Last lesson you measured sustainability with indicators and footprints, and worked out how many Earths would be needed if everyone lived like the average Swiss resident. This lesson looks at the numbers countries use to judge their own progress, what those numbers leave out, and who carries the cost when development is unfair. By the end you should be able to explain why GDP neglects the value of natural systems and how Green GDP tries to correct this, explain how inequality leads to unequal access to water, food and energy, describe one local and one global example of environmental injustice, place sustainability and justice issues at different operating scales, and outline the uses and limitations of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
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1.3.8 Common indicators of economic development, such as gross domestic product (GDP), neglect the value of natural systems and may lead to unsustainable development.
GDP is a measure of the monetary value of final goods and services produced and sold in a given period by a country. Focusing on GDP as a measure of economic progress may cause unsustainable development. Green GDP measures environmental costs and subtracts these from GDP.
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[26 September 2018]
Gross domestic product (GDP) is the money value of all the final goods and services produced and sold in a country in a given period, usually a year. It is the number governments use most often to judge whether a country is developing economically.
GDP only counts things that are bought and sold. Clean air, a stable climate and a forest that holds back avalanches have no price, so they count for nothing. Damage can even push GDP up: money spent cleaning up an oil spill, or treating people made ill by polluted air, is counted as output, while the harm itself is never subtracted.
Think back to the protection forest above Andermatt from foundation.3.1. If it were clear-cut, the timber sold would add to Switzerland's GDP. The avalanche protection the village lost would not be subtracted. Judged by GDP alone, the country would look better off. This is how a focus on GDP can lead to unsustainable development.
1. Using the Andermatt forest, explain why GDP neglects the value of natural systems and how this could lead to unsustainable development. [3]
Green GDP takes the money cost of environmental damage away from GDP:
Green GDP = GDP − environmental costs
China tried it. In September 2006 the State Environmental Protection Administration and the National Bureau of Statistics published China's first green GDP estimate, for the year 2004. Pollution had cost the economy 511.8 billion yuan, about 3.05% of GDP. The estimate was based on pilot studies in ten provinces, and it left out many kinds of damage, including the cost of treating people made ill by pollution, because the data did not exist.
Local governments objected to figures that made their economic results look worse, and in 2007 the report for 2005 was postponed indefinitely. Putting a price on damage turned out to be hard to do and hard to agree on. Statisticians have since moved away from a single green number, towards separate environmental accounts that record stocks such as forests and water alongside GDP.
Sources: Radio Free Asia, 22 September 2006; AsiaNews, 23 July 2007; UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting, The rise, fall and rethinking of green GDP, 7 October 2021.
2. Using the China example, outline two reasons why few countries publish a Green GDP. [2]
The Human Development Index (HDI), published by the UN Development Programme, measures more than money. It combines life expectancy, years of schooling and average income into one score between 0 and 1. It still leaves nature out. So since 2020 the UNDP has also published a planetary pressures-adjusted HDI (PHDI), which lowers each country's HDI according to how much carbon dioxide it emits and how much material it uses per person. The carbon dioxide figure counts only the gas released inside the country itself.
| Country | HDI (world rank) | PHDI | Carbon dioxide per person (t) | Material footprint per person (t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Switzerland | 0.970 (joint 2nd) | 0.732 | 3.7 | 39.8 |
| Costa Rica | 0.833 (62nd) | 0.774 | 1.6 | 11.0 |
Data for 2023. Source: UNDP, Human Development Report 2025, statistical annex.
3. Switzerland has a far higher HDI than Costa Rica but a lower PHDI. Using the table, explain why. [3]
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1.3.10 Inequalities in income, race, gender and cultural identity within and between different societies lead to disparities in access to water, food and energy.
Examples of inequality include the inability to afford an electricity supply, or the privatization of water sources.
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Inequalities are differences in income, power and opportunity between groups of people, both within a society, for example between rich and poor households in one country, and between societies, for example between Switzerland and Bulgaria. Either kind can decide who gets enough water, food and energy.
Energy poverty means being unable to afford enough energy to heat, cool or light a home. The EU tracks it for SDG 7 by asking households whether they can keep their home adequately warm.
The chart splits each country's people by the poverty line, set at 60% of the middle (median) household income in that country. Each country's line is set from its own incomes, so a household below the line in Switzerland has much more money than one below the line in Bulgaria.
Bar chart for 2024 showing the percentage of people unable to keep their home adequately warm, above and below the poverty line: Switzerland 0.6 and 1.4, France 9.8 and 22.4, EU-27 7.1 and 19.7, Portugal 12.7 and 30.9, Bulgaria 13.9 and 37.2
Data: Eurostat, EU-SILC, inability to keep home adequately warm by poverty status (ilc_mdes01), 2024. Chart made for this lesson.
4. Using the chart, explain how the data show inequality in access to energy both within and between societies. Use figures. [3]