Monitoring Environmental Progress

Book excerpt: Annotation Showcases improvements in environmentally sustainable development indicators by using them to analyze policy-oriented issues. The World Bank is both a compiler and a user of environmentally sustainable development (ESD) indicators. Although the Bank is more a user than a compiler of indicators in general, it believes in ensuring proper communication between users and compilers, especially for users who are policymakers. It is essential that policymakers have at least rough indicators of whether environmental conditions are improving or deteriorating in broad areas of concern. This report showcases improvements in ESD indicators by using them to analyze policy-oriented issues. The report examines issues in developing indicators that are understood by compilers and users, including definitions, methodology, and practical considerations. It addresses the gray area where physical indicators of environmental conditions blend into policymaking and proposes a change in the role of national accounting, where poor measurement of environmental aspects can send distorted signals to decisionmakers.