Taking Nature Into Account: A Report to the Club of Rome Toward a Sustainable National Income

by Wouter van Dieren

Overview

Indicators used to direct ecomonic policy (GDP, national income, etc.) are based on a number of factors ß but nowhere in their calculation is there an acknowledgement of the degradation of natural resources. The numbers may look good, but continued deterioration of the environment is leading us closer to crises; meanwhile, policymakers and the public are basing decisions on dangerously incomplete information. In Taking Nature into Account, a number of the world's leading experts make the ethical, historical, economic, and ecological arguments for including environmental factors when measuring fiscal health. Initiated by the Club of Rome (an international group of influential businesspeople, statesmen, and scientists), and written in cooperation with the World Wide Fund for Nature, the report reviews existing methodologies and makes recommendations for adjusting the way we think about and measure the economy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780387945330
Publisher:	Springer New York
Publication date:	07/21/1995
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1995
Pages:	332
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.03(d)

Table of Contents

1 Introduction.- I Economic Growth and Western Society.- 2 The History and Roots of Growth.- 3 Economic Growth and and Gross National Product.- II Paradoxes of Growth.- 4 State of the Environment.- 5 Failures of the System of National Accounts.- III Sustainable Development.- 6 From Growth to Sustainability.- 7 The Concept of Sustainability.- 8 Vision of the South.- 9 Indicators for Measuring Welfare.- 10 The Role of Social Indicators.- IV Environmental Adjustment of the System of National Accounts.- 11 Defensive Expenditures.- 12 Depletion of Natural Resources.- 13 Estimating Sustainable National Income.- 14 Environmental Accounting and the System of National Accounts.- V Taking Nature into Account: Conclusions and Recommendations.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Steering By the Right Compass.- 3. SNA 1993 Revision and the UN Handbook on Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting.- 4. Adjustment of GDP: Different Objectives.- 5. The Current SNA: A Narrow Economic Point of View.- 6. Cost Accounting from a Comprehensive Economic- Point of View.- 7. Cost Accounting from a Responsibility Point of View.- 8. Resistance to and Solutions for Change.- 9. Strengthening International Coordination.- 10. Summary of Conclusions and Recommendations.- References.