1 / 17

C omposite indicators of environmental sustainability

C omposite indicators of environmental sustainability. Bedrich Moldan bedrich.moldan@czp.cuni.cz. Environmental sustainability. E nvironment is seen as one of the three pillars of sustainable development

sovann
Download Presentation

C omposite indicators of environmental sustainability

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Composite indicators of environmental sustainability Bedrich Moldan bedrich.moldan@czp.cuni.cz

  2. Environmental sustainability • Environment is seen as one of the three pillars of sustainable development • A broader view does not restrain the distinct role of the environment but points out its essential interconnection with the other two pillars namely the economic and social pillar • The term “environmental sustainability” stresses both the specificity of the environment and its fundamental anchoring within the sustainability framework.

  3. Demand for indicators of environmental sustainability • There has been a need for indicators capturing the linkages between the environmental and the other two dimensions of sustainability (e.g. decoupling indicators) • Such indicators cover well some of the essential features of sustainable development but by no means cover the issue of environmental sustainability as such

  4. Demand for a composite indicator • Decision-makers as well as the general public would like to know at one glance what is the environmental situation in a given country - a clear request for developing a single indicator that could serve as an overall measure of environmental sustainability

  5. Criteria for sound indicators • There are 3 essential criteria: salience, credibility and legitimacy • Salience means that the indicator is interesting, useful and relevant for the user. It must show something “that really matters“ (a request for policy relevance) • Among other things, the indicator should be able to serve as a benchmarking instrument, to show trends in time and set targets

  6. Criteria for sound indicators – credibility Credibility deals with the scientific validity of the indicator: • quality of data used for its construction • methodology of indicators construction, aggregation and other transformations • adequacy of presentation • and similar issues

  7. Criteria for sound indicators - legitimacy • Legitimacy is the most difficult feature to define • It touches,e.g., the perception of the indicator, the competence of the producer and his general acceptability • Legitimacy is assessed from the point of view of a wide range of potential users and stakeholders whose interests, values, or beliefs might be affected by the indicator (national governments, business sector and civil society organizations).

  8. Application of the criteria on GDP and HDI Low level of arbitrariness High level of arbitrariness

  9. Environmental SustainabilityIndex (ESI) It is a measure of the overall progress towards environmental sustainability, developed for 142 countries.

  10. Dashboard of Sustainability (DS) It is a software which allows presenting complex relationships between economic, social and environmental issues. E.g it calculates Sustainable Development Index (based on UNCSD indicators)

  11. Wellbeing index (WI) It combines 36 indicators into the Human Wellbeing index, and 51 indicators into an Ecosystem Wellbeing index - combined into the Wellbeing/Stress Index

  12. Ecological footprint (EF) An index expressed as the area of ecologically productiveland needed to maintain its current consumption patterns and absorb its wastes (carbon dioxide) with the prevailing technology.

  13. Total energy footprint (Living Planet Report) A country’s energy footprint is calculated as the area required to provide, or absorb the waste from, fossil fuels (coal, oil,and natural gas), fuelwood, nuclear energy,and hydropower.

  14. Direct Material Consumption (DMC) DMC is a sum of all domestic extraction flows (extracted raw material, harvested biomass, etc.) including imported and excluding exported material flows

  15. Does response matter? Better suited for being accepted as the indicators of environmental sustainability

  16. Geobiosphere Load Index (GBL) • It captures the most important factors of environmental sustainability: energy, materials and land • These sub-indexes can be regarded as the essential components and prerequisites of nature’s services • It focuses on pressures ( D-P-S-I-Rframework)

  17. Geobiosphere Load Index (GBL) Relative results expressed in the “per km2” and „per capita“ (the best results = the lowest GBL values)

More Related