Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy

Measuring whether economies are genuinely improving human and ecological well-being—rather than simply growing—requires moving beyond GDP to indicators that account for natural capital depletion, inequality, and long-run sustainability. Tools like the Genuine Progress Indicator and Inclusive Wealth attempt to quantify what conventional national accounts ignore, drawing on ecological economics to reframe prosperity in terms of stocks of natural, human, and social capital rather than flows of market activity. A central tension in the field is the debate between weak sustainability, which assumes manufactured capital can substitute for depleted natural capital, and strong sustainability, which holds that certain ecological systems and resources are irreplaceable. Researchers are actively working to improve the empirical reliability of these alternative metrics at global scales and to translate them into policy frameworks that can realistically compete with GDP as a basis for government decision-making.

Works

75,916

Total citations

832,992

Keywords

Sustainability IndicatorsEnvironmental SustainabilityGenuine Progress IndicatorEconomic GrowthNatural CapitalWeak and Strong Sustainability