Constructing a Partially Environmentally Adjusted Net Domestic Product for Sweden 1993 and 1997

An Environmentally adjusted net Domestic Product, EDP, should ideally value not only all “goods” produced during a year, but also all “bads”. This paper is an empirical attempt to show how in practice one can construct an EDP according both to academic theory and the practical guidelines in the forthcoming UN handbook, in which a short version of the paper is included. An EDP, the first of its kind for an industrialised country, is calculated for Sweden for the years 1993 and 1997. Depletion of metal ores, loss of agricultural soils, and increments of stock pollutants, influencing environmental degradation as acidification and eutrophication, have been possible to evaluate monetarily. Current damage caused by pollution emitted the current year, having already affected current productivity and output, is accounted for separately. An accounting scheme following “the polluter pays principle” is used for this purpose, transferring value added between sectors, not affecting the aggregate figure.