Countries are progressing too sMany countries have become more efficient in using natural resources and the services provided by the environment, generating more economic output per unit of carbon emitted and of energy or raw materials consumed. Yet progress is too slow, and if emissions embodied in international trade are included, advances in environmental productivity are more modest, a new OECD report shows.
Green Growth Indicators 2017 uses a range of indicators covering everything from land use to CO2 productivity and innovation to show where 46 countries rank on balancing economic growth with environmental pressures over 1990 to 2015. It finds that Denmark, Estonia, the United Kingdom, Italy and the Slovak Republic have made the most progress on green growth since 2000.
The report shows that no country is performing well on all green growth dimensions and most of the countries studied have yet to fully disconnect economic growth from fossil fuel use and pollutant emissions. Progress has often been insufficient to preserve the natural asset base or relieve pressure on ecosystems and on natural environmental services such as water purification and climate regulation.
“While there are signs of greening growth, most countries show progress on just one or two fronts and little on the others,” said OECD Environment Director Simon Upton. “We need much greater efforts across the board if we are to safeguard natural assets, reduce our collective environmental footprint and sever the link between growth and environmental pressures.”
The report shows that since the 1990s all OECD and G20 countries have increased their overall environmentally-adjusted productivity – a way of measuring economic productivity that accounts for pressures like pollution and the use of natural resources.