14 March 2015

INTRO

The concept of capital is important to sustainability science and environmental conservation

  • The concept of capital, a term borrow from economics, is foundational for sustainability science. Natural, social and financial capital distinguishes between the assets possess in currencies of environmental, societal and monetary value. This is one example of an important interplay between sustainability science and economics where sustainability science has adopted central concepts of economics. Sustainability science is addressing some research areas of economics

  • Sustainability science has begun to address the interplay between economic dynamics/sustainability and socio-environmental sustainability. Examples include, (1) the influence of economic inequality on environmental sustainability, (2) the measurement of economic growth integrating measures of financial capital with social and natural capital.

Sustainability science has been slower to pick up other central lines of economic research * However, many central areas of economics has yet to make into integrated sustainability research. These include, (1) the influence of money in politics and how they influence democratic transitions toward sustainability, (2) how international monetary transactions and illicit capital flows influence social and environmental outcomes at their destinations and to what extent this tele-couples econo-socio-environmental dynamics in areas fare apart.


Main body

  • Green accounting (progress, next steps)

  • Inequality and environmental, social and financial sustainability

  • The role of money in facilitating or slowing down democratic transformations toward sustainability

Perspective - From green accounting to national accounts revisions

PARAGRAPHS

INTRO

Importance of economic dynamics for the earth system and global sustainability

History of economic and sustainability science - what concepts has been important for SS

History of economic and sustainability science - what generally characterizes the research questions that have been taken up? Valuation of environmental and social goods. Inequality

History of economic and sustainability science - what generally characterizes some of the research questions that hasn’t been taken up? Finance Role of money in preventing democracy and implications sustainable transitions

Role of illicit financial flows Impact of major financial corporations on global sustainability Financial market dynamics and impact on global sustainability

Paragraph - summarizing intro and outlining content and purpose of the main body of the paper - EXAMINE BRIGHT SPOTS AND BLIND SPOTS

RECENT ADVANCES

National and green accounting - integrating measures of natural and social capital into national accounting systems

Political attention to global sustainability and the unsustainable dynamics of current measurements of economic growth has facilitated international research progress on integrated measures of growth

E.g. Genuine progress measure (Nature paper by Costanza) Green accounting mandated by OECD countries - what will happen next

National and green accounting - integrating measures of natural and social capital into national accounting systems

AREAS THAT NEED ATTENTION

FUTURE PERSPECTIVES AND CONCLUSION



References

None



blog comments powered by Disqus