indicator or a group of indicators that can replace GDP, and summed up its considerations in a report released in September 2009.

As seen above, research is being carried out on sustainability indicators in various quarters. Here, we look at some endeavors that have already reached the stage of actually developing and using new indicators.

One of them is the green GDP. The green GDP is the GDP that incorporates environmental deterioration and consumption of natural resources into national accounting, and many countries devised their respective green GDP calculation methods. But the green GDP index is said to some deficiencies, such as the difficulty in accurately reflecting the depreciation of natural resources by consumption in monetary terms.

Another example is the “Genuine Savings” indicator developed by the World Bank. The genuine savings indicator is calculated by deducting consumption of fixed capital from gross national savings, adding current expenditure on education as an investment in human capital, and also deducting the value of depletion or reduction of natural resources and damages from carbon dioxide emissions, etc. Negative genuine savings, for example, mean an overall decline in wealth and suggest the current level of consumption cannot be sustained (Figure 5-4-7).

In Europe, OECD and Eurostat developed a group of indicators to assess sustainability in 2005 (revised in 2007) in line with the EU “Sustainable Development Strategy.” For each of nine objectives under the Sustainability Development Strategy, the group of indicators systematically organizes various indicators at three levels in accordance with relevance and deep connections with the Strategy objectives. More specifically, sustainability is to be captured by 11 indicators at Level 1, 33 indicators at Level 2 and 78 indicators at Level 3 (Figure 5-4-2). According to a survey by the National Institute for Environmental Studies, at least 26 other countries and international organizations, etc. have developed their respective sustainable development indicators to measure development by sustainability (Table 5-4-3).

The human development index (HDI) announced by the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) is an indicator to show the quality of life and the degree of development. The HDI is calculated by taking into consideration the literacy rate, per-capita GDP and the average life expectancy, etc. When we use the HDI to assess the degree of development of industrialized countries, many countries obtain figures close to perfect score. This means that industrial nations have already achieved the level of development to be sought under the HDI. Given this, in measuring the state of development in industrial nations, it is necessary to establish indicators more commensurate with the conditions of industrial nations to measure the degree of their development. The HDI uses GDP, but it is conceivable to capture the state of development of industrial nations by incorporating the environmental conservation conditions in industrial nations by replacing GDP with GDP per emission of carbon dioxide. The recalculation with the above replacement result in big changes in the rankings, with Japan placed tenth in the HDI-based assessment moving up to sixth (Table 5-4-4).

In Bhutan, the gross national happiness (GNH) is used as the substitute indicator of progress. The GNH, first proposed by Bhutan in the 1980s as a better indicator to replace GDP, represents the principles to guide the country's development in a manner suitable for its unique culture and values. Since 2004, Bhutan is promoting the GNH actively, including the hosting of an international conference on the indicator. At any rate, Bhutan's initiative to measure a nation's richness not by the “economy” but by the “happiness” and set “how to enhance the happiness of the nation” as the state's policy objective deserves merit as a valuable attempt.

Above, we reviewed a variety of indicators, including sustainability indicators that exhaustively capture

Source: Prepared by Ministry of the Environment based on materials provided by the World Bank