Environmental indicators : a systematic approach to measuring and reporting on environmental policy performance in the context of sustainable development

Each World Resources Institute Report represents a timely, scholarly treatment of a subject of public concern. WRI takes responsibility for choosing the study topics and guaranteeing its authors and researchers freedom of inquiry. It also solicits and responds to the guidance of advisory panels and expert reviewers. Unless otherwise stated, however, all the interpretation and findings set forth in WRI publications are those of the authors. • ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Two of the authors of this report—Dr. Ham-mond and Dr. Adriaanse—participated in the Project on Indicators of Sustainable Development of the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), an international scientific effort intended to contribute to the indicator activities of the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development. An earlier version of this report was reviewed by the SCOPE project and provided background for an international policy meeting on indicators of sustainable development hosted by the Belgium and Costa Rican governments in collaboration with SCOPE and the U.N. Environment Programme. Dr. Hammond and Dr. Adriaanse have benefited from the advice and comments of their international colleagues, includ-ern, all of whom provided valuable comments and encouragement on earlier drafts of this report. Our gratitude is also extended to those within WRI who helped with this report—to Dan Tunstall for their reviews, to Kathleen Cour-rier for her skillful editing, to Maggie Powell for preparation of figures, and to Sharon Bellucci for desktop production and support throughout the project. Of course, we alone bear responsibility for the final result. FOREWORD All across the United States, policy-makers and pundits sit up and take notice when the Dow Jones inches up, housing starts plummet, or unemployment rates rise—and millions of Americans rethink personal financial decisions. In every country, leaders find changes in gross national product (GNP) similarly riveting. These economic indicators show the power of a single number when its importance is widely understood. Yet, no remotely similar numbers exist to indicate how the environment is faring. A significant attempt to bridge this knowledge gap is Environmental Indicators: A Systematic Approach to Measuring and Reporting on Environmental Policy Performance in the Context of Sustainable Development by Allen L. Hammond, director of WRI's Resource and Environmental Information program; Albert Adriaanse, senior ministerial advisor to the Netherlands' Directorate for the Environment; Eric Rodenburg, WRI senior policy analyst; Dirk Bryant, WRI policy analyst; and Richard Woodward of the University of Wiscon-sin. The authors begin by laying out a conceptual approach for …