The Environment
and Sustainable Development Indicators (ESDI) Initiative was
a three-year multistakeholder program aimed at developing
a small set of credible and understandable indicators to track
whether Canada's current economic activities threaten the
way of life for future generations.
This initiative - which was announced in the
Finance Minister's 2000 Budget Speech - marked the first time
a federal finance minister acknowledged the need and urgency
to track a full range of Canada's assets - including the ecosystem
services that are crucial to sustaining the economy in the
long term.
To better track these assets - our natural capital
- the Round Table has proposed six new measurements - or indicators.
These indicators will augment familiar economic data, such
as the gross domestic product (GDP) and the consumer price
index (CPI). Developed in close collaboration with Environment
Canada and Statistics Canada, these indicators are realistic
and useable. When implemented, these indicators will track,
sometimes for the first time, key types of natural and human
capital.
The initiative was guided by a steering committee
representing stakeholders from current sustainability and
well-being indicators initiatives, business, labour, provincial
government, community groups, not-for-profit organizations,
and academic or research institutions.The six indicators,
released in May 2003, include five natural capital and one
human capital indicator. The indicators are: forest cover,
freshwater quality, air quality, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions,
extent of wetlands, and educational attainment.
The ESDI Initiative's final State of the Debate
report entitled, Environment
and Sustainable Development Indicators for Canada,
includes the findings and recommendations from extensive research
and multistakeholder consultation.
In the February 2004 Speech from the Throne,
the federal government made a commitment to begin using several
of the recommended indicators. Governor General Adrienne Clarkson
announced that "
building on the recommendations
of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy,
the Government will start incorporating key indicators on
clean water, clean air and emissions reductions into its decision
making."
For further information, please contact:
Carolyn Cahill,
Senior
Policy Advisor at
(613) 996-4501
or by E-mail at: cahillc@nrtee-trnee.ca
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