Measuring Well-Being Beyond GDP
The European Commission is working on a new tool to measure the wealth and well-being of countries beyond the traditional GDP. The new tool will aim to measure 'true' progress, taking environmental and social indicators into consideration.
The initiative was presented at a ,a href="http://www.beyond-gdp.eu/" target=_link>high-level conference in Brussels that aimed to clarify which indices are most appropriate to measure progress, and how these can best be integrated into the decision-making process and taken up by public debate.
GDP - Gross Domestic Product - is widely used by economists to measure individual countries' economic performance. However, the relationship between economic growth as measured by GDP and other dimensions of societal progress is not straightforward. Effectively measuring progress, wealth and well-being requires indices that are as clear and appealing as GDP but more inclusive than GDP - ones that incorporate social and environmental issues. This is especially important given global challenges such as climate change, social and economic injustice, pressure on resources and their potential impact on societies.
The indicator GDP was created in the wake of the great depression in the 1930s and experts agree that it alone cannot reflect the economic performance of modern society because it does not take into account matters such as sustainable consumption.
Alternative measurements include the United Nations' Human Development Index, which is the measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, and standard of living for countries worldwide and in which GDP is one of the factors in the calculation; and the Ecological Footprint, measuring human demands on nature.
Vinyl 2010 Essay Competition
Vinyl 2010 wants to know your views on sustainable development and how it fits into the global political and economic context through the launch of its first Essay Competition.
If you’re an European Economic Area citizen between 18 and 30 and have something to say on sustainable development submit your essay. Essays should be journalistic in nature which gives a great opportunity for budding writers.
All essays must respond to the title: “Are sustainable development and economic growth mutually exclusive?”. All entries must be received no later than 31 December 2007.
LIFE and Waste Recycling
For more than 30 years, efforts to reduce and avoid the negative impacts of waste on the environment and human health have been central to EU environment policy. Significant progress has been made based on the principle of the waste hierarchy that prioritises waste prevention and sees landfill generally as the least favourable waste management option for the environment.
Heavily polluting landfills and incinerators are being cleaned up. Re-use, recycling and energy recovery are being applied to regulated wastes. The diversion of biodegradable waste from landfills is an important contribution to limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, while recycling and re-use are increasing, overall amounts of waste are still growing, increasing demand for primary resources and stress on eco-systems.
This unsustainable trend reveals that, despite all progress achieved, the challenges for waste policy are still mounting and a lot still needs to be done. The new EU ‘”Thematic Strategy on the prevention and recycling of waste’” sets out the objectives and means by which the EU can further improve the management of waste and make better use of its material and energy resources. A closely related revision of the “Waste Framework Directive” will be voted on in the European Parliament and in the European Council in the coming months.
In this context, now is an opportune moment to consider what promising and encouraging best practices already exist. The more than 290 waste-related projects co-financed since 1992 under the European Commission’s LIFE (Financial Instrument for the Environment) programme reveal some of the ways in which Europe’s waste management challenge can be successfully tackled.
The brochure LIFE and Waste Recycling: Innovative Waste Management Options in Europe presents 20 projects, which represent a small but valuable selection of the numerous successful waste-related LIFE initiatives that support the EU’s evolving waste policy. Covering the wide range and scope of activities carried out over the years, these projects not only refer to solutions to waste as a problem, but also to opportunities to see waste as a valuable resource for industry, generating jobs and businesses.
The projects serve to highlight some of the key principles around which European environment policy is built. They underline the value of information sharing and exchange and have the potential to contribute to the European Union’s long term vision: to become a recycling society that seeks to avoid waste and uses waste as a resource.
Synthesis Report of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report
The challenges and opportunities facing the world as a result of climate change have been distilled into a concise and sobering guide by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This fourth IPCC report raises serious concerns of species extinction as well as arguing strongly in favor of stepping up support and action on adaptation to the effects of global warming.
The guide, officially known as the Summary for Policy Makers, underlines the urgency to act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions alongside the economic costs of a transition to a low carbon society.
It argues strongly in favour of stepping up support and action on adaptation. "Neither adaptation nor mitigation alone can avoid all climate change impacts. However, they can complement each other and together can significantly reduce the risks of climate change," says the report by the IPCC, a panel jointly established by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). It also highlights five "reasons for concern" which are now stronger than before. This is because scientists now conclude that they may happen at lower increases in temperature or because the risks may be larger than had previously been supposed. These include the impacts on species and biodiversity hotspots as temperatures rise including polar and high mountain communities and ecosystems.
The Synthesis Report forms the final part of Climate Change 2007, the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. Earlier this year, the IPCC released the other three reports: The physical science basis (February 07); Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability (April 07); Mitigation of Climate Change (May 07).
The science related to climate change is vast and complex, and the IPCC has worked with scientists around the world to collect, assess and process the body of solid and up-to-date scientific literature. All this information is contained in the first three volumes of "Climate Change 2007". The Synthesis Report goes one step further: it is the decisive effort to integrate and compact this wealth of information into a readable and concise document explicitly targeted to the policymakers.
The Synthesis Report also brings in relevant parts some material contained in the full Working Group Reports over and above what is included in the Summary for Policymakers in these three Reports. It is designed to be a powerful, scientifically authoritative document of high policy relevance, which will be a major contribution to the discussions at the 13th Conference of the Parties in Bali during December 2007. This Conference was postponed to December to allow the IPCC Synthesis Report to come out first.
International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management
The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) has inspired an international process to address the issue of decoupling economic growth and environmental degradation by developing a 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production, also referred to as the Marrakech Process. The OECD has developed a programme on Material Flows and Resource Productivity. The G8 countries, spearheaded by Japan, are implementing the ‘3R’ initiative, aimed at reducing, reusing and recycling resources. The European Commission has launched its Thematic Strategy on the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources. In addition, there are numerous national strategies aimed at closing the loop, including China’s circular economy approach.
Scientists, businesses and governments need integrated assessments of status and trends of global resource use, a common understanding of scientific concepts and methodologies for identifying priority resources and products, and joint efforts to increase and improve data collection with regard to global resource use.
For this reason, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has established an International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management which will address these questions through scientific assessment involving state-ofthe-art knowledge with leading experts in the field. This initiative is supported through a partnership with national governments, the European Commission and civil society organisations.
Scientists and experts are invited to join the Panel as members. Governments and relevant organisations are asked to join the Steering Committee to oversee the Panel’s strategy, work programme and activities.
Earth Under Fire
Earth Under Fire: How Global Warming is Changing the World is a comprehensive look at the world wide effects of climate change. In dramatic photographs, maps and quotes from world climate science leaders, this one-of-a-kind book shows how the earth is being changed right now.
The book illustrates on-going shifts from weather extremes and melting glaciers to disruptions of animal migration and plant growth -- including the strong impact on human life, cities and cultures.
Earth Under Fire ends with a vision of how we can slow global warming and improve the lives of people everywhere.
Europeans Greener than Americans
Europeans are 50 percent more likely than Americans to buy "green" products – from solar panels to hybrid cars to natural/organic foods, personal care and home products, according to the European LOHAS (Lifestyles Of Health And Sustainability) study based on a partnership between Porter Novelli and Natural Marketing Institute. Survey results also found that Europeans are 25 percent more likely to recycle and more than 30 percent likely to influence their friends and family about the environment than Americans.
The study segments the total adult population by country according to consumers’ attitudes, behaviors and product/service usage patterns across several areas including sustainability, corporate social responsibility, environmentalism, social issues and the use of eco-friendly products and services.
While Europeans are eagerly adopting new behaviors as it relates to green consumerism, they report being more price sensitive than their American counterparts. For instance, Europeans are approximately 25 percent less likely than U.S. shoppers to say they will pay 20 percent more for eco-friendly products. However, this is in apparent contradiction with actual purchases, as Europeans are more likely to have purchased products like organic foods, renewable power and hybrid cars. Differences in tax structures, subsidies, and the longevity of the availability of LOHAS products likely drive these differences, according to the study.
Europeans are approximately 32 percent more likely than Americans to be motivated to buy products with seals or certifications indicating the product is environmentally-friendly, underscoring the critical roles that authenticity and transparency play.
WiserEarth
WiserEarth, which launched in May 2007, is an open-source database which now lists more than 107,000 organizations advocating sustainability, with 5,400 users around the world.
The site incorporates Google Maps, wikis, and discussion groups, as well as listings of events, resources, and jobs. Users can create and maintain profile pages, and chat with members of other groups. Areas of focus range from agriculture to health to media to work, and popular forum discussions involve poverty, gender, and "planetary development." More calendars and regionally focused content hubs are being created.
WiserEarth is a project of the Natural Capital Institute. The institute is also working on the World Index of Social and Environmental Responsibility (WISER) as well as an open-source Wiser Business database to track sustainable business practices. Environmentalist and author Paul Hawken, who helped to pioneer the concept of "natural capitalism," is behind these efforts.
EU Consultation on Internalisation of External Costs
The European Commission has opened a public consultation on the sensitive issue of internalising external costs related to transport, notably through the imposition of charges on infrastructure. The Commission must report back on by June 2008.
The Commission points out that, despite being essential to Europe's prosperity and competitiveness, transport activities produce a wide range of negative side effects, including infrastructure degradation, land use, air and noise pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and traffic accidents, costs which are not borne by the individual user but cost society as a whole a fortune.
The consultation document refers in detail to the Commission’s preparation of a ‘European strategy’ on internalisation of external costs. It also announces a high-level stakeholder conference on the results of the study for the Commission in early 2008.
Several potential policy options are outlined:
- Congestion charges and tradable permits in road transport;
- Scarcity charges in rail transport and air transport;
- Differentiated (congestion) charges in maritime and inland waterway transport;
- Internalising accident costs through insurance premiums or safety charges;
- Noise charges for all modes;
- Noise taxes for aviation;
- Air pollution taxes or charges;
- CO2 taxes;
- Emissions trading for transport
An annex in the document provides an overview of current transport and environment charges in the EU-27.
The consultation deadline is 31 December 2007.
Climate Space
A new website, hosted by the new economics foundation (nef) is setting out to build an online community of people, groups and organisations finding their way in a warming world.
The user generated site allows people to share and search for information. climatespace enables you to meet others who are taking steps, large or small to cut their carbon emissions, and share your experience. You'll find useful short cuts and information, personal stories, news, requests for help, cutting edge thinking and a little inspiration.
Log on and add your own ideas to climatespace.
Carbon Footprint
Climate change is of high concern, driving growing demand for carbon footprint information. The European Platform on Life Cycle Assessment has designed a leaflet on Carbon Footprint to help your organisation get started with an efficient and effective approach to address this topic, building on existing international standards and European reference data; further information and data sources including links to service providers are included.
They recommend to maximise the benefits of work on Carbon footprints to “get the most out of this” which includes providing customers and other stakeholders with broader life cycle information related to your products and for internal purposes such as for identifying hot-spots along the supply-chain, potential risks, opportunities for related improvements, to avoid shifting burdens to other types of environmental impacts as well as to anticipate upcoming demands in the context of “Sustainable Consumption and Production”, a core commitment of the European Commission.
Sarkozy's Green Revolution
French President Sarkozy's vision for an "ecological New Deal" and a "green revolution" in France was presented at the Elysée Palace on 25 October in the presence of Commission President José Manuel Barroso and climate activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore.
His pledge came in conclusion to the work of a broad stakeholder forum, involving trade unions, employers' associations, local authorities, farmers, and environmental NGOs, which started work in July 2007.
Among the measures Sarkozy announced on 25 October are those that got large support in the forum's conclusions. They include:
- Freezing the construction of new roads - except for city bypasses - and airports and extending the high-speed TGV rail network;
- A bonus and penalty system for cars based on pollution levels;
- A plan to increase energy-efficiency in both existing and new buildings, including a ban on incandescent light bulbs by 2010;
- A €1bn plan for the development of low-carbon energy over the next four years (Sarkozy pledged that, for each euro spent on nuclear research, one euro will be spent on other, clean technologies);
- A plan to cut waste by focusing on prevention including proposals to "ban or tax unnecessary waste" (such as over-packaging) and proposals to turn to incineration only "as a last resort";
- Halving pesticide use over the next ten years; and
- A moratorium on the approval of new Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) until a new expert group, to be set up in the coming weeks, issues conclusions.
Sarkozy also reiterated earlier calls for an EU levy on goods imported from countries which have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol. However, such a proposal is unlikely to find the required unanimous support among the 27 member states. But, he did however say France will consider shifting its high tax burden away from labour to the environment with the possible introduction of a carbon tax.
Human Activities Decrease Earth's Bioproductivity
Net Primary Production (NPP) is the net amount of carbon assimilated by vegetation through the process of photosynthesis in a given period. It determines the amount of energy that is available for transfer to other levels of an ecosystem's trophic web. Human activities such as land use affect the magnitude of global NPP and the flow of biomass through ecosystems, among others through changes in land cover. In order to measure the impact of land use on biomass available for ecosystems, a metric known as human appropriation of netprimary production (HANPP) has been put forward.
Austrian researchers recently assessed global HANPP based on vegetation modelling, agricultural and forestry statistics, and geographical information systems data derived from satellite imagery, considering land use, land cover, irrigation, livestock rearing, cropland agriculture and soil degradation.
Results showed that humans appropriated 23.8% of NPP in 2000, 15.6 billion metric tonnes of carbon per year. Of this amount, 53% came from harvests, 40% from land-use-induced productivity changes, and 7% from human-induced fires. The work shows that humans are having a massive impact on the Earth's resources, as human-induced land changes are generating significant alterations in NPP. The maps generated by the researchers suggest that in most areas, NPP has decreased due to human activities, though in some areas it has been artificially increased through intensive fertilization, irrigation and mechanization of agriculture.
Overall, this study emphasises land use as a factor of global importance when determining an ecosystems’ productivity changes. In the light of these results, it has become necessary to consider carefully which measures can promote the use of biomass for energy production as an option to reduce fossil fuel-related carbon emissions.
UNEP Global Environmental Outlook 4
The fourth report in the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) series from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) provides a comprehensive, scientifically credible, policy-relevant and up-to-date assessment of, and outlook for, the state of the global environment. GEO-4 is published 20 years after the landmark World Commission on Sustainable Development report - Our Common Future - which was published in 1987.
Environment for Development is the GEO-4 underlying theme and the report pays special attention to the role and impact of the environment on human well-being as well as to the use of environmental valuation as a tool for decision-making.
GEO-4’s specialist report, the Summary for Decision Makers is an essential guide for policy-makers. Both publications are excellent tools for teaching and research and relevant in the field of international environmental governance as they highlight policy opportunities for a more sustainable approach to development.
EU Call for Evidence on Biodiversity Loss
Biodiversity is vital to the healthy functioning of ecosystems. Healthy ecosystems provide a flow of valuable services including the provision of food, fuel and medicines, the regulation of water and air quality, nutrient cycling and many other services. Biodiversity loss damages the functioning of ecosystems and leads to a decline in essential services, which may have severe social and economic consequences.
At the meeting of the G8+5 Environment Ministers in Potsdam on 15-17 March 2007, the German Government proposed a study on The Economic Significance of the Global Loss of Biological Diversity.
The European Commission is supporting Germany with the preparatory work for the study, under the title A Review on the Economics of Biodiversity Loss. The Review will be conducted in two phases, with the first phase running up to the Ninth Conference of the Parties (COP9) of the Convention on Biological Diversity to be held in Germany in May 2008.
The Review aims to improve understanding of the costs which may result from present and future trends of biodiversity loss and related declines in ecosystem services, and of the challenges associated with halting these trends.
The Review will benefit from the work of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, which made significant progress in assessing current knowledge on biodiversity and ecosystem services. While the Review has a global scope, it will also address the specific case of the European Union, providing evidence and analysis that will feed the EU’s continuing development and implementation of biodiversity policy, as it relates to both within the EU and to external relations.
Potsdam Symposium on Sustainability
Anthropogenic global warming through greenhouse gas emissions is the foremost of an entire set of emerging development, environment and security crises humankind is currently facing. How can we ensure today that the world's population of tomorrow - up to nine billion people by the middle of this century - will be able to live a decent life on our planet? How can we secure supply for the growing need of energy and achieve a more equitable growth of wealth?
To discuss some of these questions on the highest scientific level, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) recently held the first interdisciplinary Nobel Laureates Symposium titled "Global Sustainability: A Nobel Cause". Under the patronage and with active participation of the German Chancellor, Dr Angela Merkel, the symposium assembled 15 Nobel Laureates and numerous other world-renowned experts to address these crucial intellectual challenges of the 21st century.
With a focus on achieving climate stabilization, energy security for generations to come, and sustainable development on a global scale, symposium participants discussed their views of the best scientific and political strategies. The results are summarized in the Potsdam Memorandum, which outlines the urgent need for a Great Transformation and a new global contract between science and society. The Potsdam Memorandum will be presented at the 13th UNFCCC meeting in Bali in December as an impetus for converging on a promising new global deal for sustainability.
