crisis or opportunity economic degrowth for social equity and ecological sustainability introduction to this special issue abstract this article reviews the burgeoning emerging literature on sustainable degrowth this is defined as an equitable downscaling of production and consumption that increases human well being and enhances ecological conditions at the local and global level in the short and long term the paradigmatic propositions of degrowth are that economic growth is not sustainable and that human progress without economic growth is possible degrowth proponents come from diverse origins some are critics of market globalization new technologies or the imposition of western models of development in the rest of the world all criticize gdp accounting though they propose often different social and ecological indicators degrowth theorists and practitioners support an extension of human relations instead of market relations demand a deepening of democracy defend ecosystems and propose a more equal distribution of wealth we distinguish between depression i e unplanned degrowth within a growth regime and sustainable degrowth a voluntary smooth and equitable transition to a regime of lower production and consumption the question we ask is how positive would degrowth be if instead of being imposed by an economic crisis it would actually be a democratic collective decision a project with the ambition of getting closer to ecological sustainability and socio environmental justice worldwide most articles in this issue were originally presented at the april 2008 conference in paris on economic degrowth for ecological sustainability and social equity this conference brought the word degrowth and the concepts around it into an international academic setting articles of this special issue are summarized in this introductory article hueting d alessandro and colleagues van den bergh kerschner spangenberg and alcott discuss whether current growth patterns are un sustainable and offer different perspectives on what degrowth might mean and whether and under what conditions it might be desirable matthey and hamilton focus on social dynamics and the obstacles and opportunities for voluntary social action towards degrowth lietaert and cattaneo with gavalda offer a down to earth empirical discussion of two practical living experiments cohousing and squats highlighting the obstacles for scaling up such alternatives finally van griethuysen explains why growth is an imperative in modern market economies raising also the question whether degrowth is possible without radical institutional changes

intergenerational equity and sustainability abstract this paper explores the limitations of conventional economic analysis of intergenerational problems and examines some of the alternatives suggested in the literature it is argued that proper consideration of future generations has at least three requirements first when future costs and benefits are considered it should be taken into account that they are to be enjoyed by different generations second the sustainability requirement should be adopted this represents an equity commitment to the future and implies the recognition that future generations have the right to nondeteriorated ecological and economic capacity the paper studies the ways in which the recognition of these rights might be incorporated into economic evaluation and management third an appropriate institutional network to enforce the recognition of these rights in decision making processes should be constituted its design and necessary functions are also analyzed

the environmental social interface of sustainable development capabilities social capital institutions the social dimension has commonly been recognised as the weakest pillar of sustainable development notably when it comes to its analytical and theoretical underpinnings while increasing attention has lately been paid to social sustainability the interaction between the environmental and the social still remains a largely uncharted terrain nevertheless one can argue that the key challenges of sustainable development reside at the interfaces synergies and trade offs between its various dimensions this paper looks for preliminary ideas on frameworks for analysing the environmental social interface it first discusses the concept of sustainable development and the relations of the three dimensions of sustainability on the basis of the fundamental premises of neoinstitutional and ecological economics and briefly presents the bioeconomy model based on this conceptualisation of sustainable development it then goes on to analyse two popular ways of addressing the social dimension of sustainability namely the capability approach of amartya sen and the concept of social capital and discusses the potential of these as bases for the analysis of the environment social interaction the organisation for economic cooperation and development oecd environmental performance review epr programme is presented as an example of attempts to analyse the environmental social interface in practice the paper concludes by noting that a single framework for studying environmental social interface is neither feasible nor desirable it questions the usefulness of analysing only two dimensions of sustainability at a time and emphasises the need to situate the analysis in its context in particular it stresses the need to involve the potential users as well as to take into account the planned use of the analysis and the interactions between different levels of analysis and decision making capabilities and social capital can both be useful in structuring thoughts but are not as such directly applicable as suitable analytical frameworks in particular they do not provide adequate tools for examining the social preconditions for institutional change needed for environmentally sustainable development

wind power development in sweden global policies and local obstacles abstract recently the swedish government adopted a national planning goal of a yearly wind power generation of 10 twh by 2015 implying a substantial increase from the current 0 6 twh level in this paper we provide an economic assessment of the potential for future wind power investments in sweden in close conjunction with an analysis of the legal attitudinal and policy related uncertainties that face a wind mill investor it is shown that the economics of swedish wind power is negatively affected by a the lack of policy stability b public criticism at the local level and in particular c the legal provisions governing the assessment of the environmental impacts of wind mills and the planning procedures for mill location while national and global energy policies as well as the general public point out wind power as particularly environmentally friendly most of the objections to its expansion at the local level tend to have environmental origins the interests of those who object to wind mill installations gain strong legal protection and the municipal territorial planning monopoly in sweden implies that it is hard to make national energy policy goals heard at the local implementation stage compared to its competitors wind power is the technology that tends to have the most to loose from the risk and uncertainties created by this investment environment the paper identifies and discusses a number of ways in which the national policy interests could be strengthened at the local level we discuss the role of citizen participation as well as solutions within the realms of the legal system moreover since the diffusion of wind power encounters the most strident legal and attitudinal obstacles where it interferes with competing land uses a move offshore appears to be an efficient strategy from the perspective of a wind mill investor a stronger political commitment to wind power expansion in legal provisions as well as in the form of long run stability in policy instrument implementation will probably be necessary to attain the 2015 policy goal

opening the black box of carbon finance additionality the political economy of carbon finance effectiveness across tanzania uganda and moldova summary this paper identifies conditions under which the clean development mechanism and other carbon finance projects effectively generate genuine additional carbon credits relying on a systematic empirical investigation of afforestation reforestation and bioenergy carbon finance projects across tanzania uganda and moldova at low global carbon prices additionality was related to the interests of project developers and their resulting capacities and motivations for project implementation certain organizations with capacity for mitigation projects were curiously not involved with carbon finance a distinction between neo developmental tanzania and liberal neo developmental uganda and moldova political economy preferences explains variation in the presence or absence of effective project developers

strong sustainability critical natural capital and the capability approach this article is an attempt to conceptually improve the notion of strong sustainability by creating a rapprochement between its core concept critical natural capital and the capability approach we first demonstrate that the capability approach constitutes a relevant framework for analysing the multiple links between human well being and critical natural capital second we demonstrate that the rapprochement between critical natural capital and the capability approach can form both the normative basis and the informational basis for a deliberative approach to human development which embraces a strong sustainability perspective this conceptual rapprochement as illustrated in our case study opens up avenues of research towards the practical implementation of human development projects from a strong sustainability perspective

sustainability as opportunity this paper explores the relationship between sustainability concepts and contractarian principles of distributional fairness a commitment to equality of opportunity between contemporaries entails that life opportunities should be nondiminishing from generation to generation defining sustainability as nondeclining utility is analytically suggestive but practically problematic given the uncertainties that surround future preferences and technologies life opportunities may be sustained however by providing future generations with specific endowments of reproduced capital technological capacity natural resources and environmental quality in this setting capital resource substitutions are defensible only if there is compelling evidence that they would benefit both present and future generations

human capital and fdi inflows to developing countries new empirical evidence abstract despite the dramatic increase in total foreign direct investment fdi flows to developing countries in the last few years the bulk of the inflows has been directed to only a limited number of countries it has been argued that developing countries might enhance their attractiveness as locations for fdi by pursuing policies that raise the level of local skills and build up human resource capabilities nevertheless the empirical evidence in the literature in support of this recommendation for a large sample of developing countries is scant this paper evaluates this argument in the light of the evolution in the structural characteristics of fdi and empirically tests the hypothesis that the level of human capital in host countries may affect the geographical distribution of fdi the empirical findings are a human capital is a statistically significant determinant of fdi inflows b human capital is one of the most important determinants and c its importance has become increasingly greater through time

calculation of fair wage potentials along products life cycle introduction of a new midpoint impact category for social life cycle assessment abstract income and wages are among the determinant factors for the living standards and well being of workers and thus carry a certain degree of relevance for social life cycle assessment slca although fair wages have often been mentioned as a quantitative measure of societal well being a defined impact category and quantitative characterization model is missing against this background this paper aims at defining fair wage as a new midpoint impact category for slca and suggests a characterization model to calculate fair wage potentials fwps along a product s life cycle the characterization model considers the actual wage paid at each process step in comparison to a minimum living wage it furthermore relates wage to the effective working time and includes an inequality factor to account for income inequalities the characterization model was tested in a cradle to gate case study on tomatoes produced in germany to ensure its applicability results indicate potentially negative social impacts for workers employed in packaging and transport in turkey and workers in manufacturing and packaging in china in contrast low impacts resulted for the indian workers no negative impacts are expected for the german and dutch workers the midpoint category fair wage and the associated characterization model facilitate the operationalization of social impact assessment and provide companies with a practical method to quantify and evaluate their products life cycle

the impact of chinese carbon emission trading scheme ets on low carbon energy lce investment china is planning to introduce emission trading scheme ets to decrease co2 emission as low carbon energy lce will play a pivotal role in reducing co2 emissions our paper is to assess the extent and the conditions under which a carbon ets can deliver lce investment in china we chose wind technology as a case study and a real option based model was built to explore the impact of a number of variables and design features on investment decisions e g carbon and electricity price carbon market risk carbon price floor and ceiling and on grid ratio we compute critical values of these variables and features and explore trade offs among them according to our work a carbon ets has a significant effect on wind power plant investment although it cannot support investment in wind power on its own carbon price stabilization mechanisms such as carbon price floor can significantly improve the effect of carbon ets but the critical floor to support investment is still much higher than the carbon price in china pilot etss our results show that other policy measures will be needed to promote low carbon energy development in china

the impact of international forces on the chinese wind power industry abstract the chinese wind power industry has achieved remarkable growth in the last two decades the total installed capacity of wind power in china has now surpassed that of the united states thereby making it the country with the largest installed wind power capacity in the world the independent and innovative capability of chinese wind turbine manufacturers has undergone continuous improvement and has now reached the point where the country has the capability to produce large scale wind turbines although the chinese domestic policy incentive has played a significant role in the rapid development of the chinese wind power industry the contribution made by external international forces should not be overlooked this research aims to establish a comprehensive model reflecting the international forces that impact on the chinese wind power industry this model consists of three subsystems i e 1 the international cooperation subsystem 2 the clean development mechanism cdm subsystem and 3 the import export subsystem using the model as part of the research the findings suggest that for the international cooperation subsystem joint research and development rd however its effect in terms of the diffusion of technical information and technical capability is weak similarly the degree of dependence of chinese wind turbine manufacturing on imports is weakening as domestic wind turbine manufacturers actively explore overseas markets this comprehensive model helps both international and domestic wind power investors to understand the impact of international forces on the chinese wind power industry resulting in better investment decisions and the consequential minimization of risk

the relationships between cdm project characteristics and cer market prices this study explores the relationship between key characteristics of clean development mechanism cdm projects and certified emission reduction cer prices using multiple correspondence analysis we show that the cer credit prices are likely to have had a greater influence than regional levels of economic development on the sectors regions and sizes of cdm projects there are comparatively few cdm projects in sub saharan africa less south africa and the small scale forestation projects that are characteristic for the region mainly entered the cdm pipeline when cer credit price levels were high latin america hosts a larger number of projects and the small scale methane biofuel and hydro projects that are typical for this region generally also applied for validation under high cer price levels the large industrial gas and energy efficiency projects typical for the middle east northern africa region appear to have been largely insensitive to cer price levels the large number and variety of projects in asia have applied for registration under a broad range of cer price levels

china s wind power industry policy support technological achievements and emerging challenges abstract since 2005 the chinese wind power technology industry has developed rapidly with china becoming the largest installer of wind power capacity in the world in 2010 this paper reviews the policy system implemented in china to support the wind power industry centered on china s 2005 renewable energy law it examines the industry s achievements over the past two decades including the development of wind power technology and equipment the utilization of china s wind power resources and the cost reductions achieved it then explores the obstacles affecting the ongoing sustainability of the chinese wind industry including regulatory barriers grid integration challenges and challenges to continued technological innovation it recommends that integration challenges be addressed through policy reforms establishing interconnection standards and creating predictability with forecasting and storage that market signals be established with long term development goals and pricing reforms and that industry limitations be addressed with targeted r d improved wind resource assessment and transparency domestic and international collaborations and the cultivation of a skilled workforce

foreign direct investment location strategies in the tire industry we analyze the nature of international competition among multinational firms in the tire industry using the frameworks of the theories of oligopolistic reaction and foreign direct investment we find that the firms investment patterns are related to the number and identities of competitors host country characteristics and foreign experience global tire companies from several nations demonstrate oligopolistic reaction behavior

addressing carbon offsetters paradox lessons from chinese wind cdm the clean development mechanism cdm has been a leading international carbon market and a driving force for sustainable development but the eruption of controversy over offsets from chinese wind power in 2009 exposed cracks at the core of how carbon credits are verified in the developing economies the chinese wind controversy therefore has direct implications for the design and negotiation of any successor to the kyoto protocol or future market based carbon regimes in order for carbon markets to avoid controversy and function effectively the lessons from the chinese wind controversy should be used to implement key reforms in current and future carbon policy design the paper examines the application of additionality in the chinese wind power market and draws implications for the design of effective global carbon offset policy it demonstrates the causes of the wind power controversy highlights underlying structural flaws in how additionality is applied in china the offsetters paradox and charts a reform path that can strengthen the credibility of global carbon markets

the case for methodological pluralism abstract ecology and economics share the same greek root both address complex systems ecology consists of numerous approaches to understanding natural systems energetics population biology food web models hierarchy theory to mention just a few within ecology field knowledge and the reporting of new observations are well respected economics on the other hand is dominated by one pattern of thinking and standard of proof the market model and econometrics within economics field knowledge and observations per se are little valued agreement on a correct method is frequently taken as an indication of the maturity of a science the argument is developed in this paper that all the aspects of complex systems can only be understood through multiple methodologies the agreement on method within economics however seems to reflect stronger pressures within the discipline for conformity than for truth relative to ecology since ecological economics seeks to understand a larger system than either economics or ecology seeks to understand a diversity of methodologies is appropriate and pressures to eliminate methodologies for the sake of conformity should be avoided

discursive ethics in ecosystems valuation and environmental policy abstract discursive ethics has its origin in the frankfurt school of critical theory as an applied ethic it is also associated with practical philosophy in this paper discursive ethics is discussed as a conceptual and practical framework for ecosystems valuation and environmental policy the discussion focuses on three main strengths of discursive ethics 1 it offers an integrated process for ecosystems valuation 2 it offers a decision making framework for responding to uncertainty and risk and the reality of action in indeterminacy 3 it offers a process for deconstructing common valuation concepts and identifying conditions for their critical reconstruction the theoretical discussion is followed by a case study example which illustrates the usefulness of discursive ethics in identifying valuation biases hidden behind disciplinary assumptions and conceptual norms these include cultural norms of rationality information biases which consider hard facts over soft values and disciplinary valuation biases which distinguish between hard and soft expert contributions as the case study illustrates a successful application of discursive ethics in ecosystems valuation and environmental policy demands sensitivity to such underlying biases beyond its policy relevance discursive ethics may also offer a framework for an extended peer discourse through which new foci in research and education can be identified

human development and economic sustainability abstract this paper attempts to integrate the concern for human development in the present with that in the future in arguing for sustainable human development it appeals to the notion of ethical universalism an elementary demand for impartiality of claims applied within and between generations economic sustainability is often seen as a matter of intergenerational equity but the specification of what is to be sustained is not always straightforward the addendum explores the relationship between distributional equity sustainable development optimal growth and pure time preference

in defence of degrowth abstract this article defends the proposal of sustainable degrowth a starting premise is that resource and co2 limits render further growth of the economy unsustainable if degrowth is inevitable the question is how it can become socially sustainable i e a prosperous and stable rather than a catastrophic descent pricing mechanisms alone are unlikely to secure smooth adaptation a full ensemble of environmental and redistributive policies is required including among others policies for a basic income reduction of working hours environmental and consumption taxes and controls on advertising policies like these that threaten to harm the economy are less and less likely to be implemented within existing market economies whose basic institutions financial property political and redistributive depend on and mandate continuous economic growth an intertwined cultural and political change is needed that will embrace degrowth as a positive social development and reform those institutions that make growth an imperative sustainable degrowth is therefore not just a structuring concept it is a radical political project that offers a new story and a rallying slogan for a social coalition built around the aspiration to construct a society that lives better with less

towards a centerpiece for ecological economics this paper offers a hypothesis with cognitive claims for a social theory that is relevant for ecological economics as background a fable has ego metaphorically viewed as a horse driven to problematic extremes with the solution becoming an integration and balance of means with the other horse empathy the ego n empathy hypothesis starting with a new root metaphor which is extended with a pre analytic vision the main support for the cognitive claims is with a mathematical model and a metaeconomic analysis armed with both scope and precision along with an assortment of corroborative evidence from different disciplines the paper provides support for establishing a new center cognitive claims have ego and empathy apart giving value and possibilities and together as ego empathy giving an emergent value possibility this possibility suggests a rallying point for transdisciplinary work and a theoretical centerpiece for ecological economics suited as such the economic ego of homo economicus is distinguished from the political ego of sacro egoismo corroboration with adam smith s moral philosophy political economy is highlighted the individual person of an empirical ethics stemming from both self interest and fellow feeling is resurrected to support the hypothesis awareness emerges like a complementary consciousness an added value strikingly similar to smith s impartial spectator empirical demonstration concludes this integration of interests with a metaeconomic analysis for the case of soil and water conservation policy in the north american farming population taken together the root metaphor with reasonable scope and precision corroboration and demonstration help to structure the ego n empathy hypothesis d 2004 elsevier b v all rights reserved

barriers and opportunities of using the clean development mechanism to advance renewable energy development in china studying the barriers and opportunities of using clean development mechanism cdm to advance renewable energy deployment in china has a practical significance to achieve its ambitious renewable energy plan which affects the global efforts to curb carbon emission this paper analyses the role of cdm in promoting renewable energy development in china by reviewing the cdm activities especially renewable energy cdm activities in china there are three barriers to utilizing cdm for renewable energy deployment namely the dilemma of additionality lower proportional certified emission reduction credit revenues on the investment and the lack of incentive for technology transfer whereas the opportunities of using cdm in promoting renewable energy development include the international carbon market redirection to renewable energy chinese renewable energy boom driven by a series of effective energy policies and additional finance from cdm supporting chinese renewable energy development based on the study on the barriers and opportunities the article considers that cdm is an indispensable incentive and a viable choice to promote renewable energy deployment in china crown copyright c 2010 published by elsevier ltd all rights reserved

wind farm investment risks under uncertain cdm benefit in china abstract china has set an ambitious target to increase its wind power capacity by 35 gw from 2007 to 2020 the country s hunger for clean power provides great opportunities for wind energy investors however risks from china s uncertain electricity market regulation and an uncertain energy policy framework mainly due to uncertain clean development mechanism cdm benefits prevent foreign investors from investing in china s wind energy the objectives of this paper are to 1 quantify wind energy investment risk premiums in an uncertain international energy policy context and 2 evaluate the impact of uncertain cdm benefits on the net present values of wind power projects with four scenarios this study simulates possible prices of certified emissions reductions cers from wind power projects project net present values npvs have been calculated the project risk premiums are drawn from different and uncertain cer prices our key findings show that uncertain cdm benefits will significantly affect the project npvs this paper concludes that the chinese government needs revising its tariff incentives most likely by introducing fixed feed in tariffs fits and re examining its cdm granting policy and its wind project tax rates to facilitate wind power development and enable china to achieve its wind energy target

trade and the environment from a southern perspective the relationship between free trade and the environment is one of the main issues of contention between environmental and ecological economics environmental economics assumes a positive relationship between free trade economic growth and environmental policies environmental externalities may cause important damage however trade is not to be blamed for this instead the fault lies with policy inadequacies at the national level on the other hand some ecological economists criticise the assumptions of environmental economics especially the immobility of production factors and the positive correlation between income and environmental quality they plead for measures to prevent deterioration of northern environmental standards in a race to the bottom due to ecological dumping from the south in this paper we argue that neither environmental economics nor northern ecological economics take into account the structural conditions determining the international trade system based on some new empirical evidence on material flows we stress the notion of environmental cost shifting if physical and political ecology perspectives are adopted a southern approach to the trade and environment issue may arise 2001 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

ecological economics as a policy science rhetoric or commitment towards an improved decision making process on sustainability abstract with sustainability issues currently attracting increasing political and policy attention this paper examines the impact of the rise of ecological economics in the policy world and its potential influence on the decision making process this study emphasises that ecological economics development is coevolved with and modified to fit specific social economic political and cultural contexts as a policy science ecological economics is context sensitive and action oriented explaining why it is so and what to do about it has become imperative for ecological economists this paper attempts to address the questions such as what are the macroeconomic conditions and political processes that make the formulation and implementation of ecological economic policy possible how should this alternative social reality engage with the dominant decision making process does ecological economics provide the necessary means for prescribing policy measures to achieve sustainable development endeavouring to understand these dimensions of ecological economics has been a dynamic social process and understanding this complex process might provide an opportunity to bridge the divide between policy rhetoric and reality in practice rather than maintain the status quo in order to achieve an improved decision making process on sustainability it highlights the imperative to explicitly study the institutional setting through which sustainable development policy discourse is mediated

africa and the clean development mechanism what determines project investments summary african countries have hardly used the opportunity to implement cdm projects and thereby turn environmental problems into business and development opportunities this paper finds out why by identifying factors of cdm partnerships our gravity model analyzes flows of certified emission reductions cers between host and financier countries findings show that foreign direct investments official development assistance and trade have a positive influence on project attraction a distinction between project initiation and cer flow size shows that the specific shortcomings of african countries lie with the initial attraction of investors this points to an inadequacy in the initial process of project generation

environment justice and the capability approach in recent years several studies have attempted to combine the capabilities approach with sustainable development however critics have pointed out that although the capability approach takes the environment into account it has its shortcomings for not being a complete ethical theory our article attempts to go beyond these criticisms and show that the capabilities approach provides a good analytical framework for an environmental justice approach

weak comparability of values as a foundation for ecological economics the main argument of this paper is that weak comparability of values should be seen as one characteristic feature of ecological economics the formal properties of the concepts of strong comparability implying strong or weak commensurability and weak comparability implying incommensurability will be clarified multicriteria evaluation offers the methodological and mathematical tools to operationalize the concept of incommensurability at both macro and micro levels of analysis the concept of incommensurability of values already has a long tradition in economics moreover we will show that analytic philosophy theories of complexity post normal science and the recent theories of rationality lead with different trajectories to a non algorithmic approach which in our view could be implemented by some forms of multicriteria evaluation 1998 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

carbon markets 15 years after kyoto lessons learned new challenges abstract carbon markets are substantial and they are expanding there are many lessons from market experiences over the past eight years there should be fewer free allowances better management of market sensitive information and a recognition that trading systems require adjustments that have consequences for market participants and market confidence moreover the emerging market architecture features separate emissions trading systems serving distinct jurisdictions and a variety of other types of policies exist alongside the carbon markets this situation is in sharp contrast to the top down integrated global trading architecture envisioned 15 years ago by the designers of the kyoto protocol and raises a suite of new questions in this new architecture jurisdictions with emissions trading have to decide how whether and when to link with one another stakeholders and policymakers must confront how to measure the comparability of efforts among markets as well as relative to a variety of other polic

need entitlement and desert a distributive justice framework for consumption degrowth abstract post growth societies seek socio ecological transformations towards a just and sustainable redistribution and reduced consumption of natural capital there is no one universally just and ecologically sustainable way of fulfilling these redistribution and consumption objectives it depends on the criteria used and their underlying ethical teleology we suggest three distribution criteria borrowed from the foundations of the environmental justice ej movement need entitlement and desert by juxtaposing and problematising the needs entitlements and deserts of nature and society these criteria comprise an ethical framework for consumption degrowth praxis in communities we present arguments for how each distribution criterion fulfils the aims articulated in the degrowth corpus based on these arguments we propose seven justice based community action principles for redistribution under degrowth in our discussion of these derived principles we demonstrate that like ej degrowth seeks consequential as well as deontological justice underscoring their deep complementarity therefore our need entitlement desert framework may serve as a useful guiding frame to include ethical distribution considerations in societies pursuit of post growth futures

ecosystems contingent valuation and ethics the case of wetland re creation this paper addresses a current issue in environmental valuation namely the extent to which environmental preferences depart from the usual economic paradigm to incorporate some lexicographic elements after a theoretical discussion the paper reviews attempts to explore this question empirically by supplementing contingent valuation analyses with an exploration of the motives behind willingness to pay responses including zero bids and refusals to answer this is followed by the presentation of new evidence investigating respondents willingness to pay for the creation of a wetland taken from 713 personal interviews of the british public 2000 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

eco localism and sustainability abstract economic sustainability is best secured by the creation of local or regional self reliant community economies this is the central argument of eco local economic theory drawing on the experience of local currencies community corporations regional food economies and other locally oriented efforts eco local theory presents a new analysis of the economy of place it focuses on locally symbiotic capital positive externalities of self reliance and negative externalities of long distance trade and its specific concepts and analyses of the economy efficiency and economies of scale and consumption and welfare given its specific values and assumptions it is an economic theory of the social economy that is compatible with but distinct from ecological economics

a theoretical approach to deliberative valuation aggregation by mutual consent in deliberative valuation a small group of selected persons explores the values that should guide collective decisions through a process of reasoned discourse proponents argue that deliberative techniques enhance the effectiveness and perceived legitimacy of policy making by facilitating public participation this paper outlines an approach to deliberative valuation that is grounded in democratic theory social psychology and cooperative game theory emphasizing applications to the monetary valuation of environmental services the analysis suggests that deliberative groups that employ consent based choice rules may aggregate individual values in a manner that systematically departs from the additive aggregation procedures of standard cost benefit analysis

discursive synergies for a great transformation towards sustainability pragmatic contributions to a necessary dialogue between human development degrowth and buen vivir abstract there is a growing awareness that a whole societal great transformation of polanyian scale is needed to bring global developmental trajectories in line with ecological imperatives the mainstream sustainable development discourse however insists in upholding the myth of compatibility of current growth based trajectories with biophysical planetary boundaries this article explores potentially fertile complementarities among trendy discourses challenging conventional notions of un sustainable development human development degrowth and buen vivir and outlines pathways for their realization human development presents relative transformative strengths in political terms while degrowth holds keys to unlocking unsustainable material structural entrenchments of contemporary socio economic arrangements and buen vivir offers a space of cultural alterity and critique of the euro atlantic cultural constellation the weaknesses or blind spots achilles heels of each discourse can be compensated through the strengths of the other ones creating a dialogical virtuous circle that would open pathways towards a global new great transformation as one of the main existing platforms for pluralist and strong sustainability discussions ecological economics is in a privileged position to deliberately foster such strategic discursive dialogue a pathway towards such dialogue is illuminated through a model identifying and articulating key discursive docking points

planning siting and the local acceptance of wind power some lessons from the french case abstract after some years of trifling development under a system of public tenders 1995 2000 french politicians progressively changed the national policy framework for feed in tariffs december 2000 and wind power development zones july 2005 the new policy framework has triggered a beginning of takeoff in wind power capacity the paper examines french wind power development in the light of two key dimensions and concepts related to wind power policy planning and siting part 1 we particularly focus on the recent french legislative debate which led to the adoption of the new policy framework part 2 the french case shows that the recourse to planning tools was not tailor made for siting issues but resulted from a political fight over the decentralization of energy policy the policy outcome which we call flexible decentralized planning is both interesting and ambiguous it is interesting in that it develops interfaces between planning tools and siting institutions it is ambiguous in that it is potentially very hierarchical the final decision power is left in state planners hands making it unpredictable the extent to which room will genuinely be provided for siting processes to take place

sustainable development in a post brundtland world not yet two decades after the publication of our common future the world s political and environmental landscape has changed significantly nonetheless we argue that the concept and practice of sustainable development sd as guiding institutional principle as concrete policy goal and as focus of political struggle remains salient in confronting the multiple challenges of this new global order yet how sd is conceptualized and practiced hinges crucially on the willingness of scholars and practitioners to embrace a plurality of epistemological and normative perspectives on sustainability the multiple interpretations and practices associated with the evolving concept of development and efforts to open up a continuum of local to global public spaces to debate and enact a politics of sustainability embracing pluralism provides a way out of the ideological and epistemological straightjackets that deter more cohesive and politically effective interpretations of sd using pluralism as a starting point for the analysis and normative construction of sustainable development we pay particular attention to how an amalgam of ideas from recent work in ecological economics political ecology and the development as freedom literature might advance the sd debate beyond its post brundtland quagmire enhanced levels of ecological degradation vast inequalities in economic opportunities both within and across societies and a fractured set of institutional arrangements for global environmental governance all represent seemingly insurmountable obstacles to a move towards sustainability while these obstacles are significant we suggest how they might be overcome through a reinvigorated set of notions and practices associated with sustainable development one that explicitly examines the linkages between sustainability policies and sustainability politics

the poverty of money marxian insights for ecological economists abstract karl marx s philosophical political and sociological analysis of the workings of capitalism provides insights regarding the character of monetary value price and the role of the market that are relevant to ecological economists ecological economists are divided over the utility of pricing components of ecological systems and the potential role of the market in achieving ecologically sustainable societies in the marxian influenced socialist movements of the 19th and 20th centuries similar issues were raised by those preoccupied with organising state policy and manipulating the market to achieve social justice for example at particular points in the russian and cuban revolutionary processes the potential and limitations of monetary pricing and market exchange were debated in a heated and detailed way in as much as ecological economists hold certain interests in common it is worth reflecting on marx s view of the human role within nature and analysing the discussions and experiences of marxian experimenters in social transformation that relate specifically to exchange

explaining the differential distribution of clean development mechanism projects across host countries the clean development mechanism cdm of the kyoto protocol represents an opportunity to involve all developing countries in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also promoting sustainable development to date however the majority of cdm projects have gone to emerging markets such as china india brazil and mexico while very few least developed countries have hosted projects this paper investigates the differential distribution of cdm activities across countries we develop a conceptual model for project profitability which helps to identify potential country level determinants of cdm activity these potential determinants are employed as explanatory variables in regression analysis to explain the actual distribution of projects human capital and greenhouse gas emission levels influenced which countries have hosted projects and the amount of certified emission reductions cer created countries that offered growing markets for cdm co products such as electricity were more likely to be cdm hosts while economies with higher carbon intensity levels had greater cer production these findings work against the least developed countries and help to explain their lack of cdm activity

dealing with surplus emissions in the climate negotiations after copenhagen what are the options for compromise abstract this paper analyses the environmental and financial consequences of various strategies of dealing with surplus emission allowances in the aftermath of the copenhagen accord this topic remains relevant in particular with respect to the russian negotiation position as this country is the largest holder of surplus emissions it is concluded that not addressing the surplus problem is not a feasible negotiation option as the sheer size of the surpluses would jeopardise the environmental integrity of any future agreement cancelling surpluses against russia s will though viable is not desirable as it might well lead to this country opting out of this climate treaty three options for compromise have been selected and analysed here 1 stricter targets for annex i countries 2 strategic reserve for russia 3 institutionalising optimal banking it is concluded that whereas option 1 is environmentally the best in the present political context it is probably less feasible the other two options although environmentally suboptimal seem politically more favourable our analysis suggests that maximal revenues for surplus holding countries arise by releasing only a limited amount of surplus credits to the market the institutionalisation of this effect could be a key lever to a politically feasible agreement on surplus emissions

is foreign aid a vanguard of foreign direct investment a gravity equation approach summary this paper investigates whether and how foreign aid facilitates foreign direct investment fdi flows into less developed countries we employ a large data set of source recipient country pairs and conduct gravity equation type estimation our empirical methodology enables us to examine an effect through which aid from a donor country promotes fdi from the same donor in particular which we call a vanguard effect we find that foreign aid in general does not have any significant effect on fdi however when we allow for differences in the size of aid effects across donor countries we find robust evidence that foreign aid from japan in particular has a vanguard effect i e japanese aid promotes fdi from japan but does not attract fdi from other countries