GREEN GDP: AN ANALYSES FOR DEVELOPING AND DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

A frequently asked question lately is whether the traditional measures of a country’s level of economic activity and progress, such as gross domestic product or gross national product, fail to account for the environmental issues. While these measures are highly reliable indicators that refl ect the economic performance of a country, they largely ignore the depreciation of assets, non-market economy and especially the damages to the environment caused by growth. There is a consensus that these indicators, (especially) according to the concepts of sustainable development and green growth, appear to be poor measurements. Measuring progress on a complex and multi-dimensional scale and identifying relevant indicators are challenging tasks. No agreement exists yet on an analytical framework or a set of indicators to sustainable economic growth. Building the research on the alternative Green GDP measurement our goal is to provide an alternative ranking scheme by comprehensively considering both quantitative (common methodological algorithm) and qualitative (opportunity costs) features of the so-called green growth. The analysis will be demonstrated by calculating the Green GDP indicator for the variety of developing and developed countries for the period 2008–2016. Namely, our results could serve to improve the level of debate on different green indicators and inform the wider public. We see this paper as a step forward for a growing academic platform on ‘green economy topics’, a step pointed towards improving, amending, evolving and promoting further development of green growth measurements and indicators.