Too often, economics disassociates humans from nature, the economy from the biosphere that contains it, and sustainability from fairness. When economists do engage with environmental issues, they typically reduce their analysis to a science of efficiency that leaves aside issues of distributional analysis and justice.
The aim of this lucid textbook is to provide a framework that prioritizes human well-being within the limits of the biosphere, and to rethink economic analysis and policy in the light of not just efficiency but equity. Leading economist Éloi Laurent systematically ties together sustainability and justice issues in covering a wide range of topics, from biodiversity and ecosystems, energy and climate change, environmental health and environmental justice, to new indicators of well-being and sustainability beyond GDP and growth, social-ecological transition, and sustainable urban systems.
This book equips readers with ideas and tools from various disciplines alongside economics, such as history, political science, and philosophy, and invites them to apply those insights in order to understand and eventually tackle pressing twenty-first-century challenges. It will be an invaluable resource for students of environmental economics and policy, and sustainable development.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Economics for the 21st centuryPart 1. Ideas and tools
Chapter 1. What the classics know about our world, what 20th century economics forgot
Chapter 2. Humans within the biosphere: the paradox of domination and dependence
Chapter 3. Governing the commons fairly
Chapter 4. Spheres of environmental justice
Chapter 5. Natural resources, externalities and sustainability: a critical toolbox
Part 2. 21st century social-ecological challenges
Chapter 6. Biodiversity and ecosystems under growing and unequal pressure
Chapter 7. Beyond EXPOWA (Extraction, pollution and waste)
Chapter 8. Energy, Climate and Justice
Chapter 9. Well-being and our environment: from trade-offs to synergies
Chapter 10. Social-ecology: connecting the inequality and ecological crises
Chapter 11. The social-ecological transition in context: capitalism, democracy, globalization and digitalization
Chapter 12. Urban sustainability and polycentric transition
Conclusion: Open economics
