Toward Improved Accounting for the Environment Book

Accounting for wealth and income is important. Individuals as well as nations wish to measure their capital stock and in particular their sustainable income which they may consume without living beyond their means and drawing down their assets. There are various kinds of capital: man-made, natural/environmental, and various forms of social capital. Most national accounting in the past has focused on the man-made capital. To be able to properly maintain it, one needs to be aware of and compute a capital consumption (or depreciation) allowance. This allowance is subtracted from a nation ' s gross domestic product (GDP) to arrive at a nation ' s net domestic product (NDP). If one only considers man-made capital, the NDP so computed is sustainable in the sense that one can consume that amount while maintaining the capital stock intact, which forms the basis for future production and income. The author deals with the question of how to better account for natural capital in an integrated way within the usual economic accounting framework. He describes the progress that has been made in recent years in conceptualizing and operationalizing the proposed approaches and measures. The author has made an important contribution to this topic in collaboration with the United Nations Statistical Agency (UNSTAT). The publication ' s goal is to be able to measure environmentally sustainable income.