TITLE:
Measuring Germany’s Transition to a Green Economy
AUTHORS:
Christian Lutz, Roland Zieschank, Thomas Drosdowski
KEYWORDS:
Green Economy, Measurement Concept, Sustainable Welfare, Indicators, Modelling, Energy Transition, System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
JOURNAL NAME:
Low Carbon Economy,
Vol.8 No.1,
March
14,
2017
ABSTRACT: This paper reports on results of the study entitled
“Green economy: Measuring sustainable welfare using SEEA data”. It contributes to
measuring the progress towards a green economy and to making it accessible for
policymaking in Germany. The concept used to measure the green economy looks at
six dimensions: 1) use
of natural resources and environmental damage caused, 2) natural capital, 3) environmental quality of life, 4) green economy: Economic dimension
and fields of action, 5)
policies: Institutional framework and measures, and 6) background information on economic and social
development. For each dimension the concept includes indicators. The concept
fulfils two main purposes: Firstly, it is designed to monitor progress towards
a green economy ex-post and secondly some of the proposed indicators can be
used to assess policy options ex-ante. Scenario analysis (PANTA RHEI model) is
used to apply the concept to Germany’s energy transition. Many indicators will
improve until 2030 despite some trade-offs.