Multidimensional assessment of sustainability is a way to reconcile the need for simultaneous consideration of various indicators of progress beyond GDP growth with a policy focused visualization of multi-dimensional trends in a clear and transparent manner. The various composite measures used for sustainability assessment often hide the trade-offs between economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability. This presentation  discusses indicators used for sustainability analysis at the macro scale and offers a new multi-criteria sustainability assessment framework. It discusses results that were obtained in sustainability assessments for the USA, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Britain and Russia. The MulticriteriaDecision Aid tool, Aggregated Preference Index System (APIS) is used for the assessment with several indicator sets, representing economic, environmental and social dimensions. Special attention will be given to the dimensions of carbon and inequality, illustrated by several country cases. The multidimensional assessment is designed with two different policy priorities: priority of economic over environmental and social dimension versus priority of environmental and social dimensions over economic. Results help to identify countries, where economic development happened at the expense of environmental and social dimension and lead to policy conclusions.

Dr. Stanislav E. Shmelev is the Director at Environment Europe, Oxford, UK. His research focuses on ecological economics and sustainability assessment. 

This event is part of the seminar series "Climate Change and Social Inequality" organized by University of Maryland College of Behavioral and Social Sciences.  Welcome to join us. For further information contact hubacek@umd.edu.