Environmental valuation and sustainable national income according to Hueting

Abstract

Van Ierland et al (eds.), "Economic Growth and Valuation of the Environment: a Debate", Edward Elgar 2001 ("Hueting Congress book") * The authors like to thank Jeroen van den Bergh, Thomas Cool and Lucas Reijnders for their useful comments and suggestions, and Nigel Harle for translation.

Why environmental sustainability can most probably not be attained with growing production

“…Environmentally sustainable national income (eSNI) is defined as the maximal attainable production level by which vital environmental functions remain available for future generations, based on the technology available at the time; see Hueting and De Boer [11]. The difference between NI and eSNI indicates the volume of production that is produced and consumed unsustainably.…”

The future of the Environmentally sustainable national income

“…A first rough estimate of the eSNI for the world by Tinbergen and Hueting arrives at roughly fifty percent of the production level of the world: the world income (Tinbergen/Hueting 1991). Estimates for The Netherlands also arrive at about fifty percent of the production level or national income of The Netherlands (Verbruggen et al 2001;Hueting/de Boer 2001). In the period 1990 to 2005 the distance between NI and eSNI increased by thirteen billion euro or 10 percent.…”

“…In combination with the standard national income (NI), the eSNI indicates whether or not ures to attain the standards and thus maintain vital functions are estimated in the way just now discussed. An approximation of the eSNI is obtained with the aid of an economic model (Verbruggen et al 2001;Hueting/de Boer 2001).…”

The dutch national environmental policy plan: To choose or to lose

“…As a matter of fact, the concept of the negative external effect was used to tackle the problem (see among others Mishan [1967]; Hueting [1980]). Generally speaking, one may say that these efforts were not successful.…”