The research project Indicator-based evaluation of interlinkages between different sustainable development objectives (INDI-LINK), in which SERI served as scientific coordinator, was successfully completed in October 2009.

The project improved EU sustainable development indicators, assessed the interlinkages between the different priorities of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS) and derived conclusions for future SD policy making.

Key results:

1. Further development of SD indicators

INDI-LINK improved 9 selected sustainable development indicators and suggested indicators for 17 emerging policy issues of great future importance for sustainability.

2. Assessment of SD interlinkages

INDI-LINK developed a tool-box of methods which can be applied on different aspects of interlinkages. No single best method or tool exists to analyze interlinkages between the entire range of sustainable development indicators. The choice therefore depends on the policy scale, the interlinkages to be investigated, data availability, and the intended use of the analysis.

3. Conclusions for EU sustainability policies:

• The renewed EU SDS should put more emphasis on economic instruments to counter the rebound effect.
• The best policy instruments identified in the literature are environmental taxes and auctioned tradable permits in the framework of environmental tax reform (ETR) in combination with environmental regulation and subsidies for environmental industries.
• Voluntary instruments and eco-labels can play a supporting role in environmental policy, but are not very effective on their own.
• To achieve sustainable development, policies should aim for absolute reductions in energy and material consumption in Europe and place more emphasis on other contributors to quality of life, such as health, community engagement and meaningful work.

All project reports are now available at www.indi-link.net.