Green National Accounting in Theory and Practice

Peter Birch Sørensen is Professor of Economics at the University of Copenhagen, a member of the Royal Danish Society of Sciences and Letters, and an international research Fellow in the CESifo research network. He is also a former Director of the Economic Policy Research Unit at the University of Copenhagen. His research has covered topics in Environmental and Climate Economics, Public Economics and Macroeconomics.

• 1. A theoretical framework for estimating the Green Net National Income in a distorted open economy. 2. The value of exhaustible and renewable natural resources. 3. The health-related costs of air pollution. 4. The costs of water pollution. 5. The recreational benefits from nature. 6. Valuing biodiversity. 7. The domestic costs of global warming. 8. The evolution of Denmark’s Green Net National Income: Methodological issues and empirical findings. Index

“This is a very timely and much needed book when we face both a nature and a climate crisis. The book revitalizes the concept of green national accounting and provides the most comprehensive and long-term coverage of environmental damage costs in national accounting to date. Showing a 10 % lower Green Net National Income (NNI) in Denmark than their conventional NNI, the book illustrates the magnitude the environmental damage costs. This should serve as a wake-up call to people and politicians, and also provides a unique tool for decisionmakers in all of Europe to stay on the sustainable development path.”- Ståle Navrud, Professor of Environmental and Resource Economics, Norwegian University of Life Sciences.“The authors are to be congratulated for re-vitalising the concept of green net national income as an important signal of changes in people’s well-being at the level of the national economy. Readers will find a very extensive coverage of all major environmental adjustments to the conventional national accounts for a small, open economy over a 30-year period. This is most useful material, which can serve as a model for other nations.”- Nick Hanley, Professor of Environmental and One Health Economics, University of Glasgow.