Lecture 5 - Indicators Flashcards
(30 cards)
Inclusion of Sustainable Development in International Law
-1972 Stockholm Declaration: First major integration of environment and development
- World Commission on Environment & Development 1987: First major integration of env’t and development -> Brundtland (SD is meeting needs of current generation without compromising ends of future)
- 1992 Rio Declaration: Formalized sustainable development principles –>: Comes out of Rio with three pillars of SD (economic, social, and environmnetal, but these compete)
Strong Sustainability
Doesn’t see natural capital as equal to other forms of capital (non substitutable)
- But hard to measure and assess strong sustainability
- Have tried to measure/make threshold framework through PBs and ecological footprint
Due to unique contributino to human well-being, certain elements of natural capital are critical .
Weak Sustainability
Sees all capitals and substitutable (even natural and manufactured)
- Technological progress is assumed to continually generate technical solutiosn to environmental problems caused by increased production of goods & services
- If we follow this then we’ll run out of resources
> Should add or subtract quantities from GDP to make it better indicator of welfare/well-being
Indicator
A factor or variable that provides simple means to measure achievement (e.g. footprints, adjusted economic measures, dashboards, GDP, etc.)
Metric
Calculated measure of quantitative indicator based upon two or more indicators or measures
Types of Sustainable Development Indicators
- Advanced Economic Measures (e.g. GPI, Total wealth including natural capital)
- Dashboards (e.g. OECD framework indicators prepared by stat offices in Germany, OECD Green Growth Indicator, SDG Indicators)
- Composite Indices (e.g. Happy Planet Index, Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Index)
- Footprints (e.g. Scotland’s Ecological Footprint, CO2 emissions embodied in int’l trade)
Examples of Indices
OECD Better Life Index (2020)
Environmental Protection Index (2024)
Happy Planet Index (2024)
GDP (doesn’t take into account non-market value)
Examples of indices that attempt to measure economy and development beyond GDP
OECD Better Life Index (2020)
-Tries to consider other themes than GDP and Econ but no indicator that measures intrinsic environment
Environmnetal Performance Index (2022) (EPI)
-Influential; Analyzes each country’s environmntal performance; Published annually by World Economic Forum w 11 issues and categories within 3 sections (climate change, environmnetal health, ecosystem vitality)
- Assigns weight subjectively to different aspects, assigning relative importance
- Only tracks within boundaries; not transboundary impacts
Happy Planet Index (2024)
-Of the 10 countries w highest capita GDP, 6 have low scores
- Uses life expectancy * self-reported wellbeing and then divides that by consumption-based carbon footprint
Capital
-A STOCK or asset which has the characteristic of producing a FLOW of income or some other benefit
- Stock value is the NPV of the flow
- Usually refers to manufactured capital (e.g. machines, buildings) but can just mean a stock of money)
- Difficult to value because of different types of productive power
Capital loses value (depreciates) over time and nede to be replenished by investment to maintain capital stock
- Environment referred to as “natural capital” (places environment in recognisable economic framework on equal basis with other factors of production)
- Potential for unsustainable development lies in loss of one or more capital stocks, or trade-offs made b/w different forms of capital and extent to which
Adjusted Net Savings (ANS)
World Bank Measure of Wealth
Measured as gross national saving minus the depreciation of produced capital, depletion of subsoil assets and timer, cost of pollution damages, plus credit for education expenditures
- World Bank data includes ANS as well as adjusted Net National Income (aNNI)
- Considers produced capital, natural capital, human capital, and net foreign assets
- Follows environmnetal system accounting
Inclusive Wealth Index (IWI)
UNEP Application of Wealth
-Key variables in IWI are human capital, produced capital, natural capital, health capital
-Natural capital uses fossil fuels, minerals, forest resources, agricultural land, fishered
- Does not capture environmental damage or issues
- IW has remained relatively stagnant while GDP has grown and distribution of IW has changed; regions like Latin America and EAP have seen their shares of natural capital decline and rising in wealthiest countries
ANS (World Bank) and IWI (UNEP_
despite them sharing theoretical foundations of how to measure capital and sustainability, disrepencies in measuring natural capital
- Both embody the weak sustainability concept
Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI)
- Another exmaple of trying to go beyond GDP
- Asks what portion of economic activity is actually making us better off and what portion is likely to be sustainable long-term?
- Indicator of sustainable economic welfare
- 26 indiciators and you + or - them from GDP to get this index; completed for 17 countries but not since 2013 because keep seeing GDP grow but GPI stagnant; now trying to do more locally
UN Human Development Index (HDI) and Inequality-Adjusted Human Development Index
Another example of trying to go beyond GDP
- A long healthy life measure by life expectancy at brith; Knwoledge measured by expected years of schooling and decent standard of living measured by GNI
Ineuqliaty-Adjusted uses same principle but acknowledges they differ within countries so uses additional data on inequality within countries to discount the average values => Greater the inequality = lower the IHDI relative to HDI
Critical Natural Capital
Critical natural capital highlights need to maintain ecological functioning of natural systems above certain thresholds of degradation to conserve capacity of natural capital to provide services critical for existence.
Strong Sustainability Indicators
-Planetary Boundaries/Safe Operating Space
- Ecological Footprint
- Living Planet Index (LPI): Analogue of stock market exchange tracking stocks = species
- Environmental Sustainability Gap (ESGAP): Calculate enviornmental pressure, set sustainability standads, calculate ESGAP
Safe and Just Space (SJS) Framework
Strong sustainability framework
- Combines PBs with concept of social boundaries
- Does not link use of resources to social outcomes
PBs and Human Wellbeing
-Does not imply a one way casual link between resource used and social outcomes but shows that social depends on healthy resource system
- Feedback loops b/w resources and social outcomes
- Incorporates biophysical and social indicators and finds no nation performs well on both (e.g. wealthy nations achieve social thresholds but transgress creatly the biophysical boundaries
Biophysical and Social Indicators
Incorporated into PB & Human Wellbeing framework and finds that no nation performs well on both (e.g. wealthy nations achieve social thresholds but transgress creatly the biophysical boundaries (and vice-versa)).
Social Shortfall and Ecological Overshoot of nations (2022)
- Shows 1992 v. 2015 how we perform v. Ecological thresholds with same social circle within ecological circle
- Need to change our relationship with nature to improve on this
PB in National Policies (in Sweden)
Sweden translated the PBs to national policies; making sure legal system supports PBs
Ecological Footprint
Example of strong sustainability indicator
- Idea that all human activity uses land so measurement of land in hectres
- US, China, India have largest footrptints, then Russia, Canada, etc.
