Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy

Measuring whether societies are genuinely progressing or simply depleting natural and social wealth to generate GDP growth sits at the heart of ecological economics and sustainability assessment. Researchers develop alternative indicators—such as the Genuine Progress Indicator and Inclusive Wealth—that account for the degradation of natural capital, rising inequality, and long-run ecological costs that conventional economic metrics ignore. A central unresolved tension is the debate between weak sustainability, which assumes human-made capital can substitute for natural capital, and strong sustainability, which holds that certain ecological systems are irreplaceable. Active work in the field focuses on applying these frameworks at global and national scales, refining how policymakers can translate indicator findings into binding environmental law and governance reforms.

Works

74,511

Total citations

823,977

Keywords

Sustainability IndicatorsEnvironmental SustainabilityGenuine Progress IndicatorEconomic GrowthNatural CapitalWeak and Strong Sustainability