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Sustainable development is the globally embraced paradigm for integrating environment and development policies. Agreement ends with attempts at quantifying the elusive notion of sustainability. A contentious debate among "environmentalists" and "environmental economists" has brought about a confusing proliferation of indicators and policy advice on sustainable development. Generating a common language by means of integrated physical and monetary environmental accounting could moderate the debate. Economic and ecological sustainability is thus distinguished and operationalised in terms of capital maintenance and dematerialisation of economic activity. Empirical results presented are not conclusive, however. Moreover, the reconciliation of environmental and economic policies requires more than comparable statistics strategies and instruments of environmental cost internalisation need to be evaluated and combined with those of raising resource productivity. A social compact between government and civil society should provide the necessary support for achieving consensus and partnership. The sustained implementation of sustainable development depends on it.
Nachhaltiges Wirtschaften bedeutet, alle ökonomischen und ökologischen Kosten offen zu legen: den Geldschleier wegzuziehen, der uns allzu oft den Blick vernebelt. Das Wachstum unserer Wirtschaft wird sich auf lange Sicht nur fortsetzen, wenn wir die Bedeutung der Natur für unsere Lebensqualität einzuschätzen lernen. Peter Bartelmus stößt mit diesem Buch eine Diskussion zwischen Wissenschaftlern und Entscheidungsträgern an. Dieser Austausch ist dringend geboten, denn Ökonomen und Umweltwissenschaftler müssen gemeinsam den richtigen Weg zum wahren Wohlstand finden. Hier werden Konzepte vorgestellt und diskutiert, die die Nachhaltigkeit von Wachstum und Entwicklung sichern sollen. Ökologische, soziale, wirtschaftliche und politische Faktoren - sie alle haben eine entscheidende Bedeutung bei der Planung einer nachhaltigen Zukunft.
The reductionist trend of equalizing sustainable development with CO2 control needs to be reversed - notwithstanding the significance of climate change. Conventional, "compartmentalized" data systems impede an integrated vision and treatment of the paradigm. New accounts and balances focus on the interaction between environment and economy. "Greened" national accounts measure economic sustainability in terms of (produced and natural) capital maintenance; balances of material flows assess ecological sustainability as the dematerialization of production and consumption. Both concepts aim to preserve environmental assets. They differ however with regard to the scope, strength and evaluation of sustainability. First results for Germany indicate weak sustainability of the economy, owing to an increasing capital base. Strong sustainability is not in sight, though, since material throughput has not been reduced sufficiently. An "Alliance for Sustainable Development" is proposed to implement and sustain the paradigm.
Does money blur perspectives for a better life? Lifting the money veil from our yardsticks of progress, income and wealth, reveals the trade-offs of economic growth. The book presents new indicators of the social, economic and ecological impacts of our lifestyles and production techniques. The indicators help to identify those responsible for these impacts and account for their accountability in terms of environmental and other ("social") costs. Sustainable development is to bring about long-term prosperity without undermining its natural foundation. For the assessment of the opaque concept we need both, physical impact measures and environmentally modified ("green") indicators of income, capital and output. Peter Bartelmus opens the dialogue between frequently hostile camps of economists and environmentalists, data producers and users, and scientists and policy makers. Together, they may steer us towards a sustainable future. Practitioners in business, government and civil society will find valuable tools for making their work more sustainable.