H. Verbruggen

Spatial sustainability, trade and indicators: an evaluation of the ‘ecological footprint’

The search for frameworks and indicators of sustainable development has taken a prominent place in this journal. However, some specific aspects have received little or no attention, notably the spatial dimension and the role of international trade in indicator development. Moreover, many sustainable development indicators comprise implicit valuations, weighting schemes and policy objectives, which are insufficiently recognised as such. This contribution tries to highlight these issues by means of a review of a recently proposed indicator for ecological‐economic analysis, namely the ecological footprint, that has been developed by Wackernagel and Rees. Its concept and calculation procedure are criticised on a number of points, and it is concluded that the Ecological Footprint is not the comprehensive and transparent planning tool as is often assumed. In explaining our position we will argue that spatial sustainability and regional sustainable development have not been precisely discussed so far, neither in the literature on trade and environment, nor in that on sustainable development. We will defend the view that trade can contribute positively and negatively to environmental unsustainability. Consequently, indicators and models are needed that allow for analysing interactions and trade-offs between such opposite effects.

In search of indicators of sustainable development

1. Indicators of sustainable development: an overview.- 2. Towards sustainable development indicators.- 3. Note on the correction of national income for environmental losses.- 4. GNP and sustainable income measures: some problems and a way out.- 5. Natural Resource Accounting: State of the art and perspectives for the assessment of trends in sustainable development.- 6. The predictive meaning of sustainability indicators.- 7. The AMOEBA approach as a useful tool for establishing sustainable development?.- 8. Towards sustainability: indicators of environmental quality.- 9. Contours of an integrated environmental index for application in land-use zoning.- Notes on the contributors.- List of workshop participants.

A measure of sustainable national income for the Netherlands

Abstract We present calculations on the sustainable national income (SNI) indicator, first proposed by Hueting, which corrects net national income (NNI) for the costs to bring back environmental resource use to a ‘sustainable’ level. Using an applied general equilibrium (AGE) model specifying 27 production sectors, we calculate different variants of SNI for the Netherlands in 1990, given a set of pre-determined sustainability standards. The AGE model is extended with emissions and abatement cost curves, based on large data sets for nine environmental themes. The model combines the advantages of a top-down approach (the AGE model) with the information of a bottom-up approach (the environmental data and data on emissions reductions costs). The presented numerical results show that in 1990 Dutch SNI is about 50% below NNI, though many uncertainties are still present in the data and the model. The enhanced greenhouse effect is the most expensive environmental theme.

Indicators of sustainable development: an overview

“Is this country’s or that region’s economic performance more sustainable in 1991 than it was in 1981?”. Finding measuring rods to answer questions like this one, was, according to Opschoor and Reijnders (Chapter 2), the loosely formulated objective of the workshops that were organized in the fall of 1989 and early 1990 by the Institute for Environmental Studies of the Free University of Amsterdam at the request of the Netherlands’ National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection (RIVM). The papers presented at these workshops, which were attended by both scientists and policy-makers, form the core of this publication. In this introductory chapter we try to put the different contributions into perspective and highlight some of the topics that were discussed at the workshops.

The Kyoto Regime, Changing Patterns of International Trade and Carbon Leakage

A group of industrialized countries and countries with economies in transition have agreed to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases under the Kyoto Protocol. Energy- en carbon-intensive industries in these countries fear that policies to implements these reduction targets will harm their competitiveness, endanger employment and will not improve the global environment, because of carbon leakage. Various studies have analyzed competitiveness and carbon leakage. Of the many factors that potentially affect competitiveness and carbon leakage, changes in import tariffs have received little attention in the literature. Yet we know that, at least until 2005, tariffs and other trade barriers will be subject to the gradual implementation of the Uruguay Round agreements on trade liberalization. This paper presents quantitative estimates of the impacts of the implementation of the Kyoto agreements on carbon leakage with and without the full implementation of the Uruguay Round import tariff reductions. We find that the implementation of the Uruguay Round increases the rate of carbon leakage. This is caused by impacts on the world energy markets, reducing the price of energy commodities for developing countries. There is no evidence, however, that the tariff reductions increase industrial relocation. To the contrary, the Uruguay Round tariff reductions strengthen the competitive advantage of Northern CO2-intensive industries in comparison to a CO2 reduction scenario without trade liberalization.

WTO Ministerial Conference in Singapore: Environmental Diversity Versus Harmonization

1. IntroductionIn December,1996,a newera of the international trade regime started with the firstWTO Ministerial Conferencein Singapore.Substantialprogress hasbeenachievedin freeing trade in information technology products and a North-South collision oninternational labour standards has been averted. However, these successes over-shadow the apparant stagnation in the area of trade and environment. At last, aftermanyyearsofintensivediscussions,manyhadhopedthatthefirstWTOMinisterialConferencewouldaddressthissensitivepolicyfield.Outofthewiderangeofissuesthat can be dealt with under this heading, two figure prominently: trade measurespursuantto multilateral environmentalagreementsandeco-labellingschemes.Thisnote, firstly, tries to explain why exactly these two issues draw most of the atten-tion of policymakers, and secondly, discusses how these issues can be resolvedagainst the background of established welfare theory. It also tries to make clearwhy the ministers in Singapore pussyfooted around these issues and only decidedthat the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment has to continue its explora-tory work. To come to grisp with these issues, insights from the literature on thetrade-environment interface are first summarized in eight propositions.2. Propositions on Trade and EnvironmentBefore setting forth the propositions,it is good to knowthat in analyticalstudies ontrade and environment, the following distinctions are usually made. First, there areon the one hand local and national environmental problems, and on the other handtransboundary, i.e. international and global environmental problems. The formerrefer to externalities caused by domestic environmental distortions that do notexpell beyond national borders. The latter refer to environmental problems thataffect welfare both in the home country and in one or more foreign countries,

Dual goal: Economic growth along with environmental improvement

Publisher Summary The concept of sustainable development conceals an inherent tension. It pursues a dual goal: economic growth along with environmental improvement. Some studies portray a black future if population and economic growth continue on the present footing and pace. Continuous economic growth characterized by a growing volume of throughput through the economy will contribute ever less to welfare. Technological options and cleaner forms to satisfy human needs are available so that welfare can double and environmental pressure can be halved. Sustainable development indicates a favorable direction by introducing the condition that the needs of future generations have to be taken into account in present-day economic decision making; neither more, nor less. It does not provide a blueprint, nor does it specify the means by which a sustainable economy is to be achieved. Sustainable development provides a framework within which the use of or investments in different forms of capital can be compared. In the economic process, different forms of capital are being combined to produce goods and services to meet human needs.

Socio-economic aspects of the greenhouse effect: Applied general equilibrium model

To assess the economic consequences of environmental taxation a general equilibrium model is applied. The model contains 60 firm sectors and 44 household groups, which makes it especially suitable to analyse the sectoral and distributional effects of environmental taxes. These sectoral effects are rather large and diverse in comparison to the macro-economic consequences. After a short overview of the relevant literature, the original model and the model adaptations are described. These model adaptations include an iterative procedure to avoid substantial linearisation errors when large impulses are simulated. Possible model simulations are identified and the working programme is presented.

Environmental research and modelling

Disciplinary incompatibilities stand in the way of integrated environment-economy modelling. After a discussion of biases in environment-economic modelling, ten disciplinary incompatibilities are identified and briefly dealt with. A few lessons are drawn to improve multidisciplinary cooperation in environmental research.

Socio-economic aspects of the greenhouse effect: Climate Fund

The project Socio-economic aspects of the greenhouse effect: Climate fund studies the impact of international capital transfers on the efficiency and efficacy of greenhouse gas emission reduction. The absolute costs of emission abatement is substantially lower in less developed countries. The associated reduction of the damage due to conventional air pollution is higher in the richer countries in both absolute and relative terms. The costs of climatic change are relatively higher (but absolute lower) in the developing countries. Prime impacts are on agriculture (in the developing world) and human health (highly valued in the developed world). Costs of emission reduction and climatic change are joined in a nine region, quasi-Ramsey, integrated climate-economy model, called FUND, The first calculations with this model show that the (hardly known) dynamics of climate change and the great uncertainties play a critical role, that free riding behaviour need not be as prominent a problem as is generally believed, and that international capital transfers do not seem to substantially influence the optimal emission control, as the regions most interested in climate change do not have much capital to transfer. Negotiated emission caps are likely to alter this conclusion.