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Course objectivesThis course will lead you to the limits of conventional economics facing ‘externalities’ of natural resource depletion and environmental degradation. We will review environmentalist critique of economics as formalistic ‘puzzle solving’ that ignores the threats of environmental and social collapse. Are we reaching the limits of the planet’s carrying capacity? What do the data tell us? Can ‘sustainable development’ or a ‘greened’ eco–nomics provide a new world vision? How can we introduce sustainability in mainstream micro- and macro-economics? Does globalization help or hinder sustainable development? These are some of questions we will discuss. To lend perspective to interrelated economic, environmental and social concerns the course will progress from theory, via measurement and modeling, to policy.
Chapter numbers in brackets refer to the main text of Sustainability Economics.
1. Introduction and overview [Ch. 1] Environmental doom: have we reached the limits?
2. Schools of eco–nomic thought [Chs. 1, 5] Environmentalists and economists: a persisting polarization?
3. Sustainable development: fig leaf or cornucopia? [Chs. 9, 10] Has the paradigm run its course?
4. The physical base of the economy [Chs. 2, 3] Defining and measuring ecological sustainability; global warming – an indicator of non- sustainability?
5. Monetary valuation: cost-benefit analysis and greening the national accounts [Chs. 5, 6] Defining and measuring economic sustainability; do we need a green GDP?
6. Corporate environmental accounting: accounting for accountability [Ch. 6] Profit or corporate social responsibility? Accounting for share- or stakeholders?
7. Prediction: will our economies be sustainable? [Chs. 3, 7] Reaching sustainability limits? When?
ANNEX: Syllabus for a course of sustainability economics
Peter Bartelmus<[email protected]>
8. Policy analysis: can we make the economy sustainable? [Ch. 8] How reliable are the models? Are optimality and sustainability realistic objectives?
9. Implementation: strategies and policy instruments [Chs. 4, 7] Command and control or market instruments?
10. Globalization or local eco-development? [Chs. 9, 10] Does globalization help or hinder sustainable development?
11. Review and conclusive questions [Ch. 11] How bad is it? What can be done?
