Vital Signs 2011 by The Worldwatch Institute;

Author:The Worldwatch Institute;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Island Press
Published: 2011-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Source: World Bank, World Development Report 2010, (Washington, DC: 2010) p. 59.

Other governments look to long-term economic restructuring to reconcile the job creation and pollution-generating consequences of growth. They are working to decouple economic growth from materials and energy use, creating “circular economies” that promote the reduction, recycling, and reuse of materials. Germany, Japan, and China are leaders in the field, with Japan having perhaps the most extensive measurable impact to date. A law passed in 2000 established goals for 2010: to increase resource productivity by 60 percent and recycling by 40–50 percent and to reduce waste disposal by 60 percent.19 As of 2008, Japan was estimated to be on track to meet its goals:20 resource productivity had increased by 37 percent, municipal waste levels were down by 40 percent, and disposal of non-municipal waste was down by 55 percent.21 China has also begun work on development of a circular economy, launching a set of pilot projects in 2005 in seven key industrial sectors in 10 provinces or cities, an effort that was expanded in 2007 and 2008.22 China has also developed an experimental Circular Economy Evaluation Indicators System with two types of indicators—some at the level of the industrial park and a second set at a more macro level.23

At the same time, some government are working to redefine the very purpose of economies and embracing economic measures that focus on the delivery of well-being rather than on economic output. A 2010 report from the Wuppertal Institute identifies three major national efforts to adjust gross domestic product (GDP) (such as green GDP or Green National Accounting), five to replace it (such as the Human Development Index or the Ecological Footprint), and eight to supplement it (such as the Millennium Development Goals).24 France, the United Kingdom, and Austria are in various stages of studying alternative measures of economic progress, as are the European Union and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.25 China, after adopting and then abandoning a green GDP measure in 2005, embraced a new plan in 2010 based on 55 indicators—from carbon emissions per person to the share of environmental spending in the government budget.26 And in November 2010 the United Kingdom unveiled plans to launch a Happiness Index that will serve as a complement to GDP as a measure of national progress.27

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