An economic scenario that gives top priority to saving the environment rather than encouraging production growth

Summary Welfare, or satisfaction of wants, is not only dependent on produced goods but also on the quality of the environment, leisure time, income distribution, working conditions, employment and the safety of the future.The same amount of production and consumption requires more labour with environmental conservation than without. Under current conditions, environmental measures, nevertheless, often lead to a loss of jobs. The paper enunciates in which conditions environmental measures lead to more employment. In the scenario study the necessary environmental measures have been formulated, their effects on the environment have been estimated in physical terms and their costs in money terms. The (negative) consequences for production and the (positive) consequences for employment have been scanned with the aid of an econometric model.In the short term (20 years) the effect on production is less than expected, among others because employment is created for many jobless: part of the measures could be carried out free of charge. In the long term more measures have to be taken and the possibilities for an ever-growing production in the industrialized world will probably diminish.In the paper, it is explained why saving the environment is not only possible, but necessary as well, in order to evade overshoots in the future and to safeguard the living conditions for generations to come. The author sincerely hopes that studies like this will be elaborated for other countries. By then the politicians and the public might become convinced that it is possible and necessary to shift the priority of economic policy to saving the environment.Dr Roefie Hueting is Head of the Department for Environment Statistics, of the Netherlands Central Bureau of Statistics. In 1970, he published Wat is de natuur ons waard? (What is nature's value to us?), a collection of articles from the years 1967–1970 on the deterioration of the environment, and economic growth. In 1974, he took (cum laude) a doctor's degree, his thesis being entitled Nieuwe schaarste en economische groei. An updated version in English has been published, in 1980, under the title New Scarcity and Economic Growth. He has published numerous papers and articles on environmental problems, both in Dutch and English, for seminars, periodicals and collections.