Development talks – Environmental Economics – Pathways to a Sustainable Future

SANDEE participated in SIDA’s Development Talks program in Stockholm on May 5th 2015. The workshop brought together economists and ecologists from Sweden and around the world to think about ‘Environmental Economics’ as a strategy for sustainability. SIDA’s Director General, Charlotte Petri Gornitzka opened the workshop. SANDEE Founder Board member Sir Partha Dasgupta spoke of the importance of local ecosystems and local action in addressing global problems. Directors from the regional environmental economics networks (SANDEE, EEPSEA, CEEPA and LACEEP) and Environment for Development Centers identified examples of how environmental economics matters and what has been done to build capacity to address the complex problems we face. Priya Shyamsundar discussed SANDEE’s research related to REDD+ as an example of local actions affecting global changes…. More 

Natural Capital for Inclusive Growth: Options and Tools for South Asia: A Policy Dialogue for Senior Policy Makers, Kolkata, India, December 17-19, 2014

Co-organized by the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, this workshop is a natural continuation of the conversation begun in October 2013 at the ‘Valuing and Accounting for the Environment in Asia’ conference co-sponsored by SANDEE. Attendees will include representatives from SANDEE, The World Bank, the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity, the South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. The objective of the workshop is examine strategies for valuing and accounting for natural capital, particularly in North-Eastern India….More

14^th Annual Conference of the National Council on Science and the Environment, Washington DC, USA, January 28 – 30, 2014

A short movie on SANDEE’s vision and mission was broadcast the 14th Annual Conference of the National Council on Science and the Environment, 28-30 January 2014, Washington DC, USA
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Valuing and Accounting for the Environment in the Asia Region, Bangkok, Thailand, October 8-10, 2013

SANDEE, jointly with UNEP and ESCAP, organized a regional workshop “Valuing and Accounting for the Environment in the Asia Region” during 8-10 October 2013 at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok.  The workshop was co-sponsored by a number of partners including ACB, ADB, EEPSEA, INSEE, UNDP, UNSD, and WAVES (World Bank). Representatives from these partners as well as Sir Partha Dasgupta and other experts participated in this workshop.

Eighty delegates from Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam, including academics and senior officials from statistics offices as well as planning and environment ministries participated in the workshop to discuss approaches to augment existing macroeconomic aggregates such as gross domestic product in order to better account for the environment. The workshop aimed to assist countries in the region in understanding how environmental changes can be incorporated into national accounts, particularly by implementing the UN’s System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA). The objectives of the workshop were to share knowledge about existing accounting practices, identify policy uses and challenges to integrating environment into national accounting frameworks, and examine strategies for valuing the environment. Participants discussed and agreed on various ways forward for implementing ecosystem valuation and accounting in the Asia region…… More 

Green National Accounting in India, Delhi, India, April 5, 2013

On 5 April 2013, the Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, released a report on improving measures of economic development titled “Green National Accounts in India: A Framework.” This report was prepared by an Expert Group organized by the National Statistical Organization and chaired by Sir Partha Dasgupta, Frank Ramsey Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge and a founding member of SANDEE. The Expert Group members included senior policy practitioners, economists and statisticians from India. SANDEE was well represented by Kanchan Chopra (former Board member), Haripriya Gundimeda (Dasgupta Fellow), Priya Shyamsundar (Director), and E. Somanathan (Advisor). The report advocates for estimating broad measures of wealth that include natural capital in order to better understand whether the Indian economy is developing in a sustainable fashion. It also offers some practical suggestions for the Central Statistics Office to move forward on greening India’s National Accounts.

“Through planned economic development, India aims to attain economic growth and poverty alleviation, and doing so in a sustainable manner. This is all the more important since a significant segment of India’s population, particularly the rural poor, depends on natural resources for their subsistence and earning their livelihood. The poor need to be fully factored in when we deliberate the calculus of growth, which can be sustained only if natural resources are managed on a sustainable basis.” Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India.

Planet Under Pressure, London, March 26-26, 2012

Planet Under Pressure 2012 was the largest gathering of global change scientists leading up to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) with a total of 3,018 delegates at the conference venue and over 3,500 that attended virtually via live webstreaming. The Plenary sessions and the Daily Planet news show continue to draw audiences world wide as they are available On Demand.