Samhällsekonomiska aspekter och mått på hållbar utveckling
Samhällsekonomiska aspekter och mått på hållbar utveckling
Samhällsekonomiska aspekter och mått på hållbar utveckling
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The publication with the most articles in the selection is Ecological Economics with<br />
46 % of the articles. 35 % of the articles come from the Journal of Environmental Economics<br />
and Management. Other publications contribute with 1–3 % each.<br />
The most common question in the selection concerns the hypothesis of the environmental<br />
Kuznets Curve. This hypothesis says that degradation of the environment increases as a<br />
country’s economy grows larger but that this relationship only applies to a certain level<br />
and that emissions/environmental degradation thereafter reduces as a result of increased<br />
preference given to environmental concerns. Taken as a whole, the empirical articles<br />
point to different results, but in general there would appear to be support for the<br />
environmental Kuznets Curve for local airborne emissions, while emissions like carbon<br />
dioxide, whose effects are more global and indirect seem to increase monotonically with<br />
income or have really high turning points. As an example, an article by Khanna and<br />
Plassmann (2004) shows that not even households in the USA with high incomes have<br />
reached a sufficiently high income level for the relationship between income and all of<br />
the studied emissions to show a downward turn.<br />
The next most common questions have been classified as issues concerning weak and<br />
strong sustainability and include the possibility of substituting natural capital for manufactured<br />
capital. The sustainability index and environment policy are other commonly<br />
occurring classes of questions. In the sustainable index group, the articles address<br />
sustainability indices in various ways, such as the Index of Sustainable Economic<br />
Welfare (ISEW) and the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI). In addition to these, measures<br />
of wealth and income are also addressed. Articles in the environment policy group generally<br />
address how to move in the direction of reduced emissions through taxes, regulation<br />
or other means to achieve more sustainable development. Finally there is a group for<br />
‘Other’ which is wide ranging in content. For instance, it includes articles on the Porter<br />
hypothesis, which introduced the idea that environmental regulation can eventually<br />
favour the companies concerned.<br />
Summarised conclusions<br />
We can note that Sweden is to the fore internationally when it comes to conceptual/theoretical<br />
issues, and also that we have good statistics in the area thanks to<br />
investments made as a result of the Swedish Commission on Resource Accounting.<br />
The report shows that despite the differing perspectives and divergent findings, there is<br />
a consensus among economists that several economic concepts, including the concepts<br />
of capital and growth need to be revised such that they can more comprehensively<br />
cover fundamental components in the production base and the returns from such, including<br />
products and services from nature. The report also shows the difficulties that<br />
this entails, of which one of the most fundamental is the correct pricing of currently<br />
non market priced products and services.<br />
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