Using sustainable development indicators in satellite accounts and national accounts

Giving consideration to the present concepts of economic growth, and to the need for new concepts of wealth and prosperity. These would allow higher standards of living through changed lifestyles and would be less dependent on the Earth's finite resources and more in harmony with the Earth's carrying capacity. This would be reflected in the evolution of new systems of national accounts and other indicators of sustainable development.

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the UN Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.

Agenda 21 recommends that countries at the national level and international governmental and non-governmental organizations at the international level should develop the concept of indicators of sustainable development in order to identify such indicators. It points out that, in order to promote the increasing use of some of these indicators in satellite accounts and eventually in national accounts, the development of indicators needs to be pursued by the Statistical Office of the United Nations Secretariat as it draws upon evolving experience in this regard.