Joachim H Spangenberg

Jülich Research Centre · Soil Science

Care work, often considered economically non-productive, is undervalued and professionally underpaid. This short perspective paper develops a holistic understanding of care, including paid and unpaid care work. It contributes to identifying pathways towards socially and environmentally sustainable, low-consumption societies. Based on archetypical d...

The following trend projection is based on the state of scientific knowledge of summer 2024, and the policy assumptions are optimistic for 2030. Still the outlook is dystopic – readers are invited to identify intervention and bifurcation points for the better, but in line with the state of science.

Direct and indirect drivers of biodiversity loss, and the contribution of consumption

Non-technical summary Neoclassical economics (NCE) theory and neoliberal economics practice together form one of the principal driving forces of environmental destruction and social injustice. We critically examine ten key hypotheses that form the foundations of NCE, and four other claims. Each fails to satisfy one or more of the basic requirements...

The background of net zero, bioeconomy, hadrogen hype and now CCS. Intentions under camouflage, and urent demands

In der Klimapolitik wird eine „Richtungsentscheidung“ (Habeck) vorbereitet: Vermeidung und Reduzierung von CO2-Emissionen soll ergänzt werden durch Deponierung (Abscheiden und Speichern). Was als harmlose Ergänzung für „Rest-Emissionen“ daherkommt, wäre eine risikoreiche Weichenstellung für Investitions- und Innovationsverhalten und würde das fossi...

Das Bruttoinlandsprodukt BIP steigt seit Jahrzehnten an, aber von Dekade zu Dekade weniger, trotz der verzweifelten Bemühungen von Bundesregierungen aller Couleur, das Wachstum zu steigern. Auch das vielbeschworene "grüne Wachstum" stellt sich nicht ein. Die aktuellen Schätzungen liegen bei einem Prozent pro Jahr oder weniger kalkuliert auf der Ann...

Food First! Working Paper zur Umsetzung des Menschenrechts auf ausreichende und gesunde Nahrung. Ein Beitrag zu den SDGs 1, 2, 3, 6, 123, 13, 14 und 15 Das hier vorliegende Arbeitspapier ist in gemeinsamer Arbeit mit Expertinnen und Experten u.a. von IFEU, SRU, GIZ, Thünen-Institut, World Food Programme, DIM von den Autor:innen im Rahmen ihrer Ar...

Die soziale Dimension der nachhaltigen Entwicklung im Kontext (The social Dimension of Sustainable Development put in context - in German)

The key driver of environmental degradation is overconsumption. Population is not key, and technology no solution

Climate crisis - Roots, drivers, tipping points, outlooks

Mapping ecosystem services, aggregating them, and observing trade-offs. Based on published paper, DOI: 10.3390/su15097557

Ecosystems are experiencing significant pressure from human activities, with 1 million species at risk of extinction. This is threatening to undermine the resilience of ecosystems, which provide multiple benefits to support human existence and are essential for the support of life on Earth. A number of conceptual frameworks have been developed as a...

Biodiversity loss has been identified as one of the environmental impacts where humankind has been trespassing over planetary boundaries most significantly. Going beyond the pressures causing damages (calling them 'direct drivers') and analysing their underlying driving forces, IPBES, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity a...

The perfect storm of converging political, security, environmental and social crises enforces an epochal turn. Necessarily increasing defensive expenditures for health and climate damage compensation combine with climate adaptation and increased security spending to drive already sluggish economic growth rates into negative territory. The result wi...

Biodiversity loss has been identified as the environmental impact where humankind has been trespassing planetary boundaries most ruthlessly. Going beyond the pressures causing damages and analysing their underlying driving forces, ipbes identified a series of drivers. The Montreal-Kunming Global Biodiversity Framework GBF is intended to and claims...

From the ESEE Newsletter Winter 2022. A perspective on troubling trends towards an unplanned post-growth era, and how to confront them. The Russian war of aggression on Ukraine is dominating the political agenda today. The horrific images have eclipsed the threat to humanity posed by pandemic, climate change and biodiversity loss in the priorities...

The presentation is in German. It is about how the interaction of multiple crises is not yet understood, a sense of urgency is missing, and hence the point(s) of no return have been or will soon be passed.

References for ‘Turn of the times: Uncomfortable insights, uncertain outlooks’ by Joachim H. Spangenberg and Rudi Kurz, submitted to the ESEE Newsletter, autumn 2022 Both Joachim and Rudi are ecological economists, retired from academic work. They now dedicate much of their time to work in the Scientific Comittee of BUND/Friends of the Earth Germ...

Sustainability, climate, economics, degrowth, consumption, sufficiency

Planetary boundaries as a descriptive and causal-analytical name, the the direct and indirect drivers of transgressing planterary boundaries

Sechs von neun Planetaren Grenzen sind überschritten: warum, und was muss jetzt getan werden?

Introduction to Ecological economics, including the physical economy, planetary boundaries, etc.

Anthropocene Science, Springer Publ., August 2022, open access Twenty years ago, Paul Crutzen suggested declaring the present a new geological era and naming it the Anthropocene. While this suggestion is still disputed, we argue that the current state of the Earth system is deviating so dynamically from the status quo of the Holocene, that acknowl...

Ein Sammelband zu vielen Aspekten der Bioökonomie. Mein Beitrag verweist auf die blinden Flecken der Bioökonomie-Protagonist*innen, sowoahl was die Überschätzung der Chancen wie was die Unterschätzung der Risiken angeht.

Wir steuern auf ein erzwungenes Schrumpfen der Wirtschaft zu (degrowth by disaster), und gleichzeitig auf "Peak Wealth". Es wird schwerer denn je, die Kurve noch zu kriegen und eine Klima- und Biodiversitätskatastrophe zu vermeiden. Trotzdem versuchen Kriegsgewinnler auf dem Feuer der Krise ihr Süppchen zu kochen.

The debate about care has intensified in the COVID-19 crisis. A consensus appears to be emerging that care work—mostly provided by women—is not only essential to our societies, but also undervalued, reputationally as well as—for the paid work— regarding its remuneration. As care is essential for the cohesion of societies, there is an urgent need to...

Climate disruption and biodiversity collapse are but two symptoms of the environmental crisis caused by ever-growing resource consumption. Multiple overshoots of Earth's planetary boundaries have pushed our natural systems close to or even beyond critical tipping points. Effective reduction of resource consumption, in particular fossil fuels, is no...

There are calls for social innovation to help with the effort to halt biodiversity loss. However, research on social innovation and biodiversity is dispersed and covers a multitude of disciplines. A systematic overview of research on social innovation and biodiversity is missing and this paper contributes by focusing on social innovation to tackle...

This report continues the science-based approach of linking concrete changes in lifestyles to measurable impacts on climate change in order to keep with the 1.5-degree aspirational target of the Paris Agreement on climate change. The 1.5-degree lifestyles approach examines GHG emissions and reduction potentials using consumption-based accounting, w...

Sustainability, consumption, sufficiency, degrowth

Non-technical summary We summarize some of the past year's most important findings within climate change-related research. New research has improved our understanding about the remaining options to achieve the Paris Agreement goals, through overcoming political barriers to carbon pricing, taking into account non-CO 2 factors, a well-designed implem...

The need for sustainability transitions is widely recognised, along with a concurrent need for the evolution of knowledge systems to inform more effective policy action. Although there are many new policy targets relating to net zero emissions and other sustainability challenges, cities, regional and national governments are struggling to rapidly d...

Bioökonomie - Versprechen, Grenzen, Akzeptanz

Klassifizierung von Typen der Bioökonomie, Anwendung der Klassifizierung auf die Pilotprojekte des BioökonomieReviers (ala rheinisches Braunkohlenrevier). Fazit: Kommerzialisierungsinteresse der Wissenschaftler*innen dominiert, wenig ökologische, kaum soziale Ziele (auch wenn's manchmal anders gesagt wird um den Ausschreibungsbedingungen zu genügen...

Versuch die globale Dimension im Kontext zu illustrieren

1. The Challenges 2. The Age of Pandemics 3. The Promised Escapes 4. The SDG Route Offered 4.1 Incoherence 4.2 DPSIR 4.3 Agency 4.4 Conclusion 5. Going Beyond the SDGs, for instance: • From wants to needs • From global to regional • From growth to degrowth • From efficiency to sufficiency 6. Annex I (deleted due to copyright concerns) 7. Annex II:...

The 2018 IPCC Special Report SR15 developed four scenarios how temperature increases could either be limited to 1.5°, or, in the case of overshoot, could be brought back to that level by 2100. However, the Carbon Dioxide Removal options discussed to achieve "negative emissions" will affect not only the climate system, but also biodiversity and the...

Call for Proposals - Frontiers in Sustainability How can technology and consumption team up for sustainability?

While there is much debate on transformative change among academics and policymakers, the discussion on how to govern such change is still in its infancy. This article argues that transformative governance is needed to enable the transformative change necessary for achieving global sustainability goals. Based on a literature review, the article unp...

While there is much debate on transformative change among academics and policymakers, the discussion on how to govern such change is still in its infancy. This article argues that transformative governance is needed to enable the transformative change necessary for achieving global sustainability goals. Based on a literature review, the article unp...

The COVID‐19 pandemic, its impact on the global economy, and current delays in the negotiation of the post‐2020 global biodiversity agenda of the Convention on Biological Diversity heighten the urgency to build back better for biodiversity, sustainability, and well‐being. In 2019, the Intergovernmental Science‐Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ec...

A COVID-19 járvány világszerte drámai és soha nem látott hatást gyakorolt az egészségügyre és a gazdaságra. Sok kormány gazdasági mentőcsomagot állít össze, hogy segítse a normális működéshez való visszatérést, ám az IPBES (Biológiai Sokféleség és Ökoszisztéma-szolgáltatás Kormányközi Testület) 2019-ben elfogadott Globális Felmérése szerint a gazda...

Non-technical summary: We summarize some of the past year's most important findings within climate change-related research. New research has improved our understanding of Earth's sensitivity to carbon dioxide, finds that permafrost thaw could release more carbon emissions than expected and that the uptake of carbon in tropical ecosystems is weakeni...

Ein Virus geht um die Welt, fordert Millionen Opfer, und Verschwörungstheoretiker (und Präsidenten) su-chen die Schuldigen. Die Wahrheit ist ernüchternd: es ist unsere Art des Umgangs mit der Natur, unsere öko-logische Verantwortungslosigkeit, die zu Pandemien geführt hat, dazu führt und in Zukunft noch häufiger dazu führen wird-wenn wir so weiterm...

Transdisciplinary research: Practitioners’ lessons on key methodological challenges

Nur wer die physische Ökonomie als grundlegend erkennt versteht die restriktionen denen Real- und Finanzwirtscht sowie die soziale Ökonomie unterliegen und in nderen Grenzen sie das Zusammenleben gestalten müssen.

Im Januar 2020 hat die Bundesregierung ihre neue Bioökonomiestrategie veröffentlicht, und im Laufe ihrer EU-Präsidentschaft treibt sie die Umsetzung der EU-Bioökonomiestrategie voran. In Deutschland soll die Bioökonomie dadurch po-pularisiert werden, dass das alljährlich vom Bundesforschungsministerium veran-staltete Wissenschaftsjahr diesem Thema...

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused dramatic and unprecedented impacts on both global health and economies. Many governments are now proposing recovery packages to get back to normal, but the 2019 Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Global Assessment indicated that business as usual has created widespread...

Inhaltsverzeichnis 1. Einleitung ......................................................... 5 2. Zustand der biologischen Vielfalt auf land- und forstwirtschaftlich genutzten Flächen in Deutschland ......................................................... 7 2.1 Landwirtschaft ...........................................8 2.2 Wälder ..................

Abstract Co-creation of knowledge in transdisciplinary research processes is increasingly being discussed as a necessary approach to address complex, in particular interacting wicked real-world problems. Consequently, a growing number of research projects carry a transdisciplinarity mandate. However, the results of transdisciplinary work have ofte...

It is increasingly obvious that for reaching the Paris Accord climate targets, let alone more comprehensive environmental sustainability objectives like dematerialisation and sustainable land use, the supply side policies of “sustainable production” will not be sufficient, even if they go significantly beyond the current hesitating small steps. For...

JH Spangenberg, C. Lauwigi, Politische Ökologie 161, Juni 2020. Open access at https://newslettertogo.com/puhd97cj-kzu0lncm-9gj85fyb-ktm Schon lange ist bekannt, dass die ungezügelte Plastikproduktion fatale Folgen für Mensch und Umwelt hat. Wir brauchen ein ökologisch und sozial verträgliches Stoffstrommanagement mit klaren Prioritäten: vermeiden...

Transdisciplinary research is a well-recognised approach to address complex real-world problems. However, the literature on a central aspect of transdisciplinarity, namely stakeholder involvement, largely lacks a reflection on its objectives. In response, we present a framework defining four general rationales for stakeholder involvement: normative...

Ein Blick in die Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)- bzw. Nachhaltigkeitsberichte deutscher Unternehmen suggeriert, dass viele ihre soziale und ökologische Verantwortung der Gesellschaft gegenüber bereits vorbildlich wahrnehmen. Insbesondere größere, aber auch kleine und mittlere Unternehmen messen ihren Treibhausgasausstoß, überprüfen die Arbei...

Die IPCC-Berichte sind Ergebnis der Zusammenarbeit von Klimaforschern und Ökonomen; die Politikempfehlungen werden von den integrrierten Modellen (IAMs Integrated Assessment Models) geprägt, die Klima- und Wirtschaftsmodelle koppeln. Diese können aber viele notwendige Maßnahmen nicht abbilden, so dass diese in den Szenarien fehlen (ordnungs- und pl...

Politik und Öffentlichkeit sind derzeit damit beschäftigt, die Corona-Epidemie einzudämmen. Der Ursprung der Pandemie tritt deshalb erstmal in den Hintergrund. Aber dieser Ursprung ist eine überragend wichtige Frage. Denn nur, wenn wir ihn verstehen, können wir künftigen Pandemien vorbeugen. https://www.spektrum.de/news/warum-umweltschutz-auch-seuc...

In recent WEA Commentaries, the issue of complexity theory and its implications for economics have rightfully gained some prominence. However, while the authors picked up some relevant points, the issue deserves a more comprehensive treatment in new economics, beyond mobilising some arguments to bolster ongoing debates. It should be recognised inst...

Wer mit wem, was und warum auch nicht? Politische Ökologie 37(159): 88-94. Open access at https://www.oekom.de/ausgabe/green-new-deal-80723?p=1 Die Zivilgesellschaft und die Herausforderungen der großen Transformation

A collection of papers previously published in Real-world Economics Review highlighting the most serious shortcomings of current economic theory, and how they contribute to unsustainable policies

Sustainability, consumption and sufficiency challenges - online presentation at Waterloo University, Canada

An overview of the unsustainable state of the Earth, exemplifying environmental (climate, biodiversity,...), social, economic and institutional unsustainability and pointing at the role of the military in both creating and stabilising/enforcing this situation

Parrique T., Barth J., Briens F., C. Kerschner, Kraus-Polk A., Kuokkanen A., Spangenberg J.H. 2019, 78 pp. Is it possible to enjoy both economic growth and environmental sustainability? This question is a matter of fierce political debate between green growth and post-growth advocates. Over the past decade, green growth clearly dominated policy ma...

Vietnam is at crossroads: being a middle income country now, it has to deal with social, economic and environmental challenges better known from affluent countries, while still being in the transition from an agricultural to an industrial in a society transiting from rural to urban. At the same time, Vietnam has to prepare for the diverse impacts o...

Mit dem Klimaschutz-Abkommen von Paris 2015 ist ein globaler Konsens erzielt worden, dass die Erdtemperatur nur um weniger als 2°C ansteigen darf, möglichst aber um nicht mehr als 1,5°C. Der Weltklimarat IPCC (2018) legt nun einen Report vor, in dem er von diesem ehrgeizigeren Ziel ausgeht. Er untersucht die Folgen und Kosten, die bei dieser Zielse...

Today’s world is confronted with a series of interacting wicked problems, from climate change and biodiversity loss to income polarisation and economic risks. An emerging consensus says that scientifically sound, socially robust and politically applicable solutions can best be found in transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge, defined as interd...

Sufficiency is needed to efficiency effective, against all rebound effects. But who can afford it? We present a multi-dimensional concept of affordability designed as a system of criteria to take into account when developing sufficiency strategies. For more details see Spangenberg JH, Lorek S. 2019. Sufficiency and consumer behaviour: from theory t...

Vietnam is undergoing a series of simultaneous transitions, from poor to middle income, from rural to urban, from agriculture to industry and from stable to volatile environment. Comprehensive strategies are needed to address the ongoing transformation of the society and economy.

There is no place where economics and ecosystem science, in particular climate science, are more intimately connected than in the IPCC climate scenarios, their Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) and the conclusions derived from them. In official parlance, their results should be “policy relevant but not policy prescriptive”. Nonetheless past polic...

It is increasingly obvious that for safeguarding environmental sustainability, eco-efficiency measures will need to be complemented by sufficiency, in particular by strong sustainable consumption. The Theory of Planned Behaviour TPB and Social Practice Theory SPT offer different views on consumer behaviour, and on ways to change it. This paper brie...

Experience shows that energy savings through energy efficiency measures are partly compensated by income growth, and partly by rebound effects. Therefore to be effective, efficiency measures have to be embedded in a concept of sufficiency which strives for limits and absolute reduction of energy consumption. While the suffi-ciency concept is not ne...

The purpose of the presentation is to present the rationale of Ecological Economics. I start with the challenges and the will of both, ecologists and economists, to use their disciplinary means to address the problem. While at first glance they look like a perfect couple, at a closer look they are irreconcilable. Thus ecological economics is no mer...

Ecosystem services are described in multiple way, with incommensurable definitions of terms, resulting in a Babylonian cacophony of terms. NCP is an additional terminology, signalling openness to multiple value systems, antheir resultsd thus no suitable basis for monetary valuation. That is no big loss, however, as most monetary valuations of natu...

29. März 2019 Fridays for Future ist ein Lichtblick in dunklen Zeiten: Schüler*innen, also die Generation, die vom ökologischen Kollaps am meisten betroffen sein wird, stellen sich quer und verlangen Rechenschaft von denen, die ihnen das antun. Das kann und muss man unterstützen, dabei aber die Autonomie dieser jungen Bewegung respektieren. Dazu ge...

Reprint of the 2018 paper, now as book chapter: In situations of uncertainty, scenarios serve as input for scientifically informed decision making. However, past experience shows that not all scenarios are treated equally and we hypothesise that only those based on a world view shared by scientists and decision makers are perceived as credible and...

Editorial Scenarios and Indicators for Sustainable Development: Towards a Critical Assessment of Achievements and Challenges Joachim H. Spangenberg 1,2 1 Sustainable Europe Research Institute SERI Germany, 51103 Cologne, Germany; Joachim.Spangenberg@seri.de 2 Helmholtz Centre for Environment Research UFZ, 04318 Leipzig, Germany Received: 11 Februa...

Reprint of the 2018 sustainability paper, now as part of the Special Issue I edited: In situations of uncertainty, scenarios serve as input for scientifically informed decision making. However, past experience shows that not all scenarios are treated equally and we hypothesise that only those based on a world view shared by scientists and decision...

Spangenberg, Joachim H. 2019. Special Issue Editorial. The global ecosphere is a complex, evolving system, and the anthroposphere another, more rapidly evolving one. Globalization and telecoupling are enhancing their complexity, and even more that of the coupled socio-ecological system [1]. Sustainable development as a global normative development...

Open access at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Martin_Schaedler/publication/330772906_Rice_Ecosystem_Services_in_South-East_Asia_The_LEGATO_Project_Its_Approaches_and_Main_Results_with_a_Focus_on_Biocontrol_Services/links/5c5befc445851582c3d45b99/Rice-Ecosystem-Services-in-South-East-Asia-The-LEGATO-Project-Its-Approaches-and-Main-Results-with...

Nachhaltigkeit - Bedarf, Historie, Hemmnisse, Optionen und ihre Grenzen (Kreislaufwirtschaft, Green Economy, Bio-Ökonomie), Degrowth, Leben in der Mangelgesellschaft

Vietnam is exposed to a series of interacting social, economic and environmental transitions which require an integrated response. The presentations describes the challenges and gives some hints as to which kind of measures should be taken into account for tackling them.

Natural events such as floods or volcanic eruptions offer disbenefits and benefits, sometimes to the same, sometimes to distant generations and locations. Ecosystem services are a co-production of nature and society, and almost always interventions into natural processes. The negative feedback loops keeping natural systems stable also apply to the...

Based on the analysis of pressures ad drivers / direct and indirect drivers on biodiversity, we illustrate how they can be mitigated by consumption decisions.

Improving residential energy efficiency is widely recognised as one of the best strategies for reducing energy demand, combating climate change, and increasing security of energy supply. However, progress has been slow to date due to a number of market and behavioural barriers that have not been adequately addressed by energy efficiency policies an...

Presenting EUFORIE results on policy instruments used for household energy efficiency in Europe, resulting in a synthesis with conclusions for future policy options

While all these concepts are discussed at the science-policy interface, the discourses remain largely separate. Combining them can add additional strength to the argument that fundamental changes are needed rapidly to avoid disasters in the ongoing process of global change.

For consumption to be sustainable, the levels are more important than the patterns. So far no campaign has been addressing this fact effectively, partly for political reasons, but also due to conceptual flaws which we discuss here, proposing alternatives.

Degrowth and sufficiency in consumption must be pursued together - degrowth without sufficiency in consumption would lead to pauperisation, whoile sufficiency without degrowth would lead to verproduction/underconsumption crises