1 GREEN NET NATIONAL PRODUCT: AN OVERVIEW OF THE CAPITAL BASIS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Meneviş Öğüt and R.Funda Barbaros * Introduction: Few concepts have attracked so much political power and academic attention as that of “sustainable development”, that it has become the catchphrase of the 1990’s. The concept has been popularly developed by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) since the publication of “Our Common Future” in 1987. In the years following the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 much has been achieved not only interms of raising awareness of environmental concerns, but also in instituting specific policies that cover the links between economic development and the environment. Sustainable development now has become a high profile objective in dozens of national environmental policy statements. So what is sustainable development? The term “sustainable” is not open to much dispute, it means ending and lasting. Hence sustainable development is development that lasts (Pearce:2002). However development is a value word that may invite many interpretations. Prior to 1980’s it was narrowly defined in terms of real GNP per capita and the main emphasis in development policies were securing “growth based on industrialization”. After the paradigm crisis of growth oriented development strategies new and wider conceptions of development emerged. The contemporary definition of development is broadened into a pluralist concept that encompasses social equity, environmental concerns and quality of life including human freedom. Given the contemporary definition of development, sustainable development aims for economic development in the traditional sense of rising per capita well being, coupled with reductions in poverty and inequity, together with requirement that the resource base of nations and the global economy should not be depleted. In other words, the increase in well being must not be at the expence of the well being of next generations (Atkinson et al:1997). In the words of WCED; * Asist.Prof.Dr., Ege Üniversity, Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Bornova, İzmir, Turkey, tel: +232.373 29 60, Fax:+232.373 41 94, e.mail: menevis@bornova.ege.edu.tr , rfunda@bornova.ege.edu.tr