A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä
Revisiting ISEW Valuation Approaches: The Case of Spain Including the Costs of Energy Depletion and of Climate Change
Tekijät: Tadhg O'Mahony, Paula Escardó-Serra, Javier Dufour
Kustantaja: Elsevier
Julkaisuvuosi: 2018
Journal: Ecological Economics
Tietokannassa oleva lehden nimi: Ecological Economics
Vuosikerta: 144
Aloitussivu: 292
Lopetussivu: 303
Sivujen määrä: 12
ISSN: 0921-8009
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.07.024
Verkko-osoite: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.07.024
Tiivistelmä
This paper develops an Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare for Spain
from 1970 to 2012 and seeks to update valuation approaches to a number
of items. Two approaches have proven particularly controversial over
recent decades; the costs of energy depletion and of climate change. The
valuation implications in measuring present welfare have proven
problematic, as both include future sustainability consequences arising
from resource depletion and environmental impacts. This study includes a
‘transition cost’ approach to energy depletion, a modified approach to
costs of climate change and water pollution, and removes the cost of
ozone depletion. The results illustrate that while GDP per capita
increased significantly, the ISEW per capita shows a widening gap.
Household labour contributes strongly, but income distribution, energy
depletion and costs of climate change limit improvement. Sensitivity
analysis shows that accumulating climate change costs and escalating
energy depletion costs have significant effects. Nevertheless, the new
valuation approaches do not alter conclusions that welfare has shown
little improvement. The ISEW provides a useful alternative to current
indicators such as GDP subject to awareness of limitations. It is a
measure of welfare that uses sustainability accounting methods when
estimating costs, but is not an indicator of whether welfare is actually
sustainable.
This paper develops an Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare for Spain
from 1970 to 2012 and seeks to update valuation approaches to a number
of items. Two approaches have proven particularly controversial over
recent decades; the costs of energy depletion and of climate change. The
valuation implications in measuring present welfare have proven
problematic, as both include future sustainability consequences arising
from resource depletion and environmental impacts. This study includes a
‘transition cost’ approach to energy depletion, a modified approach to
costs of climate change and water pollution, and removes the cost of
ozone depletion. The results illustrate that while GDP per capita
increased significantly, the ISEW per capita shows a widening gap.
Household labour contributes strongly, but income distribution, energy
depletion and costs of climate change limit improvement. Sensitivity
analysis shows that accumulating climate change costs and escalating
energy depletion costs have significant effects. Nevertheless, the new
valuation approaches do not alter conclusions that welfare has shown
little improvement. The ISEW provides a useful alternative to current
indicators such as GDP subject to awareness of limitations. It is a
measure of welfare that uses sustainability accounting methods when
estimating costs, but is not an indicator of whether welfare is actually
sustainable.
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