Achievements and gaps in indicators for sustainability

In a world faced with accelerating climate change, economic instability and resource limits, it is urgent to find better indicators of progress towards sustainability. The available indicators mostly succeed at measuring unsustainable trends that can be targeted by management action, but fall short of defining or ensuring sustainability. A recent review of environmental assessment and reporting at the national level for the United Nations Environment Programme shows about half of reporting countries to be using indicators and provides some lessons learned. However indicators at the national level are not sufficient. The challenges ahead include finding indicators of change in dynamic systems, establishing sustainability targets towards which national progress can be measured, developing global level indicators of planetary sustainability, and providing individuals with indicators reflecting their own progress and providing positive incentives for further efforts. Finally, since achieving sustainability is fundamentally an ethical challenge, a new set of values-based indicators is required to measure and motivate the implementation of ethical principles necessary to guide the transition towards sustainability.