Ecological Economics for Sustainable Wellbeing

Presented by Eric MillerAt the 2015 PEF Summer School

May 28 at Ryerson University

Ecological Economics

Natural Resource Economics

Insights from other scholarship

Environmental Economics

Waste Materials & Heat Outputs

Firms HouseholdsMaterial& Energy

Inputs

(Video from Anthropocene.info)

1700 1800 1900 2000

Property rights

Invisible hand

Utilitarianism

Comparative advantage

Pareto efficiencyMarginal

analysis

National accounts

Equilibrium

Origins of contemporary economic approaches

General Theory

Ecological Economics

Natural Resource Economics

Environmental Economics

efficient allocationequitable distribution

biophysical scale

how well can markets deliver efficient outcomes?

Ease of excluding potential beneficiaries

High Low

Subtract-ability of use

High Common-pool resources

Low Toll goods

Market failure

Markets fail to reward supply

Markets accelerate depletion

Private goods

Public goods

Adapted from Ostrom (2008)

Market failure spills over here

what should we do to manage market failure?

how is nature a factor of economic production?

ecosystemservices

ecosystemgoods

Naturalcapital

Humanwellbeing

Built Capitaland

Human Capital

ecosystemservices

ecosystemgoods

$$

$$

$$

GDP

0

0

0

0

0

Marketvalue

Fuel

Building materials

Food

(Plus others)

Continental wildlife benefits

Global GHG sequestration

Regional aesthetic enjoyment

Local water filtration

Local water quantity regulation

Economic benefits

## / time

## / time

## / time

## / time

## / time

Biophysical supply

$$ / time

$$ / time

$$ / time

$$ / time

$$ / time

Non-Marketvalue

ESV

Integrate Sustain

Naturalcapital

how much natural capital needs to be conserved?

ecosystemservices

ecosystemgoods

Naturalcapital

BiophysicallySustainable

Humanwellbeing

Built Capitaland

Human Capital

Biocapacity (supply) Ecological footprint (biocapacity demanded)

If supply > demand: sufficient natural capital to sustain current demand

If supply < demand: insufficient natural capital to sustain current demand

Extracted from WWF Living Planet Report (2014)

how should ecosystem services

be economically valued?

Extracted from Peterson (2010)

New (English) scholarly publications about ecosystem services

Extracted from Miller and Lloyd-Smith (2012)

New publications about ecosystem services in Ontario (from EVRI)

1979-1989 1990-1999 2000-20100

10

20

30

40

50

Many databases aggregate information and make it searchable

Extracted from Troy and Bagstad (2009)

Spatial inventories relate values to elements of a landscape

how should we modelenvironment-economy

interactions?

how should we consider the present value of futureenvironmental values?

what are somesynergies with other

heterodox economics?

Ecological Economics

Homo reciprocans

Markets, households, institutions, nature

= market + nonmarket value

Governments balance the economy

Globalization of Fair Trade

Quality of work and life

20th century economics

Homo economicus

Markets (and a bit of government)

Economic value = market value

Governments balance budgets

Globalization through “Free Trade”

Quantity of jobs

what are sometensions with other forms of heterodox economics?

Ecological Economics

GDP growth may or may not be economic

Solve market failures

Sustainability goals inform prices

Technological realism:impacts = fn(scale, intensity)

Focus on distribution to manage scarcity

20th century economics

GDP growth = “Economic growth”

Promote market expansion

Prices inform sustainability goals

Technological optimism: improve intensity to reduce impacts

Increase demand to overcome scarcity

Extracted from WWF Living Planet Report (2014)

subject to earth’s biocapacity

Canadian Society for Ecological Economics

www.cansee.org

as a chapter of the

International Society for Ecological Economics

www.ecoeco.org

Ontario Network on Ecosystem Serviceswww.ONEcosystemServices.ca

References cited• Global Footprint Network. 2015. The footprint and biocapacity of Ontario, Canada: comparing

results for 2005 and 2010. Produced for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

• Miller, E and P. Lloyd-Smith. The Economics of Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity in Ontario (TEEBO). Prepared for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

• Ostrom, E. 2008. “Design principles of robust property-rights institutions: What have we learned?” In ed. K. Gregory Ingram and Yu- Hung Hong. 2009. Property Rights and Land Policies. Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

• Peterson, G. 2010. Growth of ecosystem services concept. Resilience Science. http://rs.resalliance.org/2010/01/21/growth-of-ecosystem-services-concept/

• Troy, A and K. Bagstad. 2009. Estimating Ecosystem Services in Southern Ontario. Published by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

• WWF. 2014. Living planet report: species and spaces, people and places. Produced in collaboration with the Global Footprint Network, Water Footprint Network, and the Zoology Society of London.

Embedded video is from Anthropocene.info which is a collaborative project between researcher and communicators from some of the leading scientific research institutions on global sustainability, including the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP).