Tadhg O'MahonyDublin City University | DCU
Tadhg O'Mahony
PhD
About
46
Publications
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592
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Citations since 2017
Introduction
Publications
Publications (46)
Sustainability and wellbeing are two key global policy priorities, which despite considerable overlap, are invariably isolated. In wellbeing, the importance of social dimensions is an emergent conclusion, but recognition of the envi-ronment and nature is embryonic. In sustainability, wellbeing remains poorly characterized. Despite some proce-dural...
The proliferation of high material consumption, sometimes termed as ‘over-consumption,’ is damaging both to hu-man wellbeing on the individual level, and also to social equality. At the systems level, through driving material consumption -and related greenhouse gas emissions- it has major implications for our ability to prevent climate and ecologic...
Sustainability and wellbeing are two key global policy priorities, which despite considerable overlap, are invariably isolated. In wellbeing, the importance of social dimensions is an emergent conclusion, but recognition of the environment and nature is embryonic. In sustainability, wellbeing remains poorly characterized. Despite some procedural ad...
Cost-Benefit Analysis is a key tool for evaluating welfare gains or losses from an investment. It is now well established that environmental impacts are crucial to consider the full welfare implications of a project. Debate has focussed on approaches to improve the valuation of environmental impacts, and controversy in the discounting of future imp...
The course of global development, over the last century, increased pressure for lower-density spatial patterns, and
the individual motorised transport embodied in the private car. In economically advanced nations this locked-in
unsustainable outcomes, and provides a poor template for emerging nations yet to buildout infrastructure and
settlement pa...
The challenge of sustainability has driven the pursuit of alternative economic indicators, such as the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW). The indicator begins with consumption expenditure, and applies a series of additions and subtractions relevant to welfare and sustainability. This paper reflects on the first ISEW for Spain, comparing...
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The global practice of Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA), to analyse the welfare impacts of public investments, has undergone profound changes in recent years. The reforms in general practice have primarily been driven by the discussions of the implications of climate change and environmental degradation. Central to the discussion has been t...
The 'Environment and Transport' contribution to Ireland's 'EPA State of the Environment Report 2020: an Integrated Assessment', is a radical new departure for assessing the impact of Transport on the environment, and how to transform outcomes. Carefully navigating the frontier of knowledge from international assessments, the chapter applies 'system...
https://www.epa.ie/media/EPA-Ireland's-Environment-2020-Chapter11.pdf
Carbon taxes have been advocated as a key economic measure for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The basis of this proposition, is the economic theory that applying a tax on carbon dioxide emissions is the "optimal" solution to addressing the market failure of externalities. In moving from theory to practice, the evidence from comprehensiv...
The subnational level embodied by regions and cities presents unique challenges for energy policy. Large metropolitan areas tend to be consumers rather than producers of energy, with two of the most critical sectors being transport and residential. The Madrid region in Spain – one of Europe’s most significant urban areas – represents such a phenome...
Abstract of "Appraisal in transition: 21st century challenges and updating Cost-Benefit Analysis in Ireland".
A novel ‘Sustainability Window’ (SuWi) approach is applied for simultaneous analysis of the pillars of sustainable development; social, environmental and economic, of Lao PDR. This new method employs a variety of indicators for a comprehensive and holistic analysis of sustainable development and green inclusive economy. The analysis is grounded in...
Profound and significant changes have been occurring in the approaches to Cost-Benefit Analysis, driven in large part by the economics of climate change and the inclusion of the ‘environment’ in economics. Based on this, the practices in project appraisal applied internationally have evolved considerably. This ‘transition’ in how welfare is evaluat...
This study provides an analysis of Cambodian socio‐economic and environmental development. The analysis applies the Sustainable Society Index—database and uses Sustainability Window analyses linked to the green growth strategy in Cambodia. The novel analyses provide criteria for weak and strong sustainability and are further developed to evaluate t...
Climate change and global economic pressures are strong drivers for energy economies to transition towards climate-neutrality, low-carbon economy and better energy and resource efficiencies. The response to these pressures, namely the increased use of renewable energy, creates a set of new challenges related to supply-demand balance for energy poli...
This paper develops an Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare for Spain from 1970 to 2012 and seeks to update valuation approaches to a number of items. Two approaches have proven particularly controversial over recent decades; the costs of energy depletion and of climate change. The valuation implications in measuring present welfare have proven pr...
This chapter takes a systemic perspective on transition as foremost a development problem. It emphasises the contribution of systems thinking and the social sciences such as political economy to understanding the challenges and opportunities. The Kaya identity is examined as a useful tool to understand emissions trends and driving forces, but one t...
This chapter turns to the use of scenarios for insight into the future, and how they have come to dominate approaches to the low-carbon transition. It reviews different techniques used and discusses what environmental and emissions scenarios tell us. Discussion of the practice of transition and transformation follows, including a review of some of...
Global climate diplomacy has helped place global warming and its impacts high on the political agenda of countries worldwide that are developing their own pathways to transition and a more sustainable future. This chapter examines two groups, all of which have prioritised conventional economic development: the ‘developed world’ of the EU, the US an...
Humanity faces a stark option: revolutionary transformation or potential collapse and social disintegration. This chapter explores prospects for choosing benign pathways over the latter. It begins by summarising the argument of the book and then focuses on how more robust political economy approaches can be fostered, looking at the role of the stat...
The chapter begins by examining a range of countries that seek to combine development and sustainability, drawing attention to the success cases of Costa Rica and Uruguay. It then looks more widely at the Latin American region, focusing on the role of environmental activism. Turning to Africa, the ‘green state’ is discussed and some of the region’s...
This chapter assembles evidence that a new paradigm is emerging in the niches and margins of the dominant system, offering examples of a post-carbon society and what we need to get there. It outlines debates on a degrowth economy and society, and how feasible it is. The following section examines the structural nature of socioeconomic inequality an...
This chapter begins by identifying the dominant frames though which the ‘climate change’ challenge is communicated to the public. It then examines the construction of the scientific message itself through the dominance of certain methodological approaches in researching it. The following section shows how the scenario modelling of the transition to...
The debate on climate change needs to move from a predominant focus on techno-economic means to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to achieving a low-carbon society by 2050. In moving the focus from technology to society, new debates relate to pathways to a low-carbon society. This chapter outlines the complex dimensions of the ‘climate change’ probl...
This chapter draws on international development theory and practice to help clarify the developmental choices now facing humanity as we attempt to transition to a low-carbon society. Particular attention is paid to debates on the concept of ‘sustainable development’ that emerged since the late 1980s. It then introduces the concept of development mo...
This chapter identifies and analyses the dominant model currently in place to achieve the low-carbon transition, namely a climate capitalism. It begins with a definition of climate capitalism and describes its key features. It then takes a few examples of how it operates in practice, drawing on the reports of the New Climate Economy project, and on...
This book addresses the global need to transition to a low-carbon society and economy by 2050. The authors interrogate the dominant frames used for understanding this challenge and the predominant policy approaches for achieving it. Highlighting the techno-optimism that informs our current understanding and policy options, Kirby and O’Mahony draw o...
Presentation on the pontential of ’sustainable wellbeing’ to inaugural event of the Helsinki Insitutute of Sustainability Science
As critiques of economic growth as the ends of development are widely accepted, the concept of multidimensional wellbeing and sustainability are emergent development priorities. There is no universal definition of wellbeing with little exchange across the disciplines. Discussions are synthesised from the micro individual focus to the more macro dev...
Keynote address on understanding the limitations and opportunities of technology in the low carbon transition.
Plenary presentation on understanding the contribution of a wellbeing approach to reduce material consumption and related greenshouse gas emissions, a key factor both for analysis and policy in moving towards a successful global low carbon transition and transformation.
This seminar at Princeton University’s Climate Futures Initiative explores the concept of wellbeing as an opportunity and positive driver of climate change mitigation. Reducing material consumption is crucial to achieving the low carbon transition but surprising little is known about how or if this could be achieved? State of the art in understandi...
Purpose
The combination of life cycle assessment (LCA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) has recently been proposed to integrate operational, environmental and, to a lesser extent, socio-economic aspects when evaluating multiple similar entities known as decision-making units (DMUs). While labour has already been proven to be an appropriate param...
Discussion of ideas of the good life and how they can contribute to mitigation and sustainability as the thematic background of the MAXWELL project.
The evolution of the national development path has gravity in determining the future emissions outcomes of all nations. Deep reductions in emissions require a focus not just on energy and mitigation policy but on factors underlying this development. The Kaya identity has been recommended to track national progress with respect to sustainability and...
The concept of national development pathways has been identified as an appropriate method to explore both sustainable development and effective mitigation with policy and methodological implications. A dominant focus within national development policy on economic and technological development is unlikely to engender sustainable development. It is a...
As sustainability embeds in policy and the performance of industry comes under
greater scrutiny, the need for sustainability assessment has grown. From lean
manufacturing to environmental management systems, from operational efficiency
to corporate social responsibility, the need to measure and manage all aspects of
sustainability has enhanced. Pol...
This paper presents future scenarios of Irish energy-related CO2 emissions to 2020, using a combination of
multi-sectoral decomposition analysis with scenario analysis. Alternative development paths, driving forces
and sectoral contributions in different scenarios have been explored. The scenarios are quantified by using
decomposition analysis as a...
In recent decades, Ireland has been an important example of a development pathway where rapid economic growth was accompanied by rising energy demand and increasing carbon emissions. Understanding the driving forces of carbon emissions is necessary for policy formulation and decomposition analysis is widely used for this purpose. This study uses an...
Quantitative point forecasts of energy and carbon emissions have experienced difficulty with responding to uncertainty. Accuracy issues arise even in the short term with consequences for policy. The technique of scenario analysis is increasingly applied in scientific inquiry on the long term but it also has utility in the short term. This paper pre...
Ireland recorded significant growth in energy-related carbon emissions from 1990 to 2007 as the country underwent rapid economic development. Using the LMDI decomposition analysis method, this paper aims to identify and analyse the driving forces of CO2 emissions in eleven final energy consuming sectors. This multi-sectoral analysis is based on fou...
The consumption of energy and related carbon emissions are a development challenge requiring analysis and policy insights. Current analysis of future change in Ireland relies on quantitative point forecasts within which accuracy is difficult to achieve. A scenario analysis approach has often been applied with the longer term but is also useful on s...
Projects
Projects (6)
Analyse the drivers of transport environmental pressures, and propose a coherent set of solutions for a sustainable transformation.
To respond to a major gap in both political economy and in low-carbon transition studies and scenarios. By exploring the political economy and social science dimensions of low-carbon and sustainability transition, current development models are critiqued and new more balanced and beneficial approaches are proposed. The book explores the implications of the low-carbon transition for political economy, and approaches from political economy in response to the greatest challenge facing humanity. Decades of political economy and scenario thinking are brought together for the first time, offering pathways to a just and prosperous transformation of our societies to a post-carbon and sustainable future.
