Towards Sustainable Development 2001

152 Pages·2002·1.853 MB·English

by  OECD

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ENVIRONMENT
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OECD Environmental Indicators OECD
TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Environmental
Interest in sustainable development and awareness of the international dimension of
Indicators
environmental problems, have stimulated governments to track and chart environmental
progress and its links with economic conditions and trends.
This publication includes key environmental indicators endorsed by OECD Environment TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE
Ministers and the broader OECD Core Set of environmental indicators. It contributes to
measuring environmental performance and progress towards sustainable development. DEVELOPMENT
Organised by issues such as climate change, air pollution, biodiversity, waste or water O
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resources, this book provides essential information for all those interested in the C
ENVIRONMENT
environment and in the sustainable development. D

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ISBN 92-64-18718-9
97 2001 09 1 P
-:HSTCQE=V]\V]Y:
2001 2001
OECD Environmental
Indicators
2001
TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT
ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION
AND DEVELOPMENT
Pursuant to Article 1 of the Convention signed in Paris on 14th December 1960, and which came into
force on 30th September 1961, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
shall promote policies designed:
– to achieve the highest sustainable economic growth and employment and a rising standard of
living in Member countries, while maintaining financial stability, and thus to contribute to the
development of the world economy;
– to contribute to sound economic expansion in Member as well as non-member countries in the
process of economic development; and
– to contribute to the expansion of world trade on a multilateral, non-discriminatory basis in
accordance with international obligations.
The original Member countries of the OECD are Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France,
Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The following countries
became Members subsequently through accession at the dates indicated hereafter: Japan
(28thApril1964), Finland (28th January 1969), Australia (7th June 1971), New Zealand (29th May 1973),
Mexico (18th May 1994), the Czech Republic (21st December 1995), Hungary (7th May 1996), Poland
(22ndNovember 1996), Korea (12th December 1996) and the Slovak Republic (14th December 2000). The
Commission of the European Communities takes part in the work of the OECD (Article 13 of the OECD
Convention).
Publié en français sous le titre :
INDICATEURS D’ENVIRONNEMENT DE L’OCDE
2001
Vers un développement durable
© OECD 2001
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permission to reproduce or translate all or part of this book should be made to OECD Publications, 2,rueAndré-Pascal,
75775 Paris Cedex 16, France.
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Concerns about whether development is sustainable from an economic, environmental and
social point of view have prompted a number of countries to further move towards policies focusing on
pollution prevention, integration of environmental concerns in economic and sectoral decisions, and
international co-operation. There is also increasing interest in evaluating how well governments are
implementing their policies and how well they are satisfying their domestic objectives and international
commitments. These demands have led to the development of environmental indicators as a tool for
decision making and for assessing countries’ environmental performance.
As part of their commitment to transparency and accountability, and to better information of
the public, OECD Member countries have recently also expressed increasing interest in a reduced
number of environmental indicators selected from existing larger sets to draw public attention to key
environmental issues of concern and to inform about progress made.
The OECD work programme on environmental indicators has led to several sets of indicators
each responding to a specific purpose: an OECD Core Set of environmental indicators to measure
environmental progress, and various sets of indicators to integrate environmental concerns in sectoral
policies (e.g. energy, transport, agriculture). Indicators are also derived from natural resource and
environmental expenditure accounts.
The present report is one of the products of this OECD work programme on environmental
indicators. It is updated at regular intervals and includes environmental indicators from the OECD
Core Set, as well as selected socio-economic and sectoral indicators having an environmental
significance. It further includes a selection of key environmental indicators, endorsed by OECD
Environment Ministers at their meeting in May 2001. The report highlights the linkages between
environmental indicators, environmental performance and sustainable development, and thus provides
a building block for the environmental component of sustainable development indicators.
This report was prepared by the OECD Secretariat, but its successful completion depended
on personal or official contributions by many individuals in Member countries, and on the work and
support of the OECD Working Group on Environmental Information and Outlooks. This report is
published on the responsibility of the Secretary General of the OECD.
Joke Waller-Hunter
Director, OECD Environment Directorate
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Data in this report largely come from "OECD Environmental
Data - Compendium 1999". These data are harmonised through
the work of the OECD Working Group on Environmental
Information and Outlooks (WGEIO). Some were updated or
revised on the basis of comments from national Delegates on
“Key environmental indicators”, as received by 30 March 2001.
In many countries, systematic collection of environmental data
has a short history; sources are typically spread across a range
of agencies and levels of government, and information is often
collected for other purposes. When reading this report, one
should therefore keep in mind that definitions and measurement
methods vary among countries and that intercountry
comparisons require great caution. One should also note that
indicators presented in this report refer to the national level and
may conceal major subnational differences.
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I. INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................................7
II. ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS.......................................................................................................11
♦ CLIMATE CHANGE..................................................................................................................................13
1. CO2 emission intensities 15
2. greenhouse gas concentrations 18
♦ OZONE LAYER DEPLETION...................................................................................................................19
3. ozone depleting substances 21
4. stratospheric ozone 23
♦ AIR QUALITY............................................................................................................................................25
5. air emission intensities 27
6. urban air quality 32
♦ WASTE......................................................................................................................................................35
7. waste generation 37
8. waste recycling 40
♦ WATER QUALITY.....................................................................................................................................41
9. river quality 43
10. waste water treatment 45
♦ WATER RESOURCES.............................................................................................................................47
11. intensity of use of water resources 49
12. public water supply and price 51
♦ FOREST RESOURCES............................................................................................................................53
13. intensity of use of forest resources 55
14. forest and wooded land 56
♦ FISH RESOURCES..................................................................................................................................57
15. fish catches and consumption: national 59
16. fish catches and consumption: global and regional 60
♦ BIODIVERSITY.........................................................................................................................................63
17. threatened species 65
18. protected areas 66
III. SOCIO-ECONOMIC INDICATORS.....................................................................................................69
♦ GDP AND POPULATION..........................................................................................................................71
19. gross domestic product 73
20. population growth and density 74
♦ CONSUMPTION.......................................................................................................................................75
21. private consumption 77
22. government consumption 78
♦ ENERGY...................................................................................................................................................79
23. energy intensities 81
24. energy mix 82
25. energy prices 83
♦ TRANSPORT............................................................................................................................................85
26. road traffic and vehicle intensities 87
27. road infrastructure densities 89
28. road fuel prices and taxes 91
♦ AGRICULTURE.........................................................................................................................................93
29. intensity of use of nitrogen and phosphate fertilisers 95
30. nitrogen balances 97
31. livestock densities 98
32. intensity of use of pesticides 99
♦ EXPENDITURE.......................................................................................................................................101
33. pollution abatement and control expenditure 103
34. official development assistance 105
IV. KEY ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS............................................................................................107
V. OECD FRAMEWORK FOR ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS........................................................131
VI. TECHNICAL ANNEX........................................................................................................................141
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Introduction
THE OECD WORK ON ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS
PURPOSES The OECD programme on environmental indicators has three major purposes:
♦ keeping track of environmental progress;
♦ ensuring that environmental concerns are taken into account when policies are
formulated and implemented for various sectors, such as transport, energy and
agriculture;
♦ ensuring similar integration of environmental concerns into economic policies, mainly
through environmental accounting.
CONCRETE The work on indicators is carried out in close co-operation with OECD Member countries. It
RESULTS1 has led to:
♦ agreement by OECD countries to use the pressure-state-response (PSR) model as a
common harmonised framework;
♦ identification and definition of several sets of indicators based on their policy relevance,
analytical soundness and measurability;
♦ measurement and publication of these indicators for a number of countries.
USES The OECD’s environmental indicators are regularly used in environmental performance
reviews; they are a valuable way to monitor the integration of economic and environmental
decision making, to analyse environmental policies and to gauge the results. Beyond their
application in OECD environmental performance reviews, these indicators also contribute to
follow-up work on the OECD environmental strategy and to the broader objective of reporting
on sustainable development.
THE OECD SETS OF ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS
Work carried out to date includes three categories of indicators, each corresponding to a specific purpose and
framework.
The OECD Core Set is a set commonly agreed upon by OECD countries for OECD use. It is
TRACKING published regularly. The Core Set, of about 50 indicators, covers issues that reflect the main
PROGRESS:
environmental concerns in OECD countries. It incorporates major indicators derived from
sectoral sets as well as from environmental accounting. Indicators are classified following the
THE OECD CORE
PSR model:
SET OF
ENVIRONMENTAL ♦ indicators of environmental pressures, both direct and indirect;
INDICATORS
♦ indicators of environmental conditions;
♦ indicators of society’s responses.
In addition, OECD sets of sectoral indicators focus on specific sectors. Indicators are
PROMOTING
classified following an adjusted PSR model:
INTEGRATION:
♦ sectoral trends of environmental significance,
OECD SECTORAL ♦ their interactions with the environment (including positive and negative effects);
INDICATORS
♦ related economic and policy considerations.
Environmental indicators are also derived from the OECD work on environmental accounting
PROMOTING
INTEGRATION: focusing on i) physical natural resource accounts, related to sustainable management of
natural resources, and ii) environmental expenditure. Examples of these indicators are the
ENVIRONMENTAL intensity of natural resource use and the level and structure of pollution abatement and
ACCOUNTING control expenditure.

1. For further details on the OECD framework for environmental indicators, see page 131.
OECD Environmental Indicators 2001 - 8 -
Introduction
LINKS WITH NATIONAL AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES
The development of environmental indicators has built
on OECD experience in environmental information and
reporting and has benefited from strong support from
Member countries, and their representatives in the
OECD Working Group on Environmental Information
and Outlooks (formerly Working Group on the State of
the Environment).
Results of OECD work, and in particular its conceptual
(cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:3)(cid:4) (cid:13)(cid:19)(cid:20)(cid:14)(cid:13)(cid:16)(cid:21)(cid:15)(cid:22)(cid:14)(cid:16)(cid:14)(cid:17)(cid:16)(cid:18) (cid:6)(cid:7)(cid:2)(cid:4)(cid:1)(cid:5)(cid:7)(cid:2)(cid:8)(cid:3)(cid:2)(cid:4)(cid:6)(cid:5)(cid:9)(cid:7)(cid:8)(cid:10) framework, have in turn influenced similar activities by a
(cid:23)(cid:1)(cid:24)(cid:22)(cid:21)(cid:16)(cid:25)(cid:14)(cid:26) (cid:9)(cid:5)(cid:11)(cid:8)(cid:7)(cid:6)(cid:12)(cid:8)(cid:2)(cid:6)(cid:9)(cid:7)(cid:12) number of countries and international organisations.
Continued co-operation is taking place in particular with:
UNSD, UNCSD and UN regional offices; UNEP; the
World Bank, the European Union (Commission of the
European Communities, Eurostat, EEA) and with a
number of international institutes.
Co-operation is also taking place with non OECD
countries, and in particular with Russia and China.
Figure 1. OECD sets of Environmental indicators
adapted by used in: OECD CORE SET supplemented with:
countries OF
MMoonniittoorriinngg ENVIRONMENTAL OECD sets of sectoral
ttoo ssuuiitt eennvviirroonnmmeennttaall INDICATORS indicators
nnaattiioonnaall pprrooggrreessss
cciirrccuummssttaanncceess (cid:127)Transport
~40-50 core (cid:127) Energy
indicators (cid:127)Agriculture
RReevviieewwiinngg (cid:127)Household consumption
eennvviirroonnmmeennttaall (cid:127) Tourism
Environmental issues
ppeerrffoorrmmaannccee (cid:127)...
Environmental accounting
Socio-economic &
MMeeaassuurriinngg pprrooggrreessss general indicators (cid:127)Environmental expenditure
ttoowwaarrddss ssuussttaaiinnaabbllee (cid:127)Natural resource use
ddeevveellooppmmeenntt (cid:127) Material resource use
(cid:127) ...
Selected key
RRaaiissiinngg aawwaarreenneessss environmental
IInnffoorrmmiinngg tthhee ppuubblliicc indicators
(~10-13 key indicators)
All these indicator sets are closely related to each other. Countries are encouraged to adapt them to suit
their national circumstances. One important new element of the OECD’s indicator work is the small set of
key indicators intended to raise public awareness and to focus attention on key issues of common
concern.
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