LONG AND CHALLENGING ROAD TO GREEN GDP. WILL IT BE POSSIBLE TO OVERCOME CONCEPTUAL AND PROCEDURAL OBSTACLES OF THE CURRENT SYSTEM OF NATIONAL ACCOUNTS (SCN) THROUGH THE SYSTEM OF ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMIC ACCOUNTS (SCEA)? ESSAYS IN ENVIRONMENTAL MACROECONOMICS.
National accounting; System of National Accounts; GDP; National Environmental Accounting; System of Environmental Economic Accounts; Green GDP.
Historically, mainstream economics has developed the basic assumptions of the economic system by considering a closed system in which there is no interaction with external elements. However, after the increase in the levels of industrialization and agriculture, there was a significant increase in pollution, environmental degradation and climate change, facts that brought to the fore the concern about the consequences that the economic system generates for the environment. Although the environment is not considered a participant in the economic system, it interferes directly and is required for the functioning of the economy. With the deepening of the debates about the interactions that occur between the economic and environmental systems, it was realized that there are inputs of energy and materials (originating from the environment) in the economic system, supporting the argument that the economic system is an open system, being inserted in a larger system, which is the environmental system, or biosphere system. This question demonstrates the need to include these relationships in an integrated system. In this sense, Environmental Macroeconomics and National Environmental Accounting should, together, use the basic assumptions to bring adequate indicators through the integration of environmental and economic information, providing a more complete view of the relationships between the systems. In addition to In addition to trying to respond to the criticism of the indicators of the System of National Accounts, which is the basis for the calculation of GDP, developed by the United Nations. To this end, this chapter aims to initiate a contextualized discussion on the relationships between economic activity and its impacts on the environment, taking into account the need to preserve the national ecological heritage. The main result was the development of the theoretical framework, in which a contextualized discussion was held about the relations between the economic and environmental systems and the need to highlight environmental information in a system, through adjustments or development of another more appropriate one, for the proposition of a methodology for the calculation of Green GDP through the SCEA.