Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-sh8wx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T09:27:14.381Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Natural Resource Accounting and Sustainability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Michael Common
Michael Common*
Affiliation:
Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies Australian National University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The recent emergence of concern for sustainability, or sustainable development, has lead to a renewed interest in the adequacy of national income accounts for monitoring economic performance. It has been argued that natural resource accounting is needed, and that national income accounting conventions need modifying. The paper reviews this background and argument, and distinguishes several types of natural resource accounting. It is noted that adjustment of measures of national income requires valuation, and that with respect to sustainability objectives market and surrogate market prices are inappropriate. It is argued that the pursuit of sustainability requires modelling rather than historical accounting. Some recent, unofficial, attempts at revising national income data to reflect sustainability concerns are critically reviewed. Finally, data requirements for ecological sustainability are considered.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , June 1991 , pp. 89 - 121
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This paper is a revised version of a report, with the same title, written for the Ecologically Sustainable Development Working Groups.

References

ABS (1990a) “Natural Resource and Environmental Accounting in the National Accounts”, Australian National Accounts: National Income and Expenditure. 5206.0, March, pp. 64–71.Google Scholar
ABS (1990b) “Environmental Statistics in Relation to the Impact of Human and Natural Activities: Australian Situation”, paper to the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific Workshop on Managing National Statistical Services in the 90s, September 1990.Google Scholar
Ahmad, Y.J., El Serafy, S., Lutz, E., (eds) (1989) Environmental Accounting for Sustainable Development, A UNEP- World Bank Symposium, The World Bank, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Australian Environmental Council (1988) Report on Natural Resource Accounting, AGPS, Canberra.Google Scholar
Bartelmus, P., Stahmer, C., Van Tongeren, J. (1989) Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting, paper to the 21st General Conference of the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, Lahnstein, August 1989.Google Scholar
Common, M. (1988) Environmental and Resource Economics: An Introduction, Longmans, London.Google Scholar
Common, M. (1990) “Policy instrument choice”, in Common, M., Dovers, S. (eds) Moving Toward Global Sustainability: Policies and Implications for Australia, Centre for Continuing Education, Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Common, M., Perrings, C. (1991) “Towards an Ecological Economics of Sustainability”, mimeo, Australian National University, March 1991.Google Scholar
Commonwealth of Australia (1990) Ecologically Sustainable Development: A Commonwealth Discussion Paper, AGPS, Canberra.Google Scholar
Daly, H.E., Cobb, J.B. (1989) For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future, Beacon Press, Boston.Google Scholar
Dasgupta, P., Heal, G., (1974) “The optimal depletion of exhaustible resources”, Review of Economic Studies: Symposium on the Economics of Exhaustible Resources. Symposium Issue, pp. 3–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Department of Arts Heritage and Environment (1987) State of the Environment in Australia, 1986, AGPS Canberra.Google Scholar
Dixon, P.B., Parmenter, B.R. (1991) “The Role of Applied General Equilibrium Modelling in Analysing Economic Aspects of Climate Change”, paper given at DASETT Climate Change Workshop, Canberra, April 1991.Google Scholar
Faber, M., Proops, J.L.R. (1990) “National Accounting Time and the Environment”, paper at International Ecological Economics Society Conference, Washington, DC, May 1990.Google Scholar
Freeman, A.M. (1985) “Methods for Assessing the Benefits of Environmental Programs”, in Kneese, A.V., Sweeney, J.L. (eds) Handbook of Natural Resource and Energy Economics Vol 1, Elsevier, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Hare, W.L., (ed) (1990) Ecologically Sustainable Development: A Submission, Australian Conservation Foundation, Fitzroy.Google Scholar
Hartwick, J.M. (1977) “Intergenerational Equity and the Investing of Rents from Exhaustible Resources”, American Economic Review, 66(5), pp. 972–4.Google Scholar
Holling, C.S. (1986) “The Resilience of Terrestial Ecosystems: Local Surprise and Global Change”, in Clark, W.C., Munn, R.E. (eds) Sustainable Development of the Biosphere, CUP, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Johnson, B.D., Robey, T. (1990) “The Findar Directory System — Design Concepts and Implementation Issues”, paper to the Australasian Urban and Regional Information Systems Association Conference, Canberra, November 1990.Google Scholar
Maler, K-G (1990) “National Accounts and Environmental Resources”, mimeo, Stockholm School of Economics, September 1990.Google Scholar
MacRae, D. (1987) “State of the Environment Reporting: the Australian Experience”, paper to the Inaugural Conference of the Environmental Institute of Australia, Canberra, November 1987.Google Scholar
Mitchell, R.C., Carson, R.T. (1989) Using Surveys to Value Public Goods: The Contingent Valuation Method, Resources for the Future, Washington DC.Google Scholar
Nordhaus, W., Tobin, J. (1972) “Is Growth Obsolete?”, in Economic Growth, National Bureau of Economic Research 50th Anniversary Colloquium Vol 5, New York.Google Scholar
Pearce, D.W., Markandya, A., Barbier, E.B. (1989) Blueprint for a Green Economy, Earthscan, London.Google Scholar
Perrings, C. (1987) Economy and Environment: A Theoretical Essay on the Interdependence of Economic and Environmental Systems, CUP, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peskin, H.M., Kutz, E. (1990) A Survey of Resource and Environmental Accounting In Industrialized Countries, Enviornmental Working Paper 37, World Bank, Washington DC.Google Scholar
Repetto, R., Magrath, W., Wells, M., Beer, C., Rossini, F. (1989) Wasting Assets: Natural Resources In the National Income Accounts, World Resources Institute, Washington DC.Google Scholar
Solow, R.M. (1988) “On the Intergenerational Allocation of Natural Resources”, Scandanavian Journal of Economics, 88(1), pp. 141–9.Google Scholar
UN (1968) A System of National Accounts, United Nations, New York.Google Scholar
UN (1977) Provisional International Guidelines on the National and Sectoral Balance Sheet and Reconciliation Accounts of the System of National Accounts, Series M No 60, E 77 XVII. 10, United Nations, New York.Google Scholar
UN (1984) A Framework for the Development of Environmental Statistics, Statistical Papers Series M No 78, United Nations, New York.Google Scholar
UN (1990) SNA Handbook on Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting, Preliminary Draft of Part 1, General Concepts, United Nations Statistical Office, New York.Google Scholar
Usher, D. (1980) The Measurement of Economic Growth, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weitzman, M.L. (1976) “On the Welfare Significance of National Product in a Dynamic Economy”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 90 pp. 156–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Commission on Enviornment and Development (1987) Our Common Future, OUP Oxford.Google Scholar
Young, M. (1990) “Natural Resource Accounting”, in Common, M., Dovers, S. (eds) Moving Toward Global Sustainability — Policies and Implications for Australia, Centre for Continuing Education, Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Zolotas, X. (1981) Economic Growth and Declining Social Welfare, Bank of Greece, Athens.Google Scholar