Download The emergence and current challenges of ecological

The emergence and current
challenges of ecological economics
Inaugural lecture as professor (with
special responsibilities)
Inge Røpke
Outline
1. The basic idea of ecological economics
2. The development of ecological economics as
a scientific field
3. Examples of research programmes
4. Current challenges
The basic idea of ecological economics
The economy is embedded in nature
Economic processes are always also
natural processes
Economic processes ought to be
studied also as natural processes
Differs from the monetary focus of environmental economics:
Externality: when social costs of production are higher than
private costs
Considered as an exception
The biophysical
position:
”Externalities” are
inevitable and
pervasive
Cost shifting is a
key feature of the
economic system
Why is this important?
• The biophysical growth of the economy may
undermine the basic life support systems for
humans
• There are limits to biophysical growth
• Implies an ethical challenge: when I use the
resources, you can’t
• Calls for understanding how socio-economic
processes undermine the environment and
create unequal access to resources
The ‘social construction’ of scientific fields
• Since Kuhn: not a tale about how we
become ever wiser in friendly
cooperation
• A combination of cognitive and social
history:
– Development of ideas / conflicting
perspectives
– Social conditions outside research
– Social processes within the research
community
– Competition for reputation (Whitley:
reputational organisations)
Long cognitive history
• Physiocrats
• Studies inspired by thermodynamics
• Why no breakthrough? E.g.
– Division of labour between disciplines
– Opposition to dominant thinking
– Did not answer urgent problems
New social conditions and discourses
From the late 1950s to the early 1970s
Pollution
Population
Resources
Ecology
Energy
Social movements
Modern ecological economics formulated
• Biologists: from systems ecology to the inclusion of society
(minority position)
• Economists: biophysical perspective on the economy (very
small minority)
• Two landmark publications in 1971
Part of the first wave of
environmental interest:
ecology
Institutionalisation took nearly 20 years
• Frustration with the established disciplines
• Intellectual developments paved the way:
– Problem-driven transdisciplinary work
– Energy studies
– Systems theory
• ISEE founded in 1988 by people from
–
–
–
–
Systems ecology
Biophysical economics
Energy modelling
Environmental economics
Part of the second wave of environmental
interest: sustainability
Born with a tension
• Hard for ecologists to distinguish
between economists and
economists
• ISEE included both mainstream
environmental economists and
socio-economists
• Socio-economics: conflicts, power,
institutions, broader social science
• Changing balance over time, e.g.
– Willingness to cooperate with natural
scientists
– Cooperate with the influential to get
political influence and academic
recognition
– The publish or perish pressure
– Policing the boundaries: power of
definition
Why not a large field today?
• Rapid expansion in the early 1990s, followed by
backlash
• Process of differentiation of scientific fields
– More focused interests, e.g. empirical issues
– Reputation strategies
• Many competing / complementary fields developed:
– Political ecology, industrial ecology, common property,
transition studies...
• New growth: ecological economics increasingly
integrated into established institutions
Part of the third wave of environmental
interest: climate change
Research: operationalise scale
• The ‘full world’ perspective
• Greater ‘size’ implies greater risk for life support systems
• Measurement important for policy
Different approaches to ‘calculating in nature’
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Carbon
Energy
Material flow accounting
Ecological footprint
Appropriation of photosynthesis
Water footprint
...
MFA: Economy-wide Material Flow Accounting
ETC/SCP working paper, 2011: Key messages on material resource use and efficiency
in Europe
New conceptualisations of unequal exchange
The ethical challenge in the ’full world’
When I use the resources, you can’t.
Money can expand, but not the real-real economy
Positions change over time... somewhat
• Even mainstream economists increasingly acknowledge the
seriousness of environmental problems
• The Danish Economic Council, April 2012: the Danish
economy is sustainable
‘Genuine savings’:
Yearly investments in
machines, education
and research
˃
The value of the
yearly reduction of
oil and gas deposits
and the damage
caused by carbon
emissions and other
air pollution
Positive savings: we ensure the future living
conditions of our children
The ”wise men” acknowledge: it may be a problematic
assumption that natural capital can be replaced by humanmade capital
But they avoid the distributional challenge:
Research: Valuation and decision-making
• Mainstream economics:
– Market prices are relevant measures of values
– When market prices are not available: try to construct
them (cost-benefit analysis)
• Critique: prices reflect
– Income inequality
– Historically constructed institutions, power structures,
gender roles etc.
• Basic incommensurability
– Many languages of valuation
– Valuation is always political
• Multicriteria analysis and
deliberative methods
Research: Socio-economic dynamics
•
•
•
•
How are socio-ecological systems managed?
What happens at the ‘commodity frontiers’?
How do the transfers take place?
What is driving consumption?
Consumption on the agenda
Only a small part of consumption
is considered in environmental
terms
New normal standards are
constructed behind our backs
Travelling, housing, electronics...
This cannot go on...
Current challenges – additions
But we don’t want consumption reduction
through catastrophes
Slower by design, not disaster
Economic growth destroys
the environment and longterm stability
Economic and political
stability depends on
economic growth
Tim Jackson: The horns of the dilemma
The economic crisis is not only a bubble crisis:
resource scarcity threatens economic growth
A high oil price is
necessary to make
the extraction of
more oil profitable
A high oil price
undermines
economic growth
The climate problem
does not allow burning
the fossil fuels available
Carbon Capture and
Storage does not seem
to be round the corner
Most emerging alternatives have a low Energy Return On
(energy) Investment (and a low energy intensity)
Source: Murphy & Hall: Energy return on investment, peak oil, and the end
of economic growth, 2011.
Growth is getting ever more difficult to achieve in the rich countries
Source: Norbert Reuter: Presentation on the welfare state in post-growth society
Return to business as usual is not an option
Double crises, triple crises...
Systemic crisis
Research challenges
• Slower by design, not disaster
• Sustainability transitions are needed
• Price regulation is necessary, but insufficient:
planning is required to avoid very painful
adaptation and to speed up
• Interrelated research fields:
– Transformation of socio-technical systems
– Ecological macroeconomics
– Changes of cross-cutting institutions
Taking a systems perspective
How can the lock-in of the
food system be broken?
Beyond the monetary focus in macro theory
• Transformations of socio-technical
systems are needed
• Blackboxed in macroeconomics.
Only a quantitative focus on
productivity
• Replace the focus on the quantity
of ’economic activities’ with a focus
on concrete economic activities: it
is not possible first to ’bake the
cake’ and afterwards to decide what
it should be ’used for’
From consumption to investment
• Large-scale transformations of socio-technical systems
require resources
– Investments are not necessarily profitable for private
investors (reduce profit expectations)
• Green investments encourage consumption growth
– Rebound effects have to be avoided
• Consumption has to give way to investment
– How can the burden be distributed in a just way?
Institutional change
is needed
Changes of cross-cutting institutions
• Macroeconomic models are based
on given institutions
– Minor changes may be analysed
– Difficult to analyse systemic
transformation
• Present institutions depend on
growth and promote growth
• How should institutions be
transformed to work in a nogrowth society?
Ecological economics fitting in at AAU
• Socio-technical systems: energy, food, cities...
• Socio-economics, economics of innovation,
economic anthropology (STS)
• Environmental ethics
• ....
We will not have time to get bored....
Thank you for your attention!