INDI-LINK

Indicator-based evaluation of interlinkages between different sustainable development objectives (INDI-LINK)

The INDI-LINK project further 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.

SERI served as scientific coordinator of this research project in the 6th Framework Programme (sub-programme Scientific Support to Policies).

Main objectives:

1. further improvement of sustainable development indicators (SDI),
2. assessment of interlinkages between the different priorities of the EU SDS and
3. deriving conclusions for future SD policy making.

Key results:

1.   Further development of SD indicators: INDI-LINK improved 9 selected sustainable development indicators:

• “Biodiversity index” and “Child wellbeing”: these indicators are still far from being operationalised and calculated; INDI-LINK developed and proposed basic approaches to move forward towards an implementation.
• “Vehicle-kilometres”, “Environmentally weighted indicator of material consumption” and “Unmet needs for healthcare”: INDI-LINK improved and specified already existing methodological approaches.
• “Total material consumption”, “External costs of energy use”, “Green public procurement”, and “Administrative cost imposed by legislation”. Methodologies are already advanced for these indicators; INDI-LINK provided pilot calculations and quantitative comparisons of different methods.

The INDI-LINK project also suggested indicators for 17 emerging policy issues of great future importance for sustainability, such as the appropriation of ecosystem services, biocultural diversity and dislocation of environmental impacts through international trade

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.

Publications

INDI-LINK final report

INDI-LINK project reports