Figure 3.1. Net National Savings Adjusted for Investments in Human Capital, Natural Resource Depletion, and Damage Caused by Pollution compared with Standard Net National Savings Measurements

"Positive values for national savings (expressed as a percent of gross national income) reflect a gain in wealth for a nation. Standard measures do not incorporate investments in human capital (in standard national accounting, these expenditures are treated as consumption), depletion of a variety of natural resources, or pollution damages. The World Bank provides estimates of adjusted net national savings, taking into account education expenses (which are added to standard measures), unsustainable forest harvest, depletion of nonrenewable resources (minerals and energy), and damage from carbon emissions related to its contribution to climate change (all of which are subtracted from the standard measure). The adjusted measure still overestimates actual net national savings, since it does not include potential changes in many ecosystem services including depletion of fisheries, atmospheric pollution, degradation of sources of fresh water, and loss of noncommercial forests and the ecosystem services they provide. Here we show the change in net national savings in 2001 for countries in which there was a decline of at least 5% in net national savings due to the incorporation of resource depletion or damage from carbon emissions."

Source & © Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
 Synthesis Report (2005),
Chapter 3, p.55
(Conditions and Trends Working Group Report, C5 Ecosystem Change and Human Well-being, C5.2.6)