly protect poor people are available rather than via subsidies that often only benefit the better off.'

The call comes after UK environment minister Caroline Spelman last week said the country will work to secure an assurance that all businesses and governments begin work to incorporate natural capital into their accounting practices, a metric she called GDP+, at the Rio+20 conference later this year.

Similarly, former US vice-president Al Gore argued last week that ignoring the social costs of oil, coal and gas would be an even bigger mistake than the over-valuing of sub-prime mortgages, which plunged much of the world into financial crisis.

The scientists also recommend that creating markets for biodiversity and ecosystem services would help break the link between consumption and environmental destruction.

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