Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-g96k6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-10T02:52:39.236Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Measuring sustainable development: progress on indicators*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

David Pearce ,
Kirk Hamilton  and
Giles Atkinson
David Pearce
Affiliation:
Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE), University College London, 136 Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
Kirk Hamilton
Affiliation:
Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE), University College London, 136 Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
Giles Atkinson
Affiliation:
Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE), University College London, 136 Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The search for sustainability indicators should be guided by a theory of sustainable development (SD). In this paper we investigate two such theoretical frameworks and the indicators that they suggest. Indicators associated with weak sustainability are characterized by aggregative indicators such as green national income. We conclude, however, that a more promising offshoot of green accounting is measures of genuine savings (i.e. savings adjusted for loss of assets). To achieve SD, genuine savings rates must not be persistently negative. Strong sustainability indicators accord a more central role to the conservation of critical natural assets within the broader goal of prudently managing a nation's portfolio of assets over time. We discuss two approaches—carrying capacity and resilience—and conclude that, while measures of resilience are potentially attractive, more research is required regarding the resilience–SD link. However, an important conclusion that we can make is that, even in an economy operating under a strong sustainability regime, genuine savings are still key indicators of SD and are complementary to measures of changes in stocks of critical natural assets.

Information

Type
Policy Options
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , February 1996 , pp. 85 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © 1996, Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

von Amsberg, J. (1992), ‘Sustainability and project evaluation: case studies’, mimeo, University of British Columbia.Google Scholar
Anderson, J. and Hazell, P. (1989), Variability in Grain Yields: Implications for Agricultural Research and Policy in Developing Countries, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Armitage, J. and Schramm, G. (1989), ‘Managing the supply and demand for fuel-wood in Africa’, in Schramm, G. and Warford, J.J., eds., Environmental Management and Economic Development, Washington DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Arrow, K., Bolin, B., Costanza, R., Dasgupta, P., Folke, C., Holling, C.S., Jansson, B.-O., Levin, S., Mäler, K.-G., Perrings, C. and Pimentel, D. (1995), ‘Economic growth, carrying capacity and the environment’, Science 268: 520–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Asheim, G.B. (1986), Hartwick's rule in open economies’, Canadian Journal of Economics 86: 395–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asheim, G.B. (1994), ‘The concept of net national product in an open economy’, paper presented to the International Symposium on ‘Models of sustainable development. Exclusive or complementary approaches of sustainability?’Université Panthéon-Sorbonne,Paris.Google Scholar
Atkinson, G. (1993), ‘Carrying capacity as a measure of sustainability’, mimeo, CSERGE, University College London and University of East Anglia.Google Scholar
Barbier, E., Markandya, A. and Pearce, D.W. (1990), ‘Environmental sustainability and cost–benefit analysis, Environment and Planning A 22: 1259–1266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartelmus, P., Lutz, E. and Schweinwest, S. (1993), ‘Integrated environmental and economic accounting: a case study for Papua New Guinea’, in Lutz, E., ed., Toward Improved Accounting for the Environment, Washington DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Baumol, W. and Oates, W. (1988), The Theory of Environmental Policy, 2nd edn, Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burrows, P. (1979), The Economic Theory of Pollution Control, Oxford: Martin Robertson.Google Scholar
Cohen, J.E. (1995), ‘Population growth and earth's human carrying capacity’, Science 269: 341–348.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Common, M. and Perrings, C. (1992), ‘Towards an ecological economics of sustainability’, Ecological Economics 6(1): 7–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conway, G. (1985), ‘Agroecosystem analysis’, Agricultural Administration 20, 31–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conway, G. (1987), ‘The properties of agroecosystems’, Agricultural Administration 24, 95–117.Google Scholar
Conway, G. (1992), ‘Sustainability in agricultural development: trade-offs with productivity, stability and equitability’, mimeo, Imperial College London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conway, G. and Barbier, E. (1990), After the Green Revolution: Sustainable Agriculture for Development, London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Cooper, D., Vellvé, R. and Hobbelink, H., eds., (1992), Growing Diversity: Genetic Resources and Local Food Security, London: Intermediate Technology Publications.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dasgupta, P. (1982), Control of Resources, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Dasgupta, P. and Heal, G. (1979), Economic Theory and Exhaustible Resources, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ehrlich, P. (1992), ‘Ecological economics and the carrying capacity of earth’, 2nd Meeting of the International Society for Ecological Economics, 3−6 August 1992, Stockholm.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faucheux, S., Froger, G. and ÓConnor, J. (1994), ‘The costs of achieving Sustainability: the differences between “environmentally corrected national accounts” and “sustainable income” as information for Sustainability policy’, Cahier de C3E, Paris.Google Scholar
Hamilton, K. (1994), ‘Green adjustments to GDP’, Resources Policy 20(3): 155–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, K. (1995a), ‘Measuring progress towards sustainable development’, Issue paper for OECD Group on Economic and Environmental Policy Integration, Paris.Google Scholar
Hamilton, K. (1995b), ‘National wealth and sustainable national income’, mimeo, CSERGE, University College London and University of East Anglia.Google Scholar
Hamilton, K. (1995c), ‘Sustainable development, the Hartwick rule and optimal growth’, Environmental and Resource Economics 5: 393–411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, K. and Atkinson, G. (1995), ‘Valuing air pollution in the national accounts’, London Group on National Accounts and the Environment, Washington DC.Google Scholar
Hammond, A., Adriaanse, A., Rodenburg, E., Bryant, D. and Woodward, R. (1995), Environmental Indicators, Washington DC: World Resources Institute.Google Scholar
Hartwick, J. M. (1993), ‘Notes on economic depreciation of natural resource stocks and national accounting’, in Franz, A. and Stahmer, C., eds., Approaches to Environmental Accounting, Heidelberg: Physica-Verlag.Google Scholar
Hartwick, J. M. (1994), ‘Sustainability and constant consumption paths in open economies with exhaustible resources’, AERE Conference,5 June 1994,Boulder, CO.Google Scholar
Hazell, P. (1984), ‘Changing patterns of variability in world cereal production’, in Anderson, J. and Hazell, P., eds., Variability in Grain Yields: Implications for Agricultural Research and Policy in Developing Countries, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Holling, C.S. (1973), ‘Resilience and Stability of Ecological Systems’, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 4:1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hueting, R., Bosch, P. and de Boer, B. (1992), ‘Methodology for the calculation of sustainable national income’, Statistical Essays M44, Central Bureau of Statistics, Voorburg.Google Scholar
Krebs, C.J. (1985), Ecology, 3rd edn, New York:HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Mäler, K.-G. (1991), ‘National accounts and environmental resources’, Environmental and Resource Economics 1:1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meadows, D.H., Meadows, D.L., Behrens, R. and Randers, A. (1972), Limits to Growth, New York: Universe Books.Google Scholar
Moran, D., Pearce, D.W. and Wendelaar, A. (1995), ‘Investing in biodiversity conservation: a cost-effectiveness index for ranking priorities’, mimeo, CSERGE, University College London and University of East Anglia.Google Scholar
Ninan, K. and Chandrashekar, H. (1991), ‘The green revolution, dryland agriculture and sustainability insights from India’, paper presented to the 21st International Conference of Agricultural Economists,Tokyo.Google Scholar
Pearce, D.W. and Atkinson, G. (1993), ‘Capital theory and the measurement of sustainable development: an indicator of weak sustainability’, Ecological Economics 8: 103–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearce, D.W. and Moran, D. (1994), The Economic Value of Biodiversity, London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Pearce, D.W. and Prakesh, T.R. (1993), ‘Sustainability as resilience’, mimeo, CSERGE, University College London and University of East Anglia.Google Scholar
Pearce, D.W. and Warford, J.J. (1993), World Without End: Economics, Environment and Sustainable Development, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pearce, D.W., Markandya, A. and Barbier, E. (1989), Blueprint for a Green Economy, London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Pearce, D.W., Barbier, E. and Markandya, A. (1990), Sustainable Development: Economics and Environment in the Third World, London: Edward Elgar, and London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Pearce, D.W., Atkinson, G. and Dubourg, W.R. (1994), ‘The economics of sustainable development’, Annual Review of Energy and Environment 19: 457–474.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perrings, C. (1994), ‘Ecological resilience in the sustainability of economic development’, International Symposium on Models of Sustainable Development, Paris.Google Scholar
Perrings, C., Turner, R.K. and Folke, C. (1995), ‘Ecological economics—paradigm or perspective?’, European Association of Resource and Environmental Economists Conference,Umea.Google Scholar
Pezzey, J. (1989), ‘Economic analysis of sustainable growth and sustainable development’, Environment Department Working Paper No. 15, World Bank, Washington DC.Google Scholar
Pezzey, J. (1994), ‘The optimal sustainable depletion of non-renewable resources’, mimeo, University College London.Google Scholar
Rees, W. and Wackenagel, M. (1992), ‘Appropriated carrying capacity: measuring the natural capital requirements of the human economy’, International Society of Ecological Economists Conference,Stockholm.Google Scholar
Repetto, R., Magrath, W., Wells, M., Beer, C. and Rossini, F. (1989), Wasting Assets: Natural Resources in the National Accounts, Washington DC: World Resources Institute.Google Scholar
Schulze, E.-D. and Mooney, H.A. (1994), Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functions, Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Simon, J.L. and Kahn, H. (1984), The Resourceful Earth, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Solow, R.M. (1986), ‘On the intergenerational allocation of exhaustible resources’, Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 88: 141–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Tongeren, J., Schweinfest, S., Lutz, E., Gomez Luna, M. and Guillen, F. (1993), ‘Integrated environmental and economic accounting: a case study for Mexico’, in Lutz, E., ed., Toward Improved Accounting for the Environment, Washington DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Vitousek, P., Ehrlich, P., Ehrlich, A. and Matson, P. (1986), ‘Human appropriation of the products of photosynthesis’, Bioscience 34(6): 368–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Bank (1994), World Development Report 1994, Washington DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
World Bank (1995), Monitoring Environmental Progress: Environmentally Sustainable Development, Washington DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) (1992), Global Biodiversity: Status of the Earth's Living Resources, London: Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar