Gent 2001

9th Annual Conference, Gent, Belgium, 15-18 November 2001
of the European Environmental Advisory Councils EEAC

Indicators for sustainability
- environmental indicators and sustainable development trends

Hosted by the Environment and Nature Council of Flanders (MiNa-Raad)

Abstracts for workshops and sessions

Conference conclusions by the Rapporteurs and the Chair

1. There is a need for environmental indicators, both in their own right and because present (economic) indicators are not covering the environmental costs.
2. The present EU proposal covers indicators only in the field of pollution control and resource use, and not in the field of nature protection. This bias needs to be corrected.
3. There is a need for environmental indicators for the individual environmental sectors, as well as for indicators about environmental integration, both internal and external.
4. Subsidiarity also has a place in environmental indicators, i.e. some should be developed at world level, others at European level, and others at national, regional or local level.
5. We notice that research and advice in the Netherlands (VROM-Raad) concludes that the "environmental footprint" approach has more disadvantages than advantages. Nevertheless, environmental indicators ought to take into account environmental impacts elsewhere.
6. We notice that there is a problem about the (lack of) data for the development of indicators. Some needed indicators are not constructed because there are no data. But this lack of data can not be a reason for not dealing with a problem nor for constructing non-relevant indicators. Indeed, we think that data ought to be collected as a function of what is necessary for the construction of indicators, contrary to the present practice of constructing indicators as a function of available data).
7. There is a need for public participation around environmental indicators, and we think that environmental indicators can be used as a good educational instrument.
8. Environmental indicators are not stand-alone. They must be part of a policy life cycle.
9. The development of environmental indicators is in its infancy. A great deal of work (research, pilot projects) is still needed.
10. There is a lack of environmental indicators that deal with social-psychological dimensions of environmental problems. Attitudes and perceptions are important in determining impacts of policy and possibilities for change.

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