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The overall goal of the project is to gain insights and understandings that are relevant to environmental policy concerning the application of the strong sustainability criterion to the use of the environment and its resources. The objectives of this project are to construct a theoretical framework for the identification of ‘critical natural capital’ (CNC), the maintenance of which is required for strong sustainability to be achieved; to classify the CNC of each of the countries represented in the project, in a way that is consistent with the theoretical framework; and to investigate the economic and social implications of applying a strong sustainability criterion to a particularly significant example of critical natural capital in each country.

The overall goal of the project is to gain insights and understandings that are relevant to environmental policy concerning the application of the strong sustainability criterion to the use of the environment and its resources.

The objectives of this project are as follows:

  • to construct a theoretical framework for the identification of ‘critical natural capital’ (CNC), the maintenance of which is required for strong sustainability to be achieved;
  • to classify the CNC of each of the countries represented in the project, in a way that is consistent with the theoretical framework and;
  • to investigate the economic and social implications of applying a strong sustainability criterion to a particularly significant example of critical natural capital in each country.

EU Member States are committed to achieving a process of sustainable development in the framework of the European Commission’s Fifth Environmental Action Programme ‘Towards Sustainability’. Clarifying the distinction between weak and strong sustainability and, identifying the critical components of natural capital which are related to the latter, are of fundamental importance for increasing the policy usefulness of the concept of sustainability.

The overall goal of the project is to gain insights and understanding that are relevant to environmental policy concerning the application of the strong sustainability criterion to the use of the environment and its resources.

The objectives of this project, which will contribute to the attainment of its goal, are:

  • To construct a theoretical framework for the identification of ‘critical natural capital’ (CNC), the maintenance of which is required for strong sustainability to be achieved;
  • To classify the CNC of each of the countries represented in the project, in a way that is consistent with the theoretical framework, but reflecting each country’s different environmental endowments and capacities;
  • To investigate the economic and social implications of applying a strong sustainability criterion to a particularly significant example of critical natural capital in each country, perhaps one that is facing some threat to its integrity;
  • To draw conclusions about the overall economic and social implications of a country maintaining a commitment to strong sustainability.

Hopefully, the achievement of these objectives generates new insights into the difficult question of critical natural capital, to which the application of conventional cost-benefit analysis is problematic because the functions of this type of capital are not substitutable. This should enable EU environmental legislation and other policy measures to be more focused and better articulated with regard to the crucial environmental issues involving CNC, especially with regard to agriculture, transport, urban and industrial policies. Moreover, delineation of limits for the application of conventional cost-benefit analysis may be inferred.