Monitoring progress towards a sustainable New Zealand - article

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Key Statistics, September 2002, p. 9-13

Monitoring Progress Towards a Sustainable New Zealand¹

"Monitoring Progress Towards a Sustainable New Zealand", a new, experimental report recently released by Statistics New Zealand, provides a selection of information to help assess New Zealand’s progress towards sustainable development. Information in this report has been chosen to provide some insights as to whether we are meeting current needs, and how our actions, both past and present, may be impacting on the stock of resources that will be available for the future. A process of review is planned to assess how well this experimental report meets those aims.

"Monitoring Progress Towards a Sustainable New Zealand" provides a selection and analysis of information related to sustainable development. Economic, social and environmental information are all needed to assess whether development processes are sustainable. This new report is a first attempt to bring this information together. However, the report does not attempt to draw conclusions as to whether development in New Zealand is sustainable.

This article provides a short discussion of the concept of sustainable development, an overview of some of the indicators discussed in the report and an outline of the process of selecting the indicators.

What is sustainable development?

Sustainable development is a process or a means to an end. The 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development defined sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987).

People – our quality of life and well-being – are at the centre of sustainable development. Principle 1 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development states that “Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature.” (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, 1992.)

Sustainable development involves consideration of the links between economic activity, society and the environment. Indicators that enable us to gain insights into our progress towards sustainable development need to be more than economic, social or environmental performance indicators. They should help us to understand and explain long-term effects and inter-linkages. So far we have, at best, only partly met this challenge.

Overview

A selection of questions related to sustainable development, and some examples of the indicators from the report include:

Is the environment resilient and healthy?
 

• The little spotted kiwi, widespread in New Zealand prior to human settlement, are now restricted to a few offshore islands and mainland reserves.
• Before human settlement, it has been estimated that the indigenous forest covered approximately 85 percent of the land area of New Zealand. In 1997, New Zealand’s land cover included 39 percent pastoral land, 23 percent indigenous forest, 6 percent planted forest, and 1 percent urban areas. The remainder was made up largely of shrub, tussock and bare land.
• Seizures of unwanted pests (plants and animals) from aircraft and aircraft passengers have steadily increased since 1995. The total number of seizures recorded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s Quarantine Service in the 2000–01 year was 120,900, an 18 percent increase from the previous year.

Is the economy innovative and growing?
 

• New Zealand’s real Gross Domestic Product had zero growth in the year ended March 1991 compared with an increase of 2.6 percent for the year ended March 2001.

   

• Real capital investment expenditure was 20.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product in the year ended March 2001, compared with 19.6 percent in 1991.
• New Zealand’s level of overseas debt has grown from 87 percent of gross national income in 1991 to 117 percent in 2001.

And in balance with the environment?
 

• Total greenhouse gas emissions increased by 5 percent between 1990 and 2000.
• Total consumer energy use increased by 21 percent between 1990 and 2000.

   

And providing work?
 

• The unemployment rate for the year ended March 2001 was 5.7 percent of the labour force compared with 8.4 percent for the year ended March 1991.

Are people healthy and well educated?
 

• New Zealand’s life expectancy at birth is around the middle range for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries at 81 years for females and 76 years for males in 1998–2000, compared with 79 and 73 years respectively in 1990–92.
• In 2001, 14.2 percent of people aged 25 to 64 reported they had a degree or higher qualification, compared with 7.1 percent in 1991.

With vibrant cultural identities?
 

• In 2001, 20 percent of Mäori people aged 15 and over were able to speak te reo (Mäori language) at least fairly well, including 19 percent of those aged 15 to 24.
• In July 2001, 10,600 Mäori children, or 34 percent of all Mäori enrolments in early childhood education, were enrolled in köhanga reo (Mäori language nests). At the same time 4,300 Pacific children, or 39 percent of all Pacific enrolments in early childhood education, were enrolled in Pacific language nests.

With living standards that meet the needs of all?
 

• The real gross national disposable income per capita of New Zealanders was $25,800 in 2001 compared with $22,700 in 1991.
• Income inequality rose over the period from 1991 to 2001, but has not shown any significant change between 1998 and 2001.

And are people safe and able to participate in all aspects of the community now and in the future?

• The reported criminal offence rate more than doubled between 1971 and 1991, from 586 offences per 10,000 people to 1,284 offences, but by 2001 the rate had dropped to 1,106 reported offences per 10,000 people.
• At the 2001 Census, 41 percent of people lived in households that were connected to the Internet.

The approach to indicators of sustainable development

The exploratory report Monitoring Progress Towards a Sustainable New Zealand has been produced by a cross-government working group led by Statistics New Zealand.

A challenge for monitoring progress towards sustainable development is the choice of indicators and framework for the reporting. There are many different possible approaches described in the report.

The framework used in the report for selecting and developing the indicators incorporates the capital model proposed by the OECD (OECD, 2001), and the ‘theme’ approach used in the United Nations (2001) Indicators of Sustainable Development: Guidelines and Methodology. The themes and sub-themes specified in the United Nations (UN) framework were grouped into seven main themes that are considered to be relevant to sustainable development.

In each chapter we have selected indicators mostly following the UN guidelines, except where the topic is not a major issue for New Zealand. The indicators in the social area also draw upon work completed by the Ministry of Social Development in The Social Report 2001. Similarly the indicators in the environmental area draw on the Ministry for the Environment’s Environmental Performance Indicators, and economic indicators are drawn mostly from Statistics New Zealand’s published series, leading to the inclusion of some topics not covered by the UN.

A preliminary list of indicators was identified. From this list, the indicators were compared against our criteria (see below) to select the final indicators most relevant to sustainable development.

The capital model assisted us in determining whether the indicators were relevant in relation to sustainable development. The capital approach was then used throughout the report to assist in the analysis of the themes in relation to sustainable development. Each theme area was analysed to determine the linkages to the different types of capital.

Criteria for selecting indicators

Each indicator was tested against the following criteria:

• Recommended by the UN or OECD
• Accepted as an indicator for New Zealand and published by an official agency primarily national in scale or scope
• Technically and analytically sound conceptually well-defined and grounded, based on international standards and consensus about validity, and statistically valid

• Relevant illustrates linkages to the economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainable development
• Measurable and cost effective uses existing data, time series data are available, simple to monitor and can be aggregated
• Simple to understand and easy to interpret understandable by the target audience, explainable and relevance easily determined.

Ideally, the indicators will satisfy all, or the majority, of these criteria. In reality, however, some areas are less represented than others due to the lack of available data or because they are harder to measure, for example social indicators compared with economic indictors. Such issues are highlighted in the report as gaps in our knowledge (under the headings “Data gaps or issues”). Details of the methodology behind each of the indicators will be provided in a forthcoming publication Monitoring Progress Towards a Sustainable New Zealand: Sources and Methods.

Comments on the report, the indicators chosen and possible future development priorities are welcomed, and can be made through a feedback questionnaire in the report or on the Statistics New Zealand website. A seminar and workshop on monitoring progress towards sustainable development is planned for mid-September, as part of a process of consultation and review of the report. For more information on the seminar, please contact Mike Brookes on 04 931 4669 or email: mike.brookes@stats.govt.nz.

This report is now available free on the Statistics New Zealand website.

A printed version of the report is available on request for a cost of $35.

References and further information

Ministry for the Environment (1997-). “Environmental Performance Indicators”: http://www.environment.govt.nz [16 July 2002].

Ministry of Social Policy (2001). The Social Report 2001: Indicators of Social Well-being in New Zealand, Ministry of Social Policy, Wellington.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2001). Sustainable Development: Critical Issues, OECD, Paris.

United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (2001). Indicators of Sustainable Development: Guidelines and Methodologies, Division for Sustainable Development, New York.

United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (1992). “Agenda 21” http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/agenda21.htm [29 May 2002].

United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (1992). “Rio Declaration on Environment and Development”
http://www.un.org/document/ga/conf15126annex1.htm [16 July 2002].

World Commission on Environment and Development (1987). Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Footnote

¹ This article was prepared by Helen Stott, Chief Analyst, Statistics New Zealand.

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