The evolution of Denmark's Green Net National Income

Le résumé fourni par la source

Drawing on findings in the other chapters of this book, we establish a time series for Denmark’s Green Net National Income (GNNI). We do so by adjusting the conventional national accounts measures of consumption and saving for various environmental costs of economic activity while adding the value of recreational services from nature. We find that the GNNI has evolved roughly in parallel with the conventional Net National Income (NNI) in the period 1990–2020. Towards the end of the period, NNI exceeded GNNI by about 10 percent, indicating that NNI significantly overstates Denmark’s prosperity when the costs of pollution and of the depletion of natural capital are accounted for. The roughly constant level of real environmental costs suggests that Denmark has not experienced “green growth”, since the growth in conventional national income has not been accompanied by a notable fall in environmental costs. The aggregate measure of environmental costs reflects offsetting tendencies as some environmental costs such as those caused by air pollution have decreased whereas the costs of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and biodiversity loss have increased. In contrast to the costs of air pollution, the costs of GHG emissions and biodiversity loss are accumulating over time, reflecting that these environmental pressures have long-term consequences.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.