Mr. Roelof Hueting founded the Department of Environmental Statistics at The Netherlands Central Bureau of Statistics in 1969. The Department produces statistics on the whole field of the environment, including species and resources, both in physical and monetary terms, and attempts to construct alternative national income figures, corrected for environmental losses, alongside the current figures.
Roelof Hueting assisted the Dutch Ministers of Health and Environment with their first environmental legislation, introducing "the polluter pays principle". He helped the Dutch eco-movement stop the construction of a polder in the Waddensea, an estuary of international environmental importance, which resulted in the entire polderplan being abandoned.
Hueting was co-author of a "realistic alternative scenario" estimating the consequences on the production and employment levels of an economic policy that shifts its priority from production growth to saving the environment and natural resources. His paper Correcting National Income for Environmental Losses: A Practical Solution for a Theoretical Dilemma arrives at a method of calculating a Sustainable National Income, aimed at better measuring economic success than the national income, as the latter does not take into consideration the limitations imposed by sustainable use of the environment.
Mr. Hueting is currently working on a pilot calculation for a sustainable national income of The Netherlands.
Updated By: Mary Ann Maybaum
Last Updated: 1/30/2010 9:54:00 PM |
