This paper provides a direct understanding of the labour-saving threats embedded in decarbonisation pathways. It starts with a mapping of the technological innovations characterised by both climate change mitigation/adaptation (green) and labour-saving attributes. To accomplish this, we draw on the universe of patent grants in the USPTO since 1976 to 2021 reporting the Y02-Y04S tagging scheme and we

In low- and middle-income countries, disparities in nutrition between men and women represent a significant source of gender inequality, a challenge that is exacerbated by climate shocks. This study examines the impact of droughts on food consumption and nutrition across age and gender cohorts in rural Bangladesh. We utilize georeferenced climate data and panel data from surveys in rural Bangladesh

Ecological economics is concerned with understanding the relationship of humanity's household to earth's household. Its orientation has been to nurture methodological pluralism. This expansive project has yet to include in its toolbox what we label–dialectics and evolutionary materialism. This approach and methodology for understanding complex economic systems (the foundation of humanity's household);

We explore an attempt to derive a set of indicators reflecting a just transition to a circular economy (CE) at a supply chain level. Here we build upon the theoretical work presented in Purvis and Genovese (2023) with an account of an empirical exercise following the standard methodological steps outlined for the creation of a measurement dashboard. A literature review of existing CE indicators for

Voluntary sustainability standards offer potential for sustainable development by improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers while conserving biodiversity. However, their overall implications remain poorly understood, as studies have mostly focused on assessing their effects on single sustainability dimensions. Here, we use an interdisciplinary approach to understand the simultaneous effects

Aquaculture has emerged as the fastest growing sector in global food production, with salmon farming in the lead. Norway is responsible for over half of the world salmon production, but its industry faces significant challenges which must be addressed to achieve sustainability. One key issue is the lack of a unified understanding among stakeholders of how production affects the environment and intersects

Conservation organizations employ charismatic species to appeal to potential donors and increase contributions. However, evidence that this strategy increases donations is mixed. In an experimental setting, we investigate the effects of species charisma and the characteristics of potential donors on donations to conservation organizations. We conducted a modified dictator game through MTurk with 330

Rational decision theory assumes that individuals have perfect knowledge of the consequences of their choices and actions. However, this assumption often fails to align with reality, particularly in the context of environmental degradation, where the impacts of actions can be distant in both time and space. Will an enhanced perception of those impacts encourage pro-environmental choices?

Different views and definitions pertain to the concept of bioeconomy. Few propose a workable definition enabling scholars and decision makers to identify analyze and manage the bioeconomy. Two technological delineations based on patent IPC codes delimitate a bioeconomy based on biotechnology inventions or based on a broader set of technologies. The two definitions are applied to two samples of firms

Consumers often encounter, and claim to care about, ethical information concerning the products they purchase. Across three studies, we investigate how the accessibility of this information impacts choice. When consumers must seek out product attribute information, the impact of ethical certifications (Fairtrade and Organic) is diminished relative to other attributes. Both positive and negative framing

Exposure to economic incentives such as payments for ecosystem services (PES) can change intrinsic motivations to act pro-environmentally. These so-called crowding effects in PES have been shown to affect pro-environmental behavior of PES-receivers. It is, however, unclear if social norms toward pro-environmental behavior are also susceptible to crowding effects in PES and how these changes could influence

In ten Raa and Stahlie (2024) we showed that the carbon dioxide footprint per euro expenditure decreases with income in the Netherlands. We correct an error in the units. Our conclusion that there is a tradeoff between environmental and income policies stands.

This analysis aims at conceptualising the environmental dimension of left-behind places. I argue that implementing environmental inequality concepts into economic geography is pivotal to sharpen the analysis of just transition geographies. Adopting such lens (1) helps to grasp the theoretical underpinnings of environmental inequalities, (2) lays bare the stratification of environmental risks in left-behind

International trade profoundly impacts global land resource redistribution, creating significant inequalities. However, there is still a considerable gap in studies on land transfer and resulting environmental consequences. This study aims to illuminate inequality patterns by examining the global transfer dynamics of embodied cropland, forestland, and pasture in 2001, 2011, and 2021. The results reveal

Finance both contributes to environmental degradation and is vulnerable to environmental degradation. This article sets the methodological groundwork for assessing both concerns in an integrated macroaccounting framework. It presents how the combination of environmentally extended Input-Output analysis and balance sheet methods and data can be used to evaluate the contribution of finance to environmental

In Germany and other EU countries, preferences for regional and GMO-free feed can increasingly be observed. Many industries like to brand their dairy, eggs and meat products as produced with regional and GMO-free feed. This – among others – has resulted in decreasing soybean and soybean meal imports from Latin America and the USA over the last couple of years, which are often genetically modified.

We analyze emissions and associated damages from the top 100 industrial CO2 emitters in the EU using data from the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register, the EU Transaction Log, population grids, and regional information. These top emitters account for 19% of total EU CO2 emissions, 39% of industrial CO2 emissions, as well as a third of industrial SOx and NOx emissions, and a significant

Research on degrowth and its policy proposals has rapidly expanded, despite lacking empirical evidence on public perceptions. One conceptual proposition for affluent populations is that lifestyle changes, such as undertaking sufficiency-oriented behaviours, may engender degrowth policy support. Our research empirically investigated U.S. public support for degrowth policies, its relation to sufficiency

Social comparison nudges, known to bring about behavioral change, rely on providing information to agents about other agents' decisions or expectations regarding specific actions. Although the procedure consists in transmitting true information, it classically implies a reduction of the transmitted reality: the information provided about others is an average, a proportion, a percentile. What would

In a natural field experiment conducted in a big grocery chain in Armenia, we test the impact of demand-side behavioral (an environmental nudge) and conventional (financial bonus scheme) policies to curb the purchase of single-use plastic bags. We find that both interventions are effective to reduce the demand for single-use plastic bags. Furthermore, the financial bonus scheme is more powerful than

Circular economy (CE) can drive our society towards sustainable development. An adequate policy landscape is considered among the most effective ways to encourage firms to adopt circularity. However, there is little clarity as to the most effective public policies to push companies towards implementing this concept. This is particularly challenging in the European Union, where these policies are fragmented

This paper draws on network analysis to examine the impact of Global Value Chain (GVC) embeddedness on carbon emissions from 2000 to 2014. A country network of value added is constructed, and a Temporal Network Autocorrelation Model (TNAM) is applied to examine the impact of network position in the GVC and emissions of network partners on the CO2 emissions of a country. The paper finds weak evidence

This article creates an inter-epistemic dialogue between degrowth and Buen Vivir/sumak kawsay based on qualitative research conducted in Ecuador. It builds on degrowth scholarship that considers cultural change an integral part of sustainability transformations. The article envisions what that change could look like by developing non-anthropocentric and de-individualised visions of sustainability transformations

We examine how a better understanding of how climate change induces herder migration to other locations and subsequent conflicts with sedentary farmers influences respondents' support for policies that accommodate outgroup members. We conducted a pre-registered survey experiment with 550 residents of a conflict zone in Nigeria and discovered that as perceived herder vulnerability due to climate change

To reverse the socioecological impacts derived from the Green Revolution in the indigenous territory of Puracé (Colombia), an agroecological transition proposal elaborated by the Kokonuko community through participative action research is presented with a respectful approach to the indigenous knowledge of this community and their Cabildo. Reversing the detrimental consequences of industrial agriculture

As the significant environmental, social, and economic consequences of biodiversity loss become more clearly recognized, biodiversity management has become an increasingly important issue for the financial sector. According to the Global Risk Report 2023, biodiversity loss will be the fourth most significant risk worldwide over the next ten years. The financial sector plays a crucial role in supporting

Two approaches are predominant in climate models: cost–benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis. Cost–benefit analysis maximizes welfare, finding a trade-off between climate damages and emission abatement costs. By contrast, cost-effectiveness analysis minimizes abatement costs, omits damages but adds a climate constraint, such as a radiative forcing constraint, a temperature constraint or a cumulative

This paper contributes to the political economic analysis of industrial forestry in the Global North (GN) by introducing and applying elements of an analytical framework for extractivist valorization. The proposed framework serves as a complement, systematization, and extension of the concepts of valorization and (post-fossil) extractivism. It scrutinizes the political-economic constellation and social

Efforts to improve the Genuine Savings, a widely accepted index to assess the weak sustainability of an economy's development, have led to the creation of a broad body of literature that aims to produce more robust macroeconomic indicators for policy decision making. However, the various approaches to natural capital welfare accounting results in conflicting indicators of change. It is also the case

Strengthening pro-environmental behavior, as well as understanding its drivers, is crucial for the fight against global warming. In this study, we (i) shed light on the behavioral determinants of pro-environmental efforts and (ii) explore the potential of information provision (about others’ efforts) to shape pro-environmental behavior. US citizens (n=782) in our online experiment are given the opportunity

This paper identifies market failure caused by an animal welfare externality that occurs if private animal friendliness falls short of social animal friendliness. Efficiency is restored by taxing the quantity of animal food and subsidizing the quality per unit of animal food. With consumer and producer heterogeneity, a promising policy includes mandatory quality standards. If a producer wants to be

The single-site travel cost model is a method typically used to estimate the recreational value of open-access natural areas. However, when utilised at sites where multiple ecosystem types are present, the proportion of value that is generated by each ecosystem can be unclear. Natural capital frameworks, such as the UN's System of Environmental-Economic Accounting, require values that are ecosystem

Focusing on biodiversity risks, we perform an empirical asset pricing analysis and document three main results. First, the factor going long on low biodiversity intensity assets and short on high biodiversity intensity ones as well as the factors based on the biodiversity intensity subcomponents (land use, greenhouse gases—GHG, air pollution, and water pollution) have heterogeneous dynamics but are

In this paper, through the reaction of corporate bonds, we investigate the relationship between biodiversity and companies. With a focus on acute events, we measure biodiversity loss as a risk. After introducing a novel news-based metric to track biodiversity risk and identify key acute episodes we propose an event study to measure the market effect of acute biodiversity events on the spreads of Brazilian

Promoting household-level adaptation measures is an important part of climate change adaptation policies to reduce vulnerability to droughts for (agro-)pastoral communities in sub-Saharan Africa. To develop effective supportive policies, it is important to get a better understanding of the needs in the communities. In this study, we, therefore, present the results of a discrete choice experiment in

We quantitatively assess the impacts of Downgrading Protected Areas (PAD) on biodiversity in the U.S. Results show that PAD events significantly reduce biodiversity. The proximity to PAD events decreases the biodiversity (abundance) by 26.0 % within 50 km compared with records of species further away from the PAD events. We observe an overall 32.3 % decrease in abundance after those nearest PAD events

We generalize the marginal abatement cost function concept by adding a secondary market option for the firm's emissions. From that baseline, we analyze the conditions under which the secondary market will lie dormant and strategies for efficiently activating them. We feature two contexts that are of increasing interest in the engineering and energy literatures but that are under-discussed in the economics

Can climate accords based on decentralized and voluntary agreements successfully reduce carbon emissions? We designed an economic experiment to study the effectiveness of the best-known mechanisms to foster international cooperation on climate change mitigation: climate pledges, financial penalties, and peer evaluation. We test each mechanism both separately and together. In the climate pledge treatments

Increasing landfill and environmental costs are driving municipalities to search for effective policies to change household food waste disposal, balancing competing attributes such as effectiveness, fairness and feasibility. In order to better understand households' policy perspectives, we conducted an online survey with 1520 South Australians regarding four different food waste policies, namely: 1)

The ‘social provisioning process’ framework postulates that making provisioning processes more socially and ecologically sustainable requires structural changes in terms of the material, social, and cultural bases of economies. This paper explores the ways in which local community-led grassroots initiatives (GIs) contribute to such structural changes. The purpose of this paper is twofold: First, we

This paper introduces an analytical model that characterizes the incentives of the manufacturing industry, consumers, and waste management sectors in closing the material loop. To address identified market failures, various policy instruments are evaluated both theoretically and numerically, using the example of the EU PET market. The assessment shows that a policy package consisting of carbon pricing

The distinct characteristics of cooperatives, grounded in values such as self-help, selfresponsibility, etc. (ICA) make them a distinctive form of enterprise that necessitates examination. As other forms of enterprise, cooperatives bear the same onus of ensuring sustainability. To comprehend the social and economic contribution of cooperatives, we investigate their impact and role in attaining environmental

Seagrass habitats are essential and vulnerable ecosystems with several key roles, from biodiversity hotspots to climate change mitigation. Their characteristics, current condition and potential benefits, are the main core of this study which presents one of the first applications of marine accounts for the European Mediterranean Sea. The assessment focuses on four marine and coastal ecosystem services

This article aims to advance understandings of food systems functioning at a national level and explore ways for its transformation towards sustainability and social justice. Integrating food regime theory from political economy with social metabolism from ecological economics, and surplus/reproduction from feminist economics, we develop a novel research framework which combines six dimensions—food

The confluence of multiple crises has prompted a growing recognition of the need for transformations. Economic systems, including patterns of consumption and production, play a key role in sustainability transformations. The notion that capitalist systems are at the root of current ecological and social crises has led to the emergence of different alternative economic discourses, that seek to address

Humanity faces a dilemma: The satisfaction of human needs gravely endangers the natural basis of life. As potential strategies for resolving this dilemma, we revisit the discourse on efficiency, sufficiency and consistency. Although there has been much discussion about the three strategies in recent decades, there is a lack of a clear distinction between the strategies and little understanding regarding

Ecological economics envisions problem-solving collaborative efforts characterized by disciplinary diversity and participants within and outside of research professions. Pursuit of its ambitious vision has led to ambiguity in terms of ecological economics' paradigms, methodology, and subject matter. There remains a need for comprehensive methodologies and for nuanced discussions of methodological pluralism

The 2007/8 economic crisis and the global Great Recession led to widespread turmoil and instability. In Europe, unprecedented reductions in per capita resource use were crisis-driven rather than the result of deliberate policies. This study examines material use patterns in the EU-27 from 2000 to 2020, covering the period before and the onset of the Great Recession. We find that average material consumption

Reaching the UN's sustainable development goals (SDGs) is influenced by a country's position in global value chains and its involvement in international trade. Here, we assess how changes in global trade patterns (CGTP) during 2004 and 2014 impacted 13 SDG indicators in 141 countries/regions which are further divided into four income groups. Trade pattern is characterized by the direction, composition

The establishment of Forest Management Units (Kesatuan Pengelolaan Hutan/ KPH) represents one of Indonesia's most significant forest governance reforms, covering the 120 million hectares of designated Forest Areas. Sharing features with the Landscape Approach, KPHs are expected to reduce deforestation and forest degradation through improved forest planning, oversight, open access avoidance, and fire

Anthropogenic environmental impacts substantially threaten the sustainable development of cities and counties. This paper offers an original assessment of the role played by population, economic growth and technology change in the evolution of local air pollution and soil sealing, using the STIRPAT approach. The analysis covers the development of 367 German counties and autonomous cities (NUTS 3 level)

Forest creation and restoration are embedded in global policy. Both result in landscape changes that have far-reaching socioeconomic consequences. However, there is limited evidence on public preferences for the biodiversity these forests contain. Here we used a choice experiment to explore the British public's willingness to pay (WTP) for different forest biodiversity attributes. We began with a multiple-step

Natural insurance based on the provision of ecosystem services is a promising tool for the future of agriculture. However, empirical evidence of the role it can play is lacking, and its integration into standard insurance strategies – for example, the use of pesticides or market-based insurance – has been understudied. To begin to fill this gap, this study developed an original conceptual framework

Climate change is one of the main threats for biodiversity. As it affects the ecological and economic system, conservation costs and impacts may change in a heterogeneous manner. This implies that cost-effective conservation sites and measures may no longer be so in the future. We investigate spatial flexibility (to adapt the location of conservation sites) and management flexibility (to adapt the

Canada's dairy supply management system provides milk year-round but unnecessarily disposes of overproduction. A lack of transparent data on discarded milk means that the scale of this issue is unknown. This hinders actions to mitigate the potentially large environmental, economic and nutritional costs of avoidable, on-farm milk waste. Here we estimate the volume of surplus milk discarded on farms

Using data from a large representative survey, we document that consumers are very uncertain about the emissions associated with various actions, which may affect their willingness to reduce their carbon footprint. We then experimentally test two channels for the behavioral impact of such uncertainty, namely risk aversion about the impact of mitigating actions and the formation of motivated beliefs

Ensuring water quality and equality are global goals for sustainable development. This study investigates how Egypt's income and expenditure inequalities affect households' internal grey water footprint (IGWF), i.e., domestic freshwater needed to assimilate pollutants discharged through producing products consumed domestically, allocating water pollution responsibility to final consumers based on their

Globally, there is a strong interest in investments in zero‑carbon technologies, e.g., in industry and the electricity generation sector, but projects supporting the climate transition are argued to be held back by environmental permitting challenges. For this reason, there are calls for novel regulatory reforms that broaden the scope of environmental permitting, and the underlying legal rules, by