The final report of the INDI-LINK project (Indicator-based evaluation of interlinkages between different sustainable development objectives) has been published by Stefan Giljum and Christine Polzin. The reports shows how the project team developed and improved indicators for sustainable development in the EU and assessed the interlinkages between different priorities of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS). It also summarises the most important policy conclusions for future sustainable development.
The report shows how nine important indicators of sustainable development can be improved: Vehicle-km, External costs of energy use, Environmentally weighted indicator of material consumption (EMC), Total material consumption and GDP at constant prices, the Biodiversity index, Green public procurement, Administrative cost imposed by legislation, Unmet needs for healthcare, and Child wellbeing.
The reports also provides suggestions for potential sustainable development indicators to monitor 17 emerging policy fields, including the appropriation of ecosystem services, biocultural diversity, global land use of domestic consumption, the dislocation of environmental impacts through international trade, food sovereignty in developing countries, sustainable de-growth and taxes on international financial transactions.
A number of the policy recommendations are summarised. For example, the INDI-LINK team suggests that the renewed EU SDS should help promote economic instruments to counter rebound effects. This may include environmental taxes and auctioned tradable permits in the framework of environmental tax reform in combination with environmental regulation and subsidies for environmental industries. Environmentally-harmful subsidies should be phased out. Investments are needed for a Green New Deal that promotes the growth of green technology and clean industries that ensure sustainable economic development in the future.
The report can be downloaded here.
For more information on the INDI-LINK project and download of all project reports, please visit the project website at www.indi-link.net.
