198. Gross national product (GNP) has long dominated economic thinking and has been the touchstone by which the performance of national economies and the effectiveness of politicians are measured. But this measure of success has increasingly been challenged by new thinking — including the Brundtland report in 1987, the human development index and the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, established by the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, and chaired by Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen and Jean-Paul Fitoussi. Efforts in a number of countries to include happiness and well-being in national progress indicators are also important steps.

199. While material prosperity is important, it is a long way from being the only determinant of well-being. As the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress noted in its 2009 report, purely economic indicators say nothing about whether material well-being is bought at the expense of environmental and social impacts or at the risk of putting undue stress on natural resources.

200. On the environmental side of the equation, there is considerable experience with regard to how to measure the state of the environment, the degree of ecosystem integrity and the dimension of risk as a result of business-as-usual trends, which can be built into the sustainable development index or set of sustainability indicators. Programmes on “green” GNP undertaken by the United Nations (UNEP Global Environmental Outlook biennial reports and the report on decoupling natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth) and by various countries, including India, the OECD environmental indicators, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity study and ecological footprint studies (such as those of Mexico), inter alia, are examples of how to measure the degree of ecosystem integrity.

201. The systemic transformation of the global economy implied by sustainable development forces us to rethink what we mean by progress and whether economic growth is really the best means of measuring it. In order to decouple production and consumption from natural resource use and environmental degradation, narrow concepts of GNP should be supplemented by indices or indicators which measure sustainable development. The identification of a sustainable development index or set of sustainable development indicators should not be used as a means to impose penalties or trade barriers.

Recommendation 39
202. To measure progress on sustainable development, a Sustainable Development Index or set of indicators should be developed by 2014. To this end, the Secretary-General should appoint a technical task force, including relevant stakeholders.