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To promote transparency and provide information, the Federal Planning Bureau regularly publishes the methods and results of its works. The publications are organised in different series, such as Outlooks, Working Papers and Planning Papers. Some reports can be consulted here, along with the Short Term Update newsletters that were published until 2015. You can search our publications by theme, publication type, author and year.
This report presents the update of a set of indicators complementary to GDP. These indicators cover the period from 1990 to 2016, depending on the availability of the data. The Act of 14 March 2014, which complements the Act of 21 December 1994 establishing social and diverse provisions with a set of complementary indicators to measure the quality of life, human development, social progress and the sustainability of our economy, entrusts the National Accounts Institute with the development of this set of indicators and assigns this mission to the Federal Planning Bureau.
This report also proposes a composite indicator to measure well-being Here and now‘. It should be completed in the forthcoming updates by composite indicators for the two other dimensions of sustainable development, ’Later‘ and ’Elsewhere‘.
The data are available on www.indicators.be.
Other publications - OPREP201801 (fr), (nl),
The 2017 Federal Report on Sustainable Development takes as its starting point the Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs) adopted at the UN. The report assesses 34 indicators showing the evolution of Belgium towards the SDGs and examines the gap between existing scenarios and the SDGs in 3 areas: poverty, energy and transportation. Current developments usually go in the right direction, but most often lag far behind the quantified objectives.
Reports - Sustainable development Report 2017 (fr), (nl),
This Working Paper analyses the determinants of individual well-being in Belgium, using data from the EU-SILC survey. The analysis shows that on average health, both mental and physical, is the key determinant of well-being for Belgians. Enjoying sufficient income to access what is regarded as the prevailing standard of living in Belgium, having a job and being surrounded by loved ones also have a significant and positive impact on well-being. Besides these results for "average" Belgians, the analysis of different sub-groups highlights that these determinants are not of equal importance to all Belgians. These results contribute to the FPB’s work on the search for indicators complementary to GDP.
Working Papers - Working Paper 04-17 (en), (fr), (nl),
This report presents a first update of a set of indicators complementary to GDP. These indicators cover the period from 1990 to 2015, depending on the availability of the data. The Act of 14 March 2014, which complements the Act of 21 December 1994 establishing social and diverse provisions with a set of complementary indicators to measure the quality of life, human development, social progress and the sustainability of our economy, entrusts the National Accounts Institute (NAI) with the development and calculation of a set of indicators representing the four above-mentioned components. The calculation results are published every year. The same Act of 14 March 14 2014 assigns the development of this set of indicators to the Federal Planning Bureau. The NAI published a first edition of this set of indicators in February 2016.
Other publications - OPREP201701 (fr), (nl),
This Working Paper presents, on the basis of information available until July 2016, a projection at unchanged policy until 2030 of the population at risk of poverty or social exclusion in Belgium, as defined in the framework of the Europe 2020 Strategy. This population should amount to 2.232 million people in 2018, or 418 000 more than the Europe 2020 target. By 2030, its share should shrink to 16.1%, still 5.6 percentage points higher than the goal resulting from the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Working Papers - Working Paper 12-16 (en), (fr), (nl),
This paper constitutes the contribution of the Federal Planning Bureau to the round table discussion with the Interdepartemental Commission for Sustainable Development of 11/2/2016 as part of task 1.3 of the SUSPENS research project. This paper gives a brief description of the climate and social policy in Belgium. The focus is on the policy goals to which Belgium has committed itself and on how far these have been achieved. The analysis shows that Belgium will have to make considerable efforts to achieve these goals and that cross-border cooperation will be necessary to realise the transition towards a low-carbon society.
Reports - REP 11362 (nl),
This Working Paper presents a first assessment of the progress made by Belgium towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 adopted by the UN. This assessment was performed on the basis of 31 indicators derived from the sustainable development indicators database developed at the Federal Planning Bureau. This Working Paper also sets out the methodologies used to select these indicators and assess their evolution compared to their objective. This assessment shows that in many fields, additional efforts will be needed to reach the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
Working Papers - Working Paper 07-16 (fr), (nl),
Other publications - OPREP201601 (fr), (nl), (fr), (nl), (fr), (nl),
The 7th Federal report on sustainable development, Making our consumption and production sustainable, in Part A assesses current evolutions towards the sustainable development objectives. In Part B, it explores two scenarios for transition towards a sustainably developing Belgium and world in 2050. A key element of this Report is the Federal long-term strategic vision for sustainable development (LTV SD) adopted by the government in 2013, which contains 55 objectives that describe a sustainably developing Belgium in 2050.
Reports - Sustainable development Report 2015 (en), (fr), (fr), (nl), (nl),
This working paper describes TransAccount, an accounting model created at the FPB to build sustainable development scenarios, in particular their climate and energy segment, using a backcasting approach. To construct a scenario with TransAccount, the long term objectives and hypotheses of a global sustainable development scenario (for example Pyramid or Mosaic, scenarios published in the Belgian 4th Federal Report on Sustainable Development) have to be translated into quantitative objectives and hypotheses on technologies and on consumption and production patterns. The constructed scenarios highlight the changes needed in technology and in consumption and production patterns to meet the challenges of a sustainable development.
Working Papers - Working Paper 14-13 (fr), (nl),
This Planning Paper explores the usefulness and the need for long-term visions of society's development to guide the achievement of a sustainable society. Such a future society is able to combine material wealth improvements with social equity and justice and to limit its environmental impact to a level within the Earth's self-recovery capabilities. Government initiatives already taken in several industrialized countries to help respond to this need are reviewed. This review covers different levels of governance, from the sub-national to the global level, with a particular focus on the Belgian Federal Sustainable Development (SD) strategy adopted in a Parliamentary Act of 1997. It analyses in particular the content and the follow-up of the 2010 revision of this Act, which has introduced a long-term vision for Sustainable Development in this strategy.
Articles - Article 20130530
Closed series - Planning paper 113 (fr), (nl),
Other publications - OPREP201201 (fr), (mix), (nl),
This Working Paper describes the process of the participatory foresight exercise "Strategic Long Term Vision for Sustainable Development" and summarizes its results. It gathers the different documents of this exercise together and gives some concluding remarks on the process. This exercise was organized by the Task Force on Sustainable Development of the Federal Planning Bureau between September 2011 and February 2012, with a panel of experts brought together with this aim.
Working Papers - Working Paper 09-12 (fr), (nl),
Reports - Sustainable development Report 2011 (de), (en), (fr), (nl),
The Federal Report on Sustainable Development 2011 has been published to implement the Belgian Act of 5 May 1997 on the Coordination of Federal Sustainable Development Policy. It is the sixth sustainable development report and the first since the 2010 revision of the act. That revision stipulates that a report has to be drawn up during each five-year cycle of the act and that it consists of a status and evaluation part and a foresight part. The 2011 report presents the status and evaluation part. It examines three aspects: sustainable development trends for the past twenty years based on indicators, the Belgian federal sustainable development strategy for 1997-2010, and a series of policy measures selected from the Federal Plan for Sustainable Development
Articles - Article 20120321
Working Papers - Working Paper 12-10 (nl),
Working Papers - Working Paper 11-10 (fr),
Working Papers - Working Paper 17-09 (fr), (nl),
Reports - Sustainable development Report 2009 - Folder (de), (en), (fr), (nl),
Reports - Sustainable development Report 2009 (fr), (nl),
The publication of the fifth Federal Report on sustainable development implements the Belgian Act of 5 May 1997 on the Coordination of Federal Sustainable Development Policy. This Report contributes to the debate on the role and choice of indicators and objectives for measuring the development of a country and for the implementation of that strategic process. It studies a set of sustainable development indicators (SDI) that shows to what extent living conditions in Belgium are heading towards sustainable development strategic objectives (SDSO). The Report also studies these strategic objectives in the context of long term visions of society.
Articles - Article 2009100602
This special topic article describes three kinds of synthetic indicators complementing GDP: the Human Development Index, the Ecological Footprint with Biocapacity and, third, indicators based on Environmental Satellite Accounts. It shows that these indicators, among others, provide useful additional information on the human and environmental resource bases of development.
Articles - Article 2009100601
"Strategic table with sustainable development indicators" (SDI) contains 88 indicators on 51 issues. All these indicators are classified within the DPSR framework (driving force, pressure, state, response). A trend assessment in relation to goals, established in the sustainable development strategies at different policy levels (world, EU, Belgium), could be made for 54 of the SDI. 17 of these SDI, where quantified targets with time limits were alloted, were assessed in relation to these targets. The SDI table is available in French and Dutch.
Other publications - TFSD 0901 (fr), (fr), (nl), (nl),
Articles - Article 2008102101
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