|
India
to have green national accounting system
India expects to put in place in five years a system of
green national accounting that would take into account the
environmental costs of development and reflect the use of precious
depletable natural resources in the process of generating national
income. "In the last few months, I have tried to set the ball
rolling so that by 2015 at least we can have a system of green
national accounting," Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said here.
He was delivering the 11th ISRO-JNCASR Satish Dhawan
Memorial Lecture on "The two cultures revisited: Some
reflections on the environment-development debate in India"
at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research.Ramesh
noted that India currently does not have "green accounting".
Economists estimate gross domestic product (GDP) as a broad measure of national
income, while net domestic product (NDP) accounts for the use of
physical capital. "But as yet, we have no generally accepted
system to convert gross domestic product into green domestic
product that would reflect the use up of precious depletable
natural resources in the process of generating national income", he said.
Economists all over the world have been at work for quite
some time on developing a robust system of green national
accounting but "we are not there as yet". "Ideally,
if we can report both gross domestic product and green domestic
product, we will get a better picture of the trade-offs involved
in the process of economic growth", the Minister added.
World Bank
launches ‘green' national accounts initiative
A new global partnership to help developing countries
integrate the economics of ecosystems into national accounting systems has been launched by the World Bank.
The alarming loss of biological diversity around the world is
attributable to the lack of proper valuation of the ecosystems and
the services they provide. The valuation and its
integration into national accounts are expected to lead to better
management of natural environments. According to Mr Robert B.
Zoellick, President, World Bank Group, the
natural wealth of nations should be a capital asset valued in
combination with its financial capital, manufactured capital and
human capital. The national accounts should reflect the vital
carbon storage services that forests provide and the coastal
protection values that come from coral reefs and mangroves, he
said at a Convention on Biological Diversity held in Nagoya, Japan.
The first phase of the partnership to ‘green' national
accounts has been launched starting with India and Colombia, which
will be in a group of six to 10 countries. A forthcoming World
Bank Publication, titled ‘The Changing Wealth of Nations',
states that the commercial value of farmlands, forests, minerals
and energy worldwide is more than $44 trillion, of which, the
developing countries account for $29 trillion. But, there is more
value in the services provided by ecosystems such as forests, like
hydrology regulation, soil retention and pollination.
United Nations Environment Programme
The partnership initiative builds on ‘The Economics of
Ecosystems and Biodiversity' (TEEB) project of the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP). It will include developing and
developed countries, non-governmental organisations and the global organisation for legislators.
During the initial five-year pilot period, the programme
will focus on how countries can quantify the ecosystems and their
services in terms of income and asset values; developing ways to
incorporate these values into policies on wealth and economic
growth; and evolve guidelines for implementation of the valuations
worldwide, according to a World Bank report. The feasibility
studies to identify priority ecosystems will start soon in India
and Colombia, while many other countries in Africa, Asia, Latin
America and Central Europe have evinced interest to become
partners in the pilot programme.
India, Brazil lead in building green economies
India and Brazil lead the number of countries who are
willing to draw on findings from the three-year study project The
Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) to make their
economies more environment-friendly and effectively use the services of nature.
The Brazilian and Indian governments are among those keen
to use findings from The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity
(Teeb) project. Final results from the three-year study were
unveiled here at the UN Convention on Biological
Diversity meeting.Nature's services must be counted if they are to
be valued, its leader said.
|
|
|
