Economic Growth and Valuation of the Environment: A Debate

412 Pages·2001·12.04 MB·English

by  E.van Ierland, Jan Van Der Straaten, H. Vollebergh

Economic Growth
and Valuation of the
Environment:
A Debate
Edited by
Ekko C. van Ierland
Jan van der Straaten
Herman R.J. Vollebergh
Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
Economic Growth and Valuation of the
Environment

Economic Growth and
Valuation of the
Environment
A Debate
Edited by
Ekko C. van Ierland
Professor of Environmental Economics and Natural Resources,
Wageningen University,The Netherlands
Jan van der Straaten
Assistant Professor,Department of Leisure Studies, Tilburg
University,The Netherlands
Herman R.J. Vollebergh
Assistant Professor of Public Economics,Erasmus University
Rotterdam,The Netherlands
Edward Elgar
Cheltenham,UK • Northampton,MA,USA
© Ekko C.van Ierland,Jan van der Straaten and Herman R.J.Vollebergh 2001
©
All rights reserved.No part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in
a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means,electronic,
mechanical or photocopying,recording,or otherwise without the prior
permission of the publisher.
Published by
Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
Glensanda House
Montpellier Parade
Cheltenham
Glos GL50 1UA
UK
Edward Elgar Publishing,Inc.
136 West Street
Suite 202
Northampton
Massachusetts 01060
USA
A catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
Library ofCongress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Economic growth and valuation of the environment :a debate / Ekko C.van
Ireland,Jan van der Straaten,Herman R.J.Vollebergh,editors.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1.Economic development — Environmental aspects. 2.Sustainable
development — Environmental aspects. I.Ireland,E.van (Ekko van)
II.Straaten,Jan van der. III.Vollebergh,Herman R.J.
HD75.6D43 2001
363.7(cid:2)05—dc21 2001040186
ISBN1 84064 432 X
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd,Bodmin,Cornwall
Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables ix
List of contributors xi
Acknowledgements xiii
1. Valuation of nature and the environment 1
Ekko C.van Ierland,Jan van der Straaten and
Herman R.J.Vollebergh
PART ONE SETTING THE STAGE 15
2. Environmental valuation and sustainable national income
accordingtoHueting 17
Roefie Hueting and Bart de Boer
3. Three persistent myths in the environmental debate 78
Roefie Hueting
4. Key issues in environmental economics 90
Paul Ekins
PART TWO REFLECTIONS 135
5. Roefie Hueting’s perpendicular ‘demand curve’and the issue
of objective value 137
Herman E.Daly
6. Values,valuation and valuing processes 151
Richard B.Norgaard,Astrid J.Scholz and Sarah Fleisher Trainor
7. Technical progress,finite resources and intergenerational justice 170
Wilfred Beckerman
PART THREE GREEN ACCOUNTING AND SUSTAINABLE
NATIONAL INCOME 187
8. Steering by the right compass:the quest for a better
assessmentof thenational product 189
Salah El Serafy
v
vi Contents
9. Valuing nature 211
David Pearce,Kirk Hamilton and Giles Atkinson
10. Natural capital,the greened national product and the
monetizationfrontier 225
Sylvie Faucheux and Martin O’Connor
11. Alternative calculations of a sustainable national income for
theNetherlands according to Hueting 275
Harmen Verbruggen,Rob B.Dellink,Reyer Gerlagh,Marjan W.
Hofkes and Huib M.A.Jansen
PART FOUR CONCLUSION 313
12. An appreciation of Dr Roefie Hueting’s ecological work 315
Robert Goodland
13. Rejoinders to symposium authors 333
Roefie Hueting
Index 379
List of figures
Figure 2.1 Costs of elimination and revealed preferences for
anenvironmental function 37
Figure 2.2 Standard national income as measured in the
Systemof National Accounts 49
Figure 2.3 Actual standard national income observations 53
Figure 2.4 Net national income and the welfare indicator 54
Figure 2.5 The optima B and S as calculated by an
environmentaleconomic model 56
Figure 2.6 Construction of the unfeasible sustainable path and
thesustainable national income 58
Figure 2.7 Translation of costs in physical units into costs in
monetary units 64
Figure 2.8 Main steps in the calculation of SNI 65
Figure 4.1 Four-dimensional human space 91
Figure 4.2 Objectives of environmentally sustainable
development 92
Figure 4.3 The finite global ecosystem relative to the growing
economic subsystem 93
Figure 4.4 Stocks,flows and welfare in the process of
production 95
Figure 10.1 Framework for defining ‘environmentally adjusted’
macroeconomic aggregates 228
Figure 10.2 The monetization frontier 253
Figure 10.3 Economic output and CO emissions scenarios for
2
France 262
Figure 11.1 Marginal and cumulative costs of emission
reduction 286
Figure 11.2A Break-up of national income per expenditure
category:from base to SNI 289
Figure 11.2B Break-up of national income per expenditure
category:distribution over categories 290
Figure 11.3A Break-up of national product per sector from base
toSNI 291
Figure 11.3B Break-up of national product per sector:
distributionover categories 292
vii
viii List offigures
Figure 11.4A Break-up of national income per production factor:
frombase to SNI 293
Figure 11.4B Break-up of national income per production factor:
distribution over categories 293
Figure 11.A.1 Marginal costs of reduction of greenhouse gases 305
Figure 11.A.2 Total costs of reduction of greenhouse gases 305
Figure 11.A.3 Total costs of reduction of acidifying emissions 306
Figure 11.A.4 Total costs of reduction of eutrophying emissions 307
Figure 11.A.5 Total costs of reduction of zinc emissions to water 308
Figure 11.A.6 Total costs of reduction of VOC emissions 309
Figure 13.1 Cost functions for environmental services 351
List of tables
Table 4.1 Matrix for the construction of the sustainability gap 125
Table 7.1 Consumption rates and aggregate global resources of
fossilfuels 180
Table 9.1 The alleged value of the world ecosystems 213
Table 9.2 Genuine savings in the countries of Southern Africa 221
Table 10.1 Typology of ‘environmentally adjusted’aggregates 230
Table 10.2 Parameters for four PVU-max scenarios 241
Table 11.1 Sustainability standards for the Netherlands,1990 288
Table 11.2 Macroeconomic results in billions of guilders:SNI
variant1a 295
Table 11.3 Macroeconomic results in billions of guilders:SNI
variant2a 295
Table 11.4 Macroeconomic results in billions of guilders:SNI
variant1b 296
Table 11.5 Macroeconomic results in billions of guilders:SNI
variant2b 296
Table 11.6 Changes in the structure of production in SNI
variants 297
Table 11.7 Changes in the composition of consumption in SNI
variants 299
Table 11.8 Abatement expenditures in SNI variants in billions of
guilders 299
Table 11.9 Environmental expenditures in SNI variants in billions
of guilders 301
Table 11.10 Price of environmental theme rights in SNI variants in
millions of guilders per theme unit 302
Table 11.11 Environmental theme emissions in the base year and
SNIvariants 302
Table 11.A1 Costs for dehydration and soil pollution 310
ix