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Economic Growth and Carbon Emissions: The Road to ‘Hothouse Earth’ is Paved with Good Intentions
... It will also offer countries the opportunity to revisit their production and trading activities and reduce environmental costs (Mozner, 2013). Few studies have empirically investigated the theoretical predictions of the carbon decoupling from economic growth based on production and consumption-based carbon emissions context (Mir and Storm, 2016;Cohen et al., 2018;Schröder and Storm, 2020). 1 These authors focus on the issue of carbon decoupling in the case of industrialized (developed) economies. Mir and Storm (2016) and Schröder and Storm (2020) looked at the Carbon-Kuznets-Curve (CKC) hypothesis in the context of decoupling, while Cohen et al. (2018) employed a simple trend/cycle decomposition analysis to provide evidence of decoupling in richer nations. ...
... Few studies have empirically investigated the theoretical predictions of the carbon decoupling from economic growth based on production and consumption-based carbon emissions context (Mir and Storm, 2016;Cohen et al., 2018;Schröder and Storm, 2020). 1 These authors focus on the issue of carbon decoupling in the case of industrialized (developed) economies. Mir and Storm (2016) and Schröder and Storm (2020) looked at the Carbon-Kuznets-Curve (CKC) hypothesis in the context of decoupling, while Cohen et al. (2018) employed a simple trend/cycle decomposition analysis to provide evidence of decoupling in richer nations. Differing from these papers, we extend the issue of decoupling to the African countries, which constitute the largest share of developing countries. ...
... Second, the empirical findings on the issue of decoupling remain mixed regarding the possible channels, key drivers, and extents (states) of decoupling between carbon emissions and economic growth. For instance, the existing studies have predicted the existence of decoupling Mikaylov et al., 2018;Piłatowska and Włodarczyk, 2018;Schröder and Storm, 2020) or no evidence of decoupling (Hilmi et al., 2018) or mixed evidence (Lin et al., 2015;Wu et al., 2018;Wang and Su, 2020;Zhang, 2020, 2021). Moreover, we have also some connections with the empirical works on consumption-based carbon emissions, economic growth, and international trade (Khan et al., 2020;Najibullah et al., 2021;Qin et al., 2021;Hasanov et al., 2021). ...
This study examines the issue of decoupling between economic growth and carbon emissions in 25 African countries over 1990-2017. The study also assesses the role of international trade on carbon emissions The novelty of this study is that it jointly considers both production-based and consumption-based carbon emissions approaches in the regional decoupling analysis and the corresponding separate effects of exports and imports on the decoupling process. The Common Correlated Effects Mean Group (CCE-MG) and Augmented Mean Group (AMG) estimation techniques which allow for cross-sectional dependence, heterogeneity, endogeneity, and serial-correlation issues are mainly applied for empirical analysis. The findings invariably indicate some evidence of relative decoupling for production-based emissions, as the threshold levels of GDP per capita are located well within the range of data in all estimations, but above the sample average of $3,770. In contrast, there is no robust evidence of decoupling for consumption-related emissions. Primary energy intensity and population are found as the main drivers of carbon emissions. Further, exports and imports have insignificant effects on production-based emissions, but significant and offsetting effects on consumption-based emissions. The policy implication of the study, thus, is that the global community and policymakers need to pay close attention to consumption-based carbon emissions in international climate negotiations and target-setting discussions, as production-related emissions alone would be insufficient for decarbonizing economic growth.
... Although it is still too early to make a categorical assessment, these deep changes in Spanish energy policy seem to lay the foundation for a decoupling of emissions and economic activity in the future. However, the general question arises of whether the decarbonization of not just the Spanish economy but also other world economies is sufficient to avoid dangerous climate change and ensure achievable warming of less than 2 • C. Recent publications by climate scientists [72][73][74] are alarming: they suggest that these downward trends in energy and carbon intensity are insufficient to decouple economic growth and CO 2 emissions, and that they are nowhere close to what is needed to meet the longer-term Paris pledges or the recommendations of the IPCC (2018). They warn that even if global emissions are drastically cut down in line with the 66% below 2 • C goal of COP21 (Paris climate agreement of December 2015), a series of self-reinforcing bio-geophysical feedbacks and tipping cascades (like melting sea ice or deforestation) could still contribute to the continued warming of the planet. ...
... They warn that even if global emissions are drastically cut down in line with the 66% below 2 • C goal of COP21 (Paris climate agreement of December 2015), a series of self-reinforcing bio-geophysical feedbacks and tipping cascades (like melting sea ice or deforestation) could still contribute to the continued warming of the planet. Therefore, without a concerted policy shift to deep decarbonization, a fast transition to renewable energy sources, structural changes in production, consumption and transportation, and a transformation of finance, the decoupling will not even come close to what is needed [73][74][75]. On the other hand, there are projections [74,76] that, even under the optimistic assumption that humanity manages to bring about historically unprecedented reductions in carbon intensity and energy intensity in order to keep warming below 1.5 • C, future global economic growth must be substantially below the historical annual income growth rate (1.93%) during 1971-2015. ...
... Therefore, without a concerted policy shift to deep decarbonization, a fast transition to renewable energy sources, structural changes in production, consumption and transportation, and a transformation of finance, the decoupling will not even come close to what is needed [73][74][75]. On the other hand, there are projections [74,76] that, even under the optimistic assumption that humanity manages to bring about historically unprecedented reductions in carbon intensity and energy intensity in order to keep warming below 1.5 • C, future global economic growth must be substantially below the historical annual income growth rate (1.93%) during 1971-2015. However, the economic, political and social consequences of this are hard to predict. ...
This study examines the relationship between renewable and nuclear energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth by using the Granger causality and non-linear impulse response function in a business cycle in Spain. We estimate the threshold vector autoregression (TVAR) model on the basis of annual data from the period 1970-2018, which are disaggregated into quarterly data to obtain robust empirical results through avoiding a sample size problem. Our analysis reveals that economic growth and CO 2 emissions are positively correlated during expansions but not during recessions. Moreover, we find that rising nuclear energy consumption leads to decreased CO 2 emissions during expansions, while the impact of increasing renewable energy consumption on emissions is negative but insignificant. In addition, there is a positive feedback between nuclear energy consumption and economic growth, but unidirectional positive causality running from renewable energy consumption to economic growth in upturns. Our findings do indicate that both nuclear and renewable energy consumption contribute to a reduction in emissions; however, the rise in economic activity, leading to a greater increase in emissions, offsets this positive impact of green energy. Therefore, a decoupling of economic growth from CO 2 emissions is not observed. These results demand some crucial changes in legislation targeted at reducing emissions, as green energy alone is insufficient to reach this goal.
... Npr. Semieniuk, (2018).Schröder, Storm (2018).101 Hickel(2018),Schröder, Storm (2018).102 Jackson (2009), 187, Morgan (2017 ...
... Npr. Semieniuk, (2018).Schröder, Storm (2018).101 Hickel(2018),Schröder, Storm (2018).102 Jackson (2009), 187, Morgan (2017 ...
Change of the intellectual climate after the WWI and WWII and great recession, which was in favor of small and limited state toward big, extensive welfare state was very well incorporated in interests of political elites in order to put fiscal and monetary policy in the function of their interests. Instead of principle of balanced budget decision makers accepted principles of functional finances. In industrial states this change within one century have made government consumption four times higher.
Big increase of government spending that was not followed by increase of state revenues has led to constant deficits. Budget deficit and “non-planned” bailout of private obligations (bank bailouts, companies, guarantee of deposits, revenues in the public private partnership contracts etc) were main reasons for increase of public debts to the levels of historical maximum.
Modern monetary theory creates illusion that in the states with their own currencies public debts could be eternally financed by printing of money. States that implemented these policies in the past faced these consequences. For Montenegro that uses euro illusion of monetary financing of debt is not possible. That is the reason why level, maturity and structure of public debt in Montenegro is extremely important. With high debts all, especially small and euroized economies are exposed to external shocks. Change of climate at international economic and financial market could leave country without fiscal response and possibility to pay obligations in due time.
... Third, econometric models employed in some other empirical works of decoupling (Mir & Storm, 2016;Hilmi et al., 2018;Schroder and Storm, 2018;Bhowmik, 2019, among others) are suffered from serious methodological problems such as unrealistic homogeneity assumption, problems arising from cross-sectional dependence, non-stationarity and endogeneity in data. Ignoring these issues, in fact if they exist, might lead to spurious, biased, inefficient, and inconsistent estimation results which in turn yield misleading conclusions and implications. ...
... To summarize, the estimation results from CCE-MG, AMG and DOLS estimators invariably confirm the occurrence of relative (weak) state of decoupling in production-based CO2 emissions, and no robust evidence of decoupling for consumption-based emissions in the selected African countries over the study period. Our estimation results are quite similar to the findings reported in Knight and Schor (2014); Mir and Storm (2016), and Schroder and storm (2018). This implies that growth is strongly linked with consumption-based emissions than territorial emissions. ...
Background Decoupling is a green growth concept suggested as a means to achieve economic growth without or with less environmental risks. Despite extensive empirical studies made on decoupling between emissions and growth, the existing evidence is quite mixed and inconclusive. On top of that, the vast majority of studies considered emissions generated at the point of production alone which do not explicitly account for emissions associated with international trade. Accordingly, this study examines the issue of decoupling between carbon emissions and economic growth in 25 African countries over 1990-2017, considering both production and consumption-based CO2 emissions.
Results The results from decoupling method and panel data estimation techniques invariably indicate some evidence of relative decoupling for production-based emissions, but no robust evidence of decoupling for consumption-related emissions. Primary energy intensity and population are found as the main drivers of carbon emissions in Africa. Further, exports and imports have insignificant effects on territorial emissions, but significant and offsetting effects on consumption-based emissions.
Conclusion The main conclusion of the study is to incorporate emissions generated from consumption activities in emissions-growth linkage as production-related emissions alone would evidently be insufficient for decarbonizing economic growth. The study also suggests that climate policy measures in Africa are not fully-effective in mitigating carbon emissions and hence the need for enforcing active policy interventions and consumption-related emissions regulation in particular.
... Lima et al. (2016) use an extended Kaya decomposition approach to differentiate the contribution of renewable energy sources and nuclear energy to overall carbon emissions in a cross-country assessment of energyrelated CO 2 emission drivers for Portugal, UK, Brazil, and China. Peters et al. (2017) and Schröder et al. (2018) use indicators derived from Kaya to, respectively, track current progress and future ambitions of the Paris Agreement on a global and national scale and assess the viability of a long-run decoupling of economic growth and carbon emissions. Lu and Jiahua (2013) and critiqued the use of the Kaya identity as an analytical tool for three principal reasons. ...
... Dong et al. (2018) use econometric techniques and a panel dataset to empirically investigate the nexus between carbon dioxide emissions, economic and population growth, and renewable energy across 128 countries divided into six regions, identifying the driving factors of emissions in these regions. Schröder and Storm (2018) use the carbon Kuznets curve (CKC) and panel data regressions using OECD Inter-Country Input-Output (ICIO) emissions data to examine the relationship between economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions for 61 countries during 1995-2011. Li et al. (2018) also use panel data analysis to examine the interrelationships among economic development mode, economic development level, and energy factors including energy use, efficiency, and structure in 19 G20 countries over the period 1990-2015, suggesting that improving energy efficiency and the optimization of energy-use structure can help to achieve a low-carbon development mode. ...
Reducing emissions will require significant changes in the production and consumption of emissions-intensive energy. These changes will necessitate two broad sets of actions: first, energy-intensive end-use sectors must reduce their demand for energy by becoming more energy efficient, and second, energy systems and the energy supplies they use must become less carbon-intensive. In this paper, we describe a set of emissions analysis methods to distinguish between these two actions, showing whether an end-use sector (represented by a jurisdiction’s economy) is coupled with or decoupled from the energy system, or the energy system and its energy supplies are carbonizing or decarbonizing, or some combination of (de)coupling and (de)carbonizing. We then apply the method to the changes in the economy, energy supply, and emissions of the members of the G20 between 2008 and 2017. The results show that 14 members experienced a degree of coupling and that for 18 members, and globally, the principal reason for any degree of emissions decline was demand reduction as opposed to changes to their energy systems. We conclude by suggesting significant decarbonization efforts are needed through the replacement and restructuring of energy systems and their energy sources.
... Third, econometric models employed in some other empirical works of decoupling (Mir & Storm, 2016;Hilmi et al., 2018;Schroder and Storm, 2018;Bhowmik, 2019, among others) are suffered from serious methodological problems such as unrealistic homogeneity assumption, problems arising from cross-sectional dependence, non-stationarity and endogeneity in data. ...
... To summarize, the estimation results from CCE-MG, AMG and DOLS estimators invariably confirm the occurrence of relative (weak) state of decoupling in production-based CO 2 emissions, and no robust evidence of decoupling for consumption-based emissions in the selected African countries over the study period. Our estimation results are quite similar to the findings reported in Knight and Schor (2014); Mir and Storm (2016), and Schroder and storm (2018). This implies that growth is strongly linked with consumption-based emissions than ...
Despite extensive studies made on decoupling between emissions and growth, evidences have shown no uniformity and vast majority of studies considered emissions generated at the point of production alone which do not explicitly account for emissions associated with international trade. Accordingly, this study examines the issue of decoupling between economic growth and carbon emissions in 25 African countries over 1990-2017, considering both production and consumption-based CO 2 emissions. Different panel data estimation techniques which allow for cross-sectional dependence, heterogeneity,endogeneity and serial-correlation issues are applied for empirical analysis.The study results invariably indicate some evidence of relative decoupling for production-based emissions, but no robust evidence of decoupling for consumption-related emissions. Primary energy intensity and population are found as the main driversof carbon emissions in Africa. Further, exports and imports have insignificant effects on territorial emissions, but significant and offsettingeffects on consumption-based emissions. After all, this study suggests toincorporate emissions generated fromconsumption activities in emissions-growth linkage as production-related emissionsalone would evidently be insufficient for decarbonizing economic growth.
... Green Deal: official GHG emission reduction target = 55% by 2030 (relative to 1990 emissions) EU-27 GHG Emissions Using the Kaya growth identity (Schröder and Storm 2018), the average annual growth in GHG emissions can be decomposed into the sum of annual real GDP growth (the scale factor), energy intensity growth (which is the inverse of energy efficiency growth) and carbon intensity growth (which is the inverse of the rate of decarbonization). Now, to achieve the Green Deal emission reduction target of 55% by 2030, GHG emissions by the EU-27 have to decline by as much as 5.2% per year during the next decade -three times faster than during 1990-2020. ...
... Now, to achieve the Green Deal emission reduction target of 55% by 2030, GHG emissions by the EU-27 have to decline by as much as 5.2% per year during the next decade -three times faster than during 1990-2020. The future must be radically different from the past (see also Schröder and Storm 2018) -as is shown by Table 1 and Figure 1B. To make this work, and assuming that economic growth of the EU-27 will be 1.5% per year during the next decade, the EU members are supposed to step up energy efficiency growth to 3% per annum and more than double the pace of decarbonization (to 3.7%) ...
The European Union’s Green Deal, a €1 trillion, 10-year investment plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% in 2030 (relative to 1990 levels), has been hailed as the first comprehensive plan to achieve climate neutrality at a continental scale. The Deal also constitutes the Union’s new signature mission, providing it with a new raison d’etre and a shared vision of green growth and prosperity for all. Because the stakes are high, a dispassionate, realistic look at the Green Deal is necessary to assess to what extent it reflects ‘what is politically attainable’ and to what degree it does ‘what is required’ in the face of continuous global warming. This paper considers the ambition, scale, substance and strategy of the Deal. It finds that the Green Deal falls short of ‘what is imperative’ but also of ‘what is politically possible’. By choosing to make the Green Deal dependent on global finance, the European Commission itself closes down all policy space for systemic change as well as for ambitious green macroeconomics and green industrial policies, which would enable achieving climate neutrality in a socially and economically inclusive manner. Hence, Otto von Bismarck would have been as unpersuaded by the Green Deal proposal as Greta Thunberg, who dismisses it as mere “empty words”.
... For example, Acheampong (2018) investigated the dynamic causality between economic progress, CO 2 emissions, and energy consumption based on data from 116 countries and found that CO 2 emissions cause positively to economic growth. Similarly, Schroder et al. (2020) took data from 61 countries using a fixed-effect model. They concluded that consumption-based carbon dioxide emissions were monotonously increased with GDP per capita. ...
This paper investigates the effects of carbon emissions, renewable energy consumption, FDI, and exports on economic growth in BRICS countries from 2000 to 2018. The study uses other variables such as interest rates, labor force, trade openness, and gross domestic savings to determine the long-run relationship among variables. We employ several econometric techniques, such as ARDL, pool mean group (PMG), mean group (MG), and the Dumitrescu Hurlin panel causality tests, to draw empirical inferences. The estimation of the PMG model indicates that carbon emissions, renewable energy consumption, exports, FDI, and savings have a significant positive long-run impact on economic growth, while interest rates and trade openness affect economic growth negatively. FMOLS and DOLS results also confirm the robustness of PMG long-run results. Moreover, the Dumitrescu Hurlin panel causality results indicate a bi-directional causal relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth and between economic growth and foreign direct investment, also one-way causality from exports and labor force to economic growth. It implies that an increase in carbon emissions and FDI leads to an increase in economic growth, also increase in economic growth, the CO2 emissions and FDI increase in BRICS economies. Finally, the current study recommends a vital policy that the primary focus should target toward promoting renewable energy consumption, FDI, exports, and savings to boost economic growth in BRICS countries.
... They are complementary to them. As long as we continue to follow a growth-based route in our aim to make the global economy more sustainable, we will not see an energy transition, but an energy expansion (Hickel and Kallis, 2020;Raftery et al., 2017;Schröder and Storm, 2020). Rich countries have pushed Earth's natural systems across and beyond safe thresholds. ...
This report is the result of a two-year exploration of the post-growth movement, merging planetary health thinking, feminist economics and fieldwork from Dutch healthcare and caring commoning practices.
In our new publication, we show that the ideology of ‘growth as good’ – and the growth-focused system it upholds – is the lead cause of rising inequalities and ecological destruction. We explore what it means to move beyond growth, towards a vision for a society that is centered around care, autonomy and sufficiency.
Throughout the report, we ask the question: If a growth-centered economic system is making us and the planet sick, what can we do to transform it? We introduce the reader to the key features of the degrowth narrative and explore what we can learn from the growing movement of self-organizing caring citizen collectives – or commons – that display various facets of degrowth. We show that degrowth envisions a world that is already in the making in places where these commoning practices are flourishing.
Commons Network. https://www.commonsnetwork.org/news/new-report-out-now-building-a-caring-world-beyond-growth/
Living Well on a Finite Planet: Building a Caring World Beyond Growth was written by Winne van Woerden, who works as Lead Researcher Degrowth and Caring Economy at Commons Network in Amsterdam and Thomas de Groot, co-director at Commons Network.
Contributing authors: Dr. Remco van der Pas, Senior Research Fellow Global Health at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp and Sophie Bloemen, co-director at Commons Network.
... In addition, their study has found the causal relationship between carbon emission, economic growth and financial development. Schröder and Storm (2018) aims to investigate the restriction to stop the future global warming with the measurement of carbon emission. Expanding their discussion, authors claims that literature work is also arguing about radical de-carbonization with the increasing type of the economy. ...
The increasing threat to natural climate has extended the focused on economic growth and technology. Thus, this research contribution has provided an empirical investigation for examining the impact of economic and science and technology indicators on carbon emission from five different sources namely; emission from transport industry, other sectors, residential building, electricity and heat production, and emission from manufacturing industries in Thailand. Different statistical analyses were done to analyze the individual and combine effect of both economic and science and technological indicators during 1990 to 2014 with yearly data trends. The results show that some economic factors are found to be positive determinants of carbon emission, while others have shown their adverse influence in increasing carbon threats to natural environment in Thailand. As per the research implications, present work is among the initial contribution while exploring the environmental effects of growth and technology in Thailand for which a specific research findings are presented earlier. For this reason, this work can provide a good understanding to policy-makers, reserachers, and students in the targeted fields like carbon emission, economy and science and technology. Moreover, some productive future directions are also provided in this paper. First, methodological context of the study can be revised for better findings through some time series models. Second, regional context of the study may spread to other economies like Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.Keywords: Climate change, carbon emission, economic growth, Thailand.JEL Classifications: O44, P18, Q56DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.10938
... Several research studies have been carried out to determine the factors that enhance environmental pollution, and a large number of studies suggest economic growth as a key determinant of environmental degradation (Danish and Baloch 2018;Ozcan and Ozturk 2019;Schröder and Storm 2020). Saleem et al. (2020) showed that economic growth relies on non-renewable energy consumption that affects environmental quality. ...
Financial stability is of great importance especially in the context of achieving sustainable environment. The objective of this study is to fill the research gap in this area by introducing financial stability, international trade, renewable energy, and income as novel determinants of consumption-based carbon emissions. The present study is based on G-7 economies, and the time period is from 1990 to 2018. The present study employed advanced econometric techniques that can deal with problems of slope homogeneity and cross-section dependence. The cointegration analysis results show a stable long-run association between financial stability, renewable energy, international trade, national income, and consumption-based carbon emissions with structural breaks (1994 Italy’s fiscal crises, 2001 mild recession, 2008 global financial crises, and 2010 European debt crises). The results show that both in long- and short-run financial stability, exports and renewable energy significantly reduce carbon emissions. In contrast, national income and imports are found to have a significant positive effect on consumption-based carbon emissions. Policymakers in G-7 countries should focus more on financial sector stability and encourage firms to use renewable energy. Any policy that targets financial stability, exports, and renewable energy will significantly reduce carbon emissions. This study is a novel contribution to the area of consumption-based carbon emissions as it incorporates the role of financial stability for G-7 economies.
... Non-green growers criticize green growth for having wobbly scientific evidence [29,[31][32][33][34][35][36]. Several mechanisms counteract the substitution of natural resources by physical capital. ...
The exponential increase in water demand has been a focus since the 1970s in the well-known report on the “Limits to growth”. Today, freshwater availability is considered one of the nine planetary boundaries, along with biosphere integrity, climate change and ocean acidification, among others. Water is essential not only to sustain life on Earth, but also for the provision of energy and food, in a context where four billion people are currently facing severe water stress for at least one month a year. A guaranteed supply could be undermined due to the increasing population, shifting lifestyles towards more intensive water use and climate change.
... We have argued that the firm is a subset of the economy and that the economy needs to be integrated into the finite ecosphere. Storm and Schröder [78] sound the alarm that "business-as-usual" cannot continue-the idea of "green" growth is a myth, and the future has to be different from the past. We see clear indications of social, environmental, interspecies, and intergenerational injustice. ...
While sustainability has attracted the attention of managers and academicians for over two decades, the macro-level indicators of sustainability are not moving in the right direction. Climate change continues to be an existential threat for humanity and other indicators of sustainability do not fare much better. The logic of the business case and the associated framing of tension between financial outcomes and sustainability have generated a limited and inadequate response to the existential challenges before humanity today. In this essay, we analyze the evolution of sustainability in the business context and call for a recognition that social and environmental outcomes must supersede economic ones in corporate sustainability thinking. We call for a widening of the spatial, temporal, and moral lenses in the formulation and execution of business strategy to ensure that it is in alignment with the needs of current and future generations of humanity and proportionate to planetary conditions.
... We have argued that the firm is a subset of the economy and that the economy needs to be integrated into the finite ecosphere. Storm and Schröder [78] sound the alarm that "business-as-usual" cannot continue-the idea of "green" growth is a myth, and the future has to be different from the past. We see clear indications of social, environmental, interspecies, and intergenerational injustice. ...
... For this reason, despite major technological changes and enhanced efficiency, income growth has in no way been separated from demands for resources or emissions production at the global level (UNEP 2016, Krausmann et al. 2017, Schandl et al. 2018, Schröder and Storm 2018, Hickel and Kallis 2019. As climate change and environmental degradation worsen, additional calls for investment growth -green or otherwise -are more likely to generate a zero-sum game than a progressive march towards sustainability and development (Hornborg 2009). ...
This article introduces a novel (environmental) interpretation of a “Keynesian coordination game” and develops four potential scenarios to remaining within a global carbon emissions constraint. With inspiration from research on “ecologically unequal exchange” (EUE), we demonstrate the drawbacks of present “green growth” strategies by considering how pollution- and resource-intensive industries are distributed unevenly in the world economy, with large and increasing negative impacts on the periphery. The situation may only be exacerbated if the reduction of emissions in the center is based on shifting heavy industries and extractive enterprises to low-cost producers in the periphery. In this way, existing research likely overemphasizes the capacity of “green” investment policy to achieve sustainable outcomes. Our scenarios show that achieving global sustainability and improving global equity will require an impressive level of coordination between the center and periphery, as well as a significant reduction in the rate of growth (“degrowth”) in the center.
... This conundrum will not soon be resolved by the much-heralded shift to 'green' alternative energy. The hype over wind, solar and other 'green' energy sources notwithstanding, no fully adequate substitutes for fossil fuels are available (IER, 2019;Mills, 2019) and absolute decarbonization is not occurring (Schröder and Storm, 2018). Global energy demand grew by 2.9 % in 2018 led by natural gas; carbon emissions grew by 2.0 %. ...
The human enterprise is in potentially disastrous ‘overshoot’, exploiting the ecosphere beyond ecosystems’ regenerative capacity and filling natural waste sinks to overflowing. Economic behavior that was once ‘rational’ has become maladaptive. This situation is the inevitable outcome of humanity’s natural expansionist tendencies reinforced by ecologically vacuous growth-oriented ‘neoliberal’ economic theory. The world needs a more ecologically-informed economics yet, despite its self-description, contemporary ‘ecological economics’ does not adequately reflect key elements of human evolutionary and behavioral ecology. How should the discipline develop? This paper briefly considers some of the missing pieces that are particularly relevant to humanity’s econo-ecological predicament: competitive displacement of non-human species through habitat and resource appropriation; humans as exemplars of the maximum power principle; the implications of ‘far-from-equilibrium’ thermodynamics; and evidence that H. sapiens is in the plague phase of a global population cycle. I then describe some of motivational and cognitive roots of crisis denial that extend even into the 2015 Paris climate accord. The paper concludes with: a) a list of principles for ecological economics consistent with the analysis and; b) a minimal set of policy actions necessary for the global community to achieve a more equitable steady-state economy and stable population within the biocapacity of nature.
... Although domestic production emissions for many countries have recently fallen alongside growing GDP (World Resources Institute, 2016), globally net emission transfers via international trade from developing to developed countries have increased at a level far outpacing emissions savings (Peters et al., 2011, p. 8905), effectively exporting emissions overseas. As a result, a study of 61 countries between 1995-2011 found that consumptionbased CO2 emissions were consistently increasing with per capita GDP (Schröder and Storm, 2018). Wiedmann et al. (2015) found that for every 10% increase in GDP, the average national material footprint increased by 6%, again based on what nations consume -on consumption measures, neither emissions or resource use are "decoupling" from GDP growth. ...
Pre-print version available for free download below. Available to buy (in edited form) in Reynolds, C., Soma, T., Spring, C., Lazell, J., Soma, T., Spring, C. and Lazell, J. (2020) Routledge Handbook of Food Waste. Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780429462795. - Chapter 31: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Food-Waste-1st-Edition/Reynolds-Soma-Spring-Lazell/p/book/9781138615861 - also available in ebook version for £39.99
Abstract:
This chapter critiques hegemonic conceptions of food waste as stemming primarily from wasteful decisions of individual consumers in rich countries and poor technology and infrastructure in poorer countries. It reveals how this eclipses vital power relations, past and present, which drive waste – including across food supply chains, and through colonial and post-colonial exploitation between countries. It then analyses how structural features of capitalism create drivers for waste, food poverty, overproduction, colonialism and ecological degradation – and that underlying this are exploitative power relations driving inequalities of wealth and power. Turning to some of our most urgent current crises of capitalism, it critiques the idea of endless GDP growth being compatible with keeping safely within planetary boundaries such as those relating to climate change. Within the context of endless growth, the rebound effect offsets many of the positive environmental effects of food waste reduction. Therefore, tackling problems of climate change, food waste and food poverty within ecological limits, through addressing the deeper inevitable crises of capitalism, requires us to look beyond ‘reformism’ to more radical ‘transformist’ solutions that distribute wealth and resources more equitably. I suggest how a food waste movement can form part of broader transformist movements through forging alliances, developing counter-hegemonic narratives, and strategically winning power.
... A more difficult question is whether it is possible to accomplish this transition quickly enough to reduce emissions in time to stay within the carbon budget for 1.5 or 2C, as per the Paris Agreement, while at the same time growing GDP at normal rates. Holz et al. (2018) find that the required rate of decarbonization for the Paris targets is "well outside what is currently deemed achievable, based on historical evidence and standard modelling" (see also Anderson and Bows, 2011;Schroder and Storm, 2018). Grubler et al. (2018) and Van Vuuren et al. (2018) conclude that achieving these targets will require high-income nations to adopt what scholars call "degrowth" strategies, i.e., reducing aggregate economic activity in order to reduce energy demand, therefore making a rapid transition to clean energy easier to accomplish. ...
When the Human Development Index (HDI) was introduced in the 1990s, it was an important step toward a more sensible measure of progress, one defined less by GDP growth and more by social goals. But the limitations of HDI have become clear in the 21 st century, given a growing crisis of climate change and ecological breakdown. HDI pays no attention to ecology, and retains an emphasis on high levels of income that-given strong correlations between income and ecological impact-violates sustainability principles. The countries that score highest on the HDI also contribute most, in per capita terms, to climate change and other forms of ecological breakdown. In this sense, HDI promotes a model of development that is empirically incompatible with ecological stability, and impossible to universalize. In this paper I propose an alternative index that corrects for these problems: the Sustainable Development Index (SDI). The SDI retains the base formula of the HDI but places a sufficiency threshold on per capita income, and divides by two key indicators of ecological impact: CO2 emissions and material footprint, both calculated in per capita consumption-based terms and rendered vis-à-vis planetary boundaries. The SDI is an indicator of strong sustainability that measures nations' ecological efficiency in delivering human development.
... Cohen et al. (2018) identify twelve countries in situations of relative decoupling (Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Korea, South Africa, Indonesia, India, China, Canada, Japan, Australia, and the USA) while considering territorial emissions, but only two (UK and France) while measuring greenhouse gases footprint. Storm and Schröder (2018) analyse data from 61 OECD countries during 1995-2011 in search for carbon Kuznets curves. What looks like decoupling in production-based CO 2 emissions (with a turning point at 56,000 USD annual per capita income) ceases to be so when accounting for imported carbon (turning point at 93,000 USD, which is outside of their sample). ...
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 making with policy agendas at the United Nations, European Union, and in numerous countries building on the assumption that decoupling environmental pressures from gross domestic product (GDP) could allow future economic growth without end.
Considering what is at stake, a careful assessment to determine whether the scientific foundations behind this “decoupling hypothesis” are robust or not is needed. This report reviews the empirical and theoretical literature to assess the validity of this hypothesis. The conclusion is both overwhelmingly clear and sobering: not only is there no empirical evidence supporting the existence of a decoupling of economic growth from environmental pressures on anywhere near the scale needed to deal with environmental breakdown, but also, and perhaps more importantly, such decoupling appears unlikely
to happen in the future.
The validity of the green growth discourse relies on the assumption of an absolute, permanent, global, large and fast enough decoupling of economic growth from all critical environmental pressures. The literature reviewed clearly shows that there is no empirical evidence for such a decoupling currently happening. This is the case for materials, energy, water, greenhouse gases, land, water pollutants, and biodiversity loss for which decoupling is either only relative, and/or observed only temporarily, and/or only locally. In most cases, decoupling is relative. When absolute decoupling occurs, it is observed only during rather short periods of time, concerning only certain resources or forms of impact, for specific locations, and with very small rates of mitigation.
There are at least seven reasons to be skeptical about the occurrence of sufficient decoupling in the future: Rising energy expenditures, Rebound effects, Problem shifting, The underestimated impact of services, The limited potential of recycling, Insufficient and inappropriate technological change, and Cost shifting.
Each of them taken individually casts doubt on the possibility for sufficient decoupling and, thus, the feasibility of “green growth.” Considered all together, the hypothesis that decoupling will allow economic growth to continue without a rise in environmental
pressures appears highly compromised, if not clearly unrealistic.
This report highlights the need for a new conceptual toolbox to inform and support the design and evaluation of environmental policies. Policy-makers have to acknowledge the fact that addressing environmental breakdown may require a direct downscaling of economic production and consumption in the wealthiest countries. In other words, we advocate complementing efficiency-oriented policies with sufficiency policies, with a shift in priority and emphasis from the former to the latter even though both have a role to play. From this perspective, it appears urgent for policy-makers to pay more attention to and support the developing diversity of alternatives to green growth.
... In other words, it is empirically feasible to achieve green growth within a carbon budget for 2°C with the most aggressive possible mitigation policies if the growth rate is very close to zero and if mitigation starts immediately. This conclusion is in line with research by Schroder and Storm (2018), which finds that reducing emissions in line with the 2°C target is feasible (under optimistic assumptions) only if global economic growth is less than 0.45 per cent per year. This conclusion does not hold for 1.5°C, however; emissions reductions in line with 1.5°C are not empirically feasible except in a de-growth scenario. ...
The notion of green growth has emerged as a dominant policy response to climate change and ecological breakdown. Green growth theory asserts that continued economic expansion is compatible with our planet’s ecology, as technological change and substitution will allow us to absolutely decouple GDP growth from resource use and carbon emissions. This claim is now assumed in national and international policy, including in the Sustainable Development Goals. But empirical evidence on resource use and carbon emissions does not support green growth theory. Examining relevant studies on historical trends and model-based projections, we find that: (1) there is no empirical evidence that absolute decoupling from resource use can be achieved on a global scale against a background of continued economic growth, and (2) absolute decoupling from carbon emissions is highly unlikely to be achieved at a rate rapid enough to prevent global warming over 1.5°C or 2°C, even under optimistic policy conditions. We conclude that green growth is likely to be a misguided objective, and that policymakers need to look toward alternative strategies.
... These models are restricted to relatively conventional approaches, such as taxes and efficiency improvements. Alternative approachesincluding a planned transition to wind and solar power, reductions in global population and meat consumption, and so forth (i.e., IRENA, 2018; Van Vuuren et al., 2018)-may allow for some continued global economic growth, but significantly lower than the rate required by Goal 8. Schroder and Storm (2018) find that, if we are to reduce emissions in line with the 2°C target, global economic growth can be no more than 0.45% per year over the coming decades. ...
There are two sides to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which appear at risk of contradiction. One calls for humanity to achieve “harmony with nature” and to protect the planet from degradation, with specific targets laid out in Goals 6, 12, 13, 14, and 15. The other calls for continued global economic growth equivalent to 3% per year, as outlined in Goal 8, as a method for achieving human development objectives. The SDGs assume that efficiency improvements will suffice to reconcile the tension between growth and ecological sustainability. This paper draws on empirical data to test whether this assumption is valid, paying particular attention to two key ecological indicators: resource use and CO2 emissions. The results show that global growth of 3% per year renders it empirically infeasible to achieve (a) any reductions in aggregate global resource use and (b) reductions in CO2 emissions rapid enough to stay within the carbon budget for 2°C. In other words, Goal 8 violates the sustainability objectives of the SDGs. The paper proposes specific changes to SDG targets in order to resolve this issue, such as removing the requirement of aggregate global growth and introducing quantified objectives for resource use per capita with substantial reductions in high‐income nations. Scaling down resource use is also the most feasible way to achieve the climate target, as it reduces energy demand. The paper presents alternative pathways for realizing human development objectives that rely on reducing inequality—both within nations and between them—rather than aggregate growth.
... Instead of examining the problems to understand their complexities, many economists and politicians have responded to these challenges by launching the idea of green growth (the ambition of maintaining growth while lowering environmental impact). However, there is so far no evidence that document that it is possible to decouple negative environmental consequences from economic growth (Simonis 2013;Cullen 2017;Schröder and Storm 2018). Circular Economy is central to any endeavor to transform the economy and forms part of the strategy of global institutions such as the EU and UN (European Commission 2015;UNEP 2006). ...
In this article, we address why our management of the economy, community and business has led to global warming and we discuss the importance of worldviews, ontology, epistemology and axiology in the search for alternative paths of development. We do this by focusing on the concept of Circular Economy. Circular Economy is often presented as a solution to the problems of a globalized economy in the form of over-exploitation of resources, climate change and pollution of the environment. Within the mainstream economics paradigm, the aim is how to increase the effectiveness of resource extraction and utilization in order to maintain growth. We contrast this with the paradigm of Ecological Economics where the goal of the economy is to achieve and secure a higher quality of life. Circular Economy often side steps the deep ontological and epistemological questions we need to answer if we are to address the complex and interrelated environmental, economic and social problems we face today. This can be a limiting factor in the search for creative and long-term solutions. However, within the Circular Economy discourse, we find strands that critically engage with the foundations of mainstream Economics and so, innovative solutions for the society of the future are a possibility. We argue that to bring about a lasting solution to the interconnected social, economic and environmental problems, Circular Economy must engage with the ontological, epistemological and axiological foundations of mainstream economics. To further this argument, we apply Imre Lakatos’ ‘research program’ model to philosophy of science as our framework of analysis and draw lessons for business and communities.
This article reflects on recent calls for universities to deepen their commitments to sustainability in the face of climate change. It suggests that because climate change is a “wicked problem” that is hyper-complex, lacks clear solutions, and affects multiple communities in different ways, universities are unlikely to achieve consensus around a single approach to sustainability. The article reviews emerging critiques of existing university sustainability efforts, including critiques of greenwashing, climate colonialism, and (techno)solutionism. It also offers a social cartography of three different approaches to sustainability: mainstream sustainability, critical sustainability, and beyond sustainability. Rather than advocate for one particular approach, the article suggests that if universities are to maintain their relevance in the context of wicked problems like climate change, they will need to foster spaces for critically informed, complexity-based, and socially and ecologically accountable conversations about the role of higher education institutions in pluralizing possible futures on a shared, living planet.
Concern about energy depletion has risen because of industrialization and consumerism, pushing a transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. To this end, every group within society, especially the youth, should be made responsible for confronting and/or mitigating environmental problems. This study advances the understanding of young adults' intentions to learn about energy conservation and its influencing factors, as well as contributes to the literature on environmental management and environmental culture and development. We used a systematic random sample technique to conduct a large-scale online survey with 1454 students from 48 different Vietnamese universities. The initial research indicates that young adults are highly concerned about the environment, but more work has to be done to turn perceptions into actions. The majority of respondents-nearly 83%-want to increase their energy-saving knowledge, and around 50% are interested in enrolling in an energy course. Their decision regarding participation in an energy course is largely influenced by their perception and income. Women were more inclined to take energy-saving courses, and people who lived in rural areas had a stronger desire to increase their knowledge. Our research has various policy implications for promoting energy transformation and/or nurturing environmental cultures associated with environmental education improvement in Vietnam and beyond.
In recent decades, the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and carbon emissions has garnered the extensive
attention by researchers and governments across the globe. Also, for most part, empirical studies on this nexus have assumed
a symmetric relationship through the imposition of linear specifications. However, such relationships do not account for
asymmetries in the impact of FDI on carbon emissions. In the case of sub-Saharan Africa, such relationships are crucial
and need more careful analysis given the important role FDI plays in the development of the sub-region. Thus, this paper
examines the asymmetric effect of FDI on carbon emissions in 41 selected sub-Saharan African countries spanning from
1996 to 2018. In order to decompose FDI into positive and negative partial sum and examine possible asymmetric effects
of the variables on carbon emissions, we used the panel nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) approach. This
method accounts for cross-sectional variances. Our results show that in the long run, a positive shock in FDI increases
carbon emissions while a negative shock lowers them. Our results also show that carbon emissions respond asymmetrically
to changes in FDI. It is recommended that comprehensive investment policies aimed at encouraging clean technology and
environmentally friendly investments be implemented to ensure environmental sustainability.
The growing concerns regarding natural resources volatility (TNR) and CO2 emissions in relation to economic performance attract the attention of scholars and policy-makers. In this regard, the current study investigated both TNR and CO2 along with the political risk index (PRI) in the case of China. The study used a novel approach, Quantile-on-Quantile regression methods, to capture the influence of each variable at different quantiles covering the period from 1988 to 2020. The examined results revealed that TNR, PRI, and CO2 emissions are positively but weakly associated with economic performance in China. The nexus is found weaker regarding the magnitude at lower quantiles while stronger at upper quantiles. Moreover, the frequency domain causality suggests that TNR significantly causes economic performance in the medium and the long run. At the same time, PRI is found to significantly cause economic performance in the long run only. In contrast, CO2 emissions are found to significantly cause economic performance in the short-run, medium-run, and long-run. Based on the empirical findings, the current study recommends policies to minimize volatility in natural resources, strengthen political and financial sectors, improve institutional quality, and efficient use of fossil fuels to promote economic performance while reducing environmental hazards.
Policymakers and economists are becoming increasingly concerned about wealth inequality. Here we estimate Belgium's wealth distribution — and based on this distribution — the revenue potential, distributional impact, and environmental effect of three proposals for a one-off Belgian wealth tax. Our method consists of (1) estimating the Belgian wealth distribution by extending survey data with a top-tail Pareto distribution based on a novel national rich list, and (2) combining the estimated wealth distribution with proposed tax configurations and published elasticities. There are four main results. First, the wealthiest 1% of households possess ~24% of total net wealth, substantially more than previous estimates suggest. Second, the revenue potential of a one-off tax is considerably higher than estimated by wealth tax advocates. Third, the distributional impact would be limited as the richest 1% of households would still possess at least 23% of total net wealth. Fourth, a one-off tax would likely reduce CO2 emissions by only 0.1–0.6%. Overall, our findings suggest a one-off wealth tax could finance over half of Belgium's COVID-19 costs, but would lead to only small reductions in wealth inequality and environmental impact. Ecological economists may therefore wish to pursue other policy proposals to achieve fair distribution and sustainable scale.
An overview of the concept of climate change along with an attempt to define the concept of climate change along with the distinction between weather and climate change and a brief description of climate system and its components—atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere comprise the prime constituents of this chapter. It also focuses on abrupt climate change, along with taking into consideration global warming, major drivers of climate change, extreme weather events and its related processes as well as impacts of climate change.
9 This paper seeks to explore the potential function of technological innovation and clean power in 10 mitigating the ecological footprint in the N-11 nations during the phase 1992-2015 by applying 11 panel cointegration analysis. The outcomes of the panel cointegration test signify the occurrence 12 of a long run relation among the clean energy (CE) variable, the ecological footprint (EF) variable, 13 the per capita GDP (Y) variable, the financial development (FIN) variable and technological 14 innovation (TI) variable. The outcomes of the VECM signify a long-run causal relation from the 15 ecological footprint (EF) variable to the clean energy (CE) variable, the GDP per capita (Y) 16 variable and technological innovation (TI) variable. This implies that the environmental 17 degradation faced by the N-11 countries leads to shifting towards clean energy sources and 18 technological innovation in the long-run. Thus, the N-11 countries are in need to design policies 19 that enhance shifting towards environmentally friendly energy sources. 20
Mémoire rédigé dans le cadre de la Journée d'action politique 2019 de la Fédération médicale étudiante du Québec et présenté aux député.es de l'Assemblée nationale du Québec
Memoir written for Quebec Medical Student Association's Annual Political Action Day 2019 and presented to elected members of Quebec's National Assembly
Translated tittle : The Climate in our emergencies room - The impact of climate change on health
For many observers, the best strategy to build back better after the
Covid-19 crisis is to double down on pre-pandemic policies: at the
domestic level through market disciplines to contain production costs,
especially of labour and taxes; internationally, by reforming the WTO to
further trade liberalization, secure intellectual property and contain state
subsidies. This paper argues that this prescription is flawed by weak
economic analysis and selective choice of data, and that a different
reform agenda is urgently needed if developing countries (but also many
in the developed world) are to recover better from the Covid-19 crisis,
build resilience to future shocks and achieve transformative development
that can deliver the SDGs. The agenda we outline is centred on a
recovery strategy to boost domestic demand, jobs and household
incomes and a diversification strategy into higher productivity sectors.
The discussion focuses on developing countries.
In Chap. 2, we explored the conventional way of financing social and ecological challenges and introduced the notion of a “six-pack” of tools. This included regulatory efforts (transparency, taxation, taxonomy), impact funding, hybrid ex-swap strategies, and public-private partnership initiatives to tackle an unstable financial system. We also provided a rationale for why and how to redistribute money. In Chap. 3, we saw that systems theory offers a different perspective in which the optimum of any sustainable pathway lies in between efficiency and resilience, in the “anti-fragile zone” of a given system. Additionally, we elaborated upon the full mental capacity of the human brain and mind, distinguishing between linear and parallel thinking. Using this dual perspective, the present chapter analyzes the aspects of our current financial system that prevent us from creating the liquidity to finance our future. Using the SDGs as a benchmark plan, we estimate the required amount of additional liquidity needed to finance these goals. Lastly, we describe the alternative and complementary mechanism of parallel currencies to circumvent these limitations. However, our discovery of this new ground needs to begin with a better understanding of the global commons.
In this essay we provide introductory comment for the collection of solicited essays on Economics and Climate Emergency. In the first section we suggest that recent critique of the climate movement has broader systemic significance and this is indicative of issues that bear on the collected essays. In the following section we rehearse some of the standard arguments leading to complacency and delay to action on climate change and ecological breakdown. In the last section we set out the broad themes of the essays.
Degrowth is a planned reduction of energy and resource use designed to bring the economy back into balance with the living world in a way that reduces inequality and improves human well-being. Over the past few years, the idea has attracted significant attention among academics and social movements, but for people new to the idea it raises a number of questions. Here I set out to clarify three specific issues: (1) I specify what degrowth means, and argue that the framing of degrowth is an asset, not a liability; (2) I explain how degrowth differs fundamentally from a recession; and (3) I affirm that degrowth is primarily focused on high-income nations, and explore the implications of degrowth for the global South.
Review essay of Kallis et al The Case for Degrowth with extended discussion of what degrowth 'is'.
The frequency and intensity of extreme climate events are increasing all around the world, due to climate change. Climate adaptation strategies are therefore needed, since mitigation strategies alone are not sufficient to avoid serious impacts of climate change. However, adaptation to climate change is not straightforward, as it is highly influenced by diverse and conflicting interests as well as epistemological (or scientific) uncertainties. Therefore, a minimum requirement for its success is the active participation of stakeholders and citizens in the adaptation policy cycle. This paper presents a case study on a participatory process involving civil servants from different municipalities in Malaysia, in Southeast Asia, with a view to considering the optimal level of engagement that is required for climate adaptation planning. The exercise consisted of a Focus Group session, where participants were asked to discuss the level of stakeholder and citizen participation that should be adopted within the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy initiative. Contrary to authors' expectations, the participants tended to suggest medium to high levels of participation in the planning process. During the dialogues, a walking activity through the city, aimed at identifying hotspots of climate risks and defined as “safety walks”, was one of the ideas proposed as a high-potential participatory method, spreading in the adaptation framework. Safety walks could complement climate modelling and enhance the robustness of climate risk assessments.
Before the 1980s, the mainstream Western prescription for developing countries to catch up with the West assigned the state a leading role in governing the market. In the 1980s, this shifted to a framework-providing role in a largely deregulated and maximally open economy. Also in the 1980s, it became apparent that some East Asian capitalist economies were growing so fast that they would become ‘developed’ in the foreseeable future, marking them out as completely exceptional. Mainstream economists explained their success as the result of following the Western prescription, while other scholars attributed this rapid growth to ‘the developmental state’. This essay compares these two explanations of successful economic development, concluding in favour of the latter — with respect to the catch-up decades. But what happened subsequently? Several scholars who accept the key role of the developmental state in the early period of fast industrialization in East Asia now argue that South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore have transformed from developmental to close-to-neoliberal states. This contribution argues that the erstwhile East Asian developmental states have indeed changed, but they have not transformed into neoliberal states. Rather they have adapted and evolved, but still undertake market-steering, ‘societal mission’ roles well beyond neoliberal limits. The essay also suggests how other developing countries can learn lessons from their experience.