Documents Gesellschaft für Wirtschaftliche Strukturforschung mbH, Osnabrück 2 results

"This paper reports results of the study „Green economy: Measuring sustainable welfare using SEEA data“. It contributes to measuring the progress towards green economy and its understanding for political decision making process in Germany. The definition of green economy follows the BMU approach of 2012. The concept to measure the green economy consists of six different dimensions: (A) use of natural resources and environmental damages, (B) natural capital, (C) environmental quality of life, (D) green economy: economic dimension and fields of action, (E) policies: institutional framework and measures, and (F) background information on economic and social development. For each dimension the concept includes indicators that can be generated from available data and in part have characteristics of desirable indicators. The concept is tested for Germany using scenario analysis (PANTA RHEI model) with regard to the energy transition (‘Energiewende'). Many indicators improve despite some trade-offs such as increases in resource use."

"The reflections presented here are directly related to the shortcomings concerning welfare and "green" growth concepts identified in the course of the research project “Cornerstones of an ecologically sustainable welfare concept as a basis for eco-political innovation and transformation processes” funded by the German Ministry of Environment. The concepts are too simplistic in terms of environmental, economic and social sustainability. Against this background a broader decision model was developed within the project (Meyer et al. 2012c, Meyer et al. 2013). This model provides the reference points for the development of a sustainable welfare concept, which can be used as a political action plan in the context of environmental policy. The development of a normative model for the assessment of alternative courses of action plays a central role in this paper."