Mr. Rae Kwon Chung,
Mr. Rae Kwon Chung, as Director of the Environment and Development Division of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), has been at the forefront of developing the concept of Green Growth. It is very interesting and informative to hear Mr. Chung’s observations on the definition and description of green growth and designing green growth indicators. Particularly inspiring was his proposal that green growth is not material growth and the fundamental way of growth should be changed from quantity growth to quality growth in achieving green growth. He also provided profound insights into indicator development that quality and efficiency should be key factors for policy-making.

Green growth provides an approach for harmonising economic and environmental activities which aims to transform the idea that there must be conflicts between green, pro-environmental activities and pursuing economic growth. I also think that green growth is only one tool to help implement sustainable development, but because green growth does not address the social pillar of sustainable development, other tools are needed to ensure the holistically integration of the three pillars and for development activities to properly address issues such as poverty alleviation and social equity.


It is not feasible to have unbridled continuation of materialistic expansion, and thus green growth aims to strengthen a shift in economic focus from quantity to quality. For example, this economic focus should aim to enhance the level of value-added production and also to increase the efficiency of production and consumption cycles to achieve systems that consume the least to produce the most. In this way, efficiency can become the new driver of wealth, and to properly measure this approach. I would like to encourage a switch from GDP to measuring of net growth, as GDP contains within it numerous hidden losses that work against efficiency.


Green growth indicators are currently being prepared. The importance of the indicators is to give clear and strategic messages to policy-makers on specific activities and direction for greening the growth, such as indicators for energy policy, tax/subsidies for fossils fuels and incentives for promoting renewable energy. As described above, the main priority of a green growth approach and relevant indicators should be on efficiency maximisation, especially from a policy standpoint. I have found out the limitations of existing indictors such as EPI (Environment Performance Index) or ESI (Environment Sustainability Index). These are not fully reflecting policy needs. Green growth indicators should reflect the efficiency of growth, such as resource, energy, and policy efficiency, etc. Furthermore, by focusing on greening economic activities, one of the key objectives of this approach is to mainstream sustainable development in social and economic growth beyond the limitations of environmental ministry and to ensure that it becomes a holistic policy focus for the entire government.


We are thinking about developing ecological friendly indicators, which cover the three pillars of sustainable development (economy, environment and society). For example, competitiveness of an economy, ecological boundary due to resource constrains, inclusiveness of medical-care for the society, and indicators to reflect policy development. “Net growth”, which means GDP minus hidden GDP losses due to, for example, traffic congestion and ecological degradation, can be a good indicator. However, it is impossible to cover all elements. It is therefore necessary to select critical issues strategically. Indicators are not necessarily holistic indicators at this moment.


Mr. Rae Kwon Chung, as Director of the Environment and Development Division of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), has been at the forefront of developing the concept of Green Growth. It is very interesting and informative to hear Mr. Chung’s observations on the definition and description of green growth and designing green growth indicators. Particularly inspiring was his proposal that green growth is not material growth and the fundamental way of growth should be changed from quantity growth to quality growth in achieving green growth. He also provided profound insights into indicator development that quality and efficiency should be key factors for policy-making.