Japan Cabinet Office Creates Environmental Efficiency Improvement Indicators

The Department of National Accounts of the Economic and Social Research Institute of the Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, announced on October 12, 2004 that it has developed a set of environmental efficiency improvement indicators to gauge the sustainability of the economy and the environment. The department has been working on a study to get a better understanding of the interrelationship between the Japanese environment and economy, based on the System of Environmental and Economic Accounts (SEEA), put forward by the United Nations in 1993.

The newly formulated indicators show the extent of the changes in environmental impacts in a given time frame vis-a-vis economic activities, and can be obtained by mathematical formula. Positive indicators point to improvements, and negative indicators to deterioration, in environmental efficiency.

The environment efficiency figures were calculated in six areas (global warming, acidification of the atmosphere, eutrophication of water, waste going to landfill, and land use in terms of area for housing and urban use), based on measurements from 1990 to 2000. Among them, the indicators relating to waste have shown remarkable improvements. Indicators for acidification and eutrophication have also improved. Indicators relating to global warming started improving in 1995. On the other hand, the indicators for land use have shown very little improvement.

Organizations such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) refer to these indicators as the "decoupling environmental indicators¡É (DEI). Improving these indicators is one of the major goals in the OECD Environmental Strategy for the First Decade of the 21st Century.



Posted: 2005/01/26 11:44:08 AM
Japanese version