ENVI I

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Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety I (ENVI I):

Beyond Gross Domestic Product (GDP): in the light of the ‘Trio Programme’ priority for Europe to look beyond growth in capital, how should Europe consider environmental progress, well-being and other indicators alongside more traditional measures of development?

Committee Article

Despite GDP‘s limitations as a welfare indicator, it is still the most widely used proxy for welfare with many policy decisions being based on it. The European Commission together with the European Parliament, the Club of Rome, the WWF and the OECD organised a “Beyond GDP“ conference in 2007 trying to develop a new indicator that e.g. is also inclusive of environmental and social aspects of progress. The conference revealed strong support from policymakers, economic, social and environmental experts and civil society for developing indicators that complement GDP and aim to provide more comprehensive information to support policy decisions. Similarly, a 2008 Eurobarometer poll showed that more than two thirds of EU citizens feel that social, environmental and economic indicators should be used equally to evaluate progress. It will be up to ENVI to decide if there is a need for new indices and if so what these should entail or if the benefits of using GDP outweigh the potential advantages of a new indicator.

Links:

  • The EU‘s Beyond GDP initiative: http://www.beyond-gdp.eu
  • Is GDP a satisfactory measure of growth, OECDObserver: http://www.oecdobserver.org/news/archivestory.php/aid/1518/Is_GDP_a_satisfactory_measure_of_growth_.html
  • Communication from the Commission to the Council and the Parliament on the Beyond GDP initiative: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=com:2009:0433:FIN:EN:PDF

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