A respected Monash University economist has devised a thought-provoking method of measuring countries' ability to achieve success in an environmentally-friendly way - and South-East Asian nations feature prominently.
Professor Yew-Kwang Ng's Environmentally Responsible Happy Nation Index (ERHNI) is calculated as the happiness of a nation's average resident, minus the number of years of unhappiness the nation inflicts on the global community as measured by its per capita carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Malaysia achieved an ERHNI rating of 14.2, ranking it 13 in the world and second in the Asia-Pacific region, behind New Zealand (14.3). The third ranked nation in the Asia-Pacific region was Indonesia (10), followed by the Philippines (9.3), Mongolia (9.2), Singapore and Australia (8.9), Thailand (8.4), Sri Lanka (7.9), China (7.6), and Vietnam (7.3). (Rankings lists are attached to the bottom of this release).
Professor Ng said ERHNI was a true measure of a nation's success because achieving happiness was most people's ultimate aim and global warming was one of the biggest universal threats to well-being.
"If the principle of a good ERHNI rating was accepted, the policies of governments around the world would focus on improving lives without excessively harming the environment," Professor Ng said.
Professor Ng was recently awarded the 2007 Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Society of Australia in recognition of his exceptional academic career. The award is reserved for the society's most accomplished and distinguished members. Professor Ng's research interests include ethical and welfare economic foundations of public policy, mesoeconomics, inframarginal analysis of specialisation, Chinese economic reforms and environmental economics.
Under ERHNI, Professor Ng used accepted economic indicators for estimating happiness (such as health, safety, education, purchasing power, life expectancy and happiness survey data) and per capita CO2 emissions to estimate the disruption a nation imposed on the global community. For example, Professor Ng calculated that the average Malaysian enjoys the equivalent of 17.6 years of "perfect happiness" during their life and inflicts disruption costs equivalent to 3.4 years of unhappiness. This gives Malaysia its ERHNI rating of 14.2 years.
Many of the highest rankings under ERNHI are found in Western Europe, where countries have happy residents and low per capita CO2 emission. Switzerland rates as the best (22.8), followed by Denmark (19.3). In North America, Canada (11.3) ranks higher than the US (8.1) because although the countries have similar happiness levels, the US's per capita CO2 emissions are much higher.
Professor Ng said that by striving for a high ERHNI rating, a nation would not only make its own people happy, it would increase the ability of other countries to achieve sustainable happiness.
Professor Ng said ERHNI could ideally be further refined to include a more comprehensive environmental measure of unhappiness. "I hope with further improvements, ERHNI will lead to some re-orientation of both the market and national governments towards something more fundamentally valuable and less damaging to our life support system," he said.
For assistance, contact Monash University media officer Ryan Pedler on +61 3 9903 4842.
ERHNI rankings lists
(The figures below have been taken from the tables that are included in Professor Ng's paper.)
The top 10 ranked countries under ERHNI:
- Switzerland 22.8 (ie. Switzerland is the No. 1 ranked country in the world)
- Denmark 19.3
- Costa Rica 18.7
- Sweden 18.5
- Austria 17.5
- Panama 15.4
- Colombia 15.3
- Netherlands 15
- Ireland 14.7
- Venezuela 14.5
The top 11 ranked Asia-Pacific countries under ERHNI:
- New Zealand 14.3 (ie. NZ is the No. 1 ranked country in the Asia-Pacific region)
- Malaysia 14.2
- Indonesia 10
- Philippines 9.3
- Mongolia 9.2
- Singapore 8.9
- Australia 8.9
- Thailand 8.4
- Sri Lanka 7.9
- China 7.6
- Vietnam 7.3
The world rankings, under ERHNI, of some major countries:
- New Zealand (14.3) - ranked 12 in the world
- Malaysia (14.2) - ranked 13
- United Kingdom (11.5) - ranked 26
- Canada (11.3) - ranked 27
- Indonesia (10) - ranked 32
- Singapore (8.9) - ranked 43M
- Australia (8.9) - ranked 43
- USA (8.1) - ranked 47
- Sri Lanka (7.9) - ranked 50
- China (7.6) - ranked 54
- Vietnam (7.3) - ranked 55
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