Book dossier

Environment, growth and development

by Peter Bartelmus

Is sustainable development the answer to environmental decline and development failure? In 1987 the Brundtland Commission concluded that sustainable development would integrate environmental concerns into mainstream policies, shifting focus from weak and peripheral environmental management to the socio-economic policy sources of environmental impacts. The 1992 Earth Summit confirmed this approach, endorsing integrated environmental and economic accounting by policy makers. `Green accounting' is now being implemented to formulate national policies for sustainable development. Environment, Growth and Development offers a unique analysis of sustainable economic growth and development based on operational variables derived from the new systems of `green accounting'. A complete revision and expansion of Environment and Development, this books offers a new focus on macroeconomic aspects through its analysis of `green accounting' methods, comparing the `goods' of economic production and consumption with the `bads' of losses of natural resources and environmental quality. Beyond economics, ways of evaluating social, cultural, aesthetic or ethical issues are also proposed. Focusing on operational, quantifiable concepts and methods, the book systematically links the different policies, strategies and programmes of growth and development to advance an integrative policy framework for sustainable development at local, national and international levels in both developing and industrialized countries.