Sustainable Development Indicators In Ecological Economics

‘The book covers a wide range of concepts pertaining to the sustainable development and successfully captures the inter-connectivity of environmental preservation and sustainable development.’
– International Journal of Ecological Economics and Statistics

‘. . . this book is authoritative, objective and essential reading for academics and policymakers concerned with the application of indicators of sustainable development. It takes great care to emphasize what has worked, what has not and what should be our future priorities for research; the combination of these features certainly sets it apart from some other texts in the field.’
– Lee M. Stapleton, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management

‘This book presents a comprehensive collection of essays from some of the world’s leading experts, surveying and highlighting both the potential and the limitations of a number of indicators specifically designed to measure sustainable development. Illustrative applications are presented throughout in order to demonstrate the value of the approaches discussed. This book is highly recommended for all those who are interested in a better understanding of what sustainable development is and its likely associated indicators, and ultimately aims to contribute to a better foundation for public decision-making.’
– Paulo A.L.D. Nunes, Venice International University, Cà Foscari University, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, Venice, Italy and Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Since the late 1980s and early 1990s, national governments have introduced a range of policy measures designed to steer their economies along a more sustainable path. Yet how are we to know how successful these have been? This significant new book discusses the ways in which sustainable development indicators can be improved in order to both assess the impact of past policies and avoid the repetition of previous failings.

Covering a broad range of indicators relating to national accounts, aggregate welfare, natural capital, ecosystem health and human–environment interactions, this volume provides an important assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of each. With contributions from some of the most eminent scholars in the field, the book competently analyses the various methods of measuring the sustainable development performance of nations, and suggests many ways in which these can be developed and improved. While the contributors might offer conflicting views, the message they convey is universal – the quest for appropriate sustainable development indicators is critically important if we are ever to bring about a fairer, sustainable and more efficient world.

Contents:
Part I: Introduction to Sustainable Development Indicators
1. Introduction
Philip Lawn
2. Sustainable Development: Concept and Indicators
Philip Lawn
Part II: Sustainable Development and National Accounting
3. The Economic Rationale for Green Accounting
Salah El Serafy
4. Environmental Accounting and Policy Making
John Lintott
5. Estimating the Economic Impacts of Climate Change by Means of Green Accounting
H. Asbjørn Aaheim
6. A Critical Appraisal of Genuine Savings as an Indicator of Sustainability
Simon Dietz and Eric Neumayer
Part III: Sustainable Development and Welfare
7. An Assessment of Alternative Measures of Sustainable Economic Welfare
Philip Lawn
8. Policy Implications of the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare: Thailand as a Case Study
Matthew Clarke
9. Some Constructive Criticisms of the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare
Simon Dietz and Eric Neumayer
Part IV: Sustainable Development and Natural Capital Accounting
10. Measurement of the Natural Capital Stock: Conceptual Foundations and Preliminary Empirics
Richard W. England
11. Indicators and Measures of Critical Natural Capital
Rudolf de Groot, Lars Hein, Carolien Kroeze, Rik Leemans and David Niemeijer
12. Ecological Footprint Accounts for Advancing Sustainability: Measuring Human Demands on Nature
Mathis Wackernagel, Dan Moran, Sahm White and Michael Murray
13. Managing for Sustainability: Ecological Footprints, Ecosystem Health and the Forest Capital Index
David Rapport and Ola Ullsten
Part V: Sustainable Development and Indicators of Human–Environment Interaction
14. Sustainability Scenarios as Interpretive Frameworks for Indicators of Human–Environment Interaction
Janne Hukkinen
15. Getting the Most Out of Eco-Efficiency Indicators for Policy
Nigel Jollands
16. Eco-Efficiency Indicators Applied to Australia and their Policy Relevance
Philip Lawn
17. Material Flow-Based Indicators for Evaluation of Eco-Efficiency and Dematerialisation Policies
Stefan Giljum
Part VI: Concluding Assessments of Sustainable Development Indicators
18. Sustainable Development Indicators and Human Needs
John Peet
19. Selecting Headline Indicators for Tracking Progress to Sustainability in a Nation State
Murray Patterson
Index