Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy

Measuring whether economies are genuinely improving human and ecological well-being—rather than simply growing—sits at the heart of ecological economics and sustainability science. Researchers develop and refine indicators such as the Genuine Progress Indicator and Inclusive Wealth to capture what GDP omits: the depletion of natural capital, rising inequality, and the long-run costs of environmental degradation. A central unresolved tension is between weak sustainability, which assumes human-made capital can substitute for natural systems, and strong sustainability, which treats certain ecological assets as irreplaceable. Active debates concern whether global genuine progress has stalled or reversed since the mid-twentieth century, and how policy frameworks can be redesigned to align legal and economic incentives with the boundaries that keep ecosystems functional.

Works

75,019

Total citations

828,775

Keywords

Sustainability IndicatorsEnvironmental SustainabilityGenuine Progress IndicatorEconomic GrowthNatural CapitalWeak and Strong Sustainability