UNDP's Achim Steiner: 'If we cannot decouple economic growth from emissions, we are doomed' We need to address the cost of economic development to the environment, societies and our health when measuring human progress, says Achim Steiner of the UN Development Program. Oil spills: Good for growth, terrible for the environment DW: Is development inherently connected with economic growth? Achim Steiner: That certainly has been the paradigm of the 20th century. Economic growth, gross domestic product, per capita income: those were the major variables with which we have tried to measure development, progress and success in our societies. But it has also blocked out for far too long some very irrational elements of this measurement.