Blueprint 6: For a Sustainable Economy (Blueprint Series)

Ten years ago Blueprint for a Green Economy changed the face of economic and environmental policy. It made front page news and introduced the public as well as the professionals to the central role that the environment should play in economic and public policy decisions.Ten years on, David Pearce and Edward Barbier have written the sequel to show what has been achieved, how to consolidate that and what remains to be done. In the clear language which made the earlier book so accessible and influential, they examine the efforts to define and implement the concept of sustainable economic development, its relationship to the use of 'natural' capital and human welfare, and its influence on recent environmental policy debates. They show how far environmental concerns have been integrated into everyday economic decision making—through the valuation of environmental goods and services, cost-benefit techniques, indicators for sustainable development, and the use of market-based instruments for environmental policy making around the world.Yet large, new challenges exist. Global environmental issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss and trade-environment linkages require greater cooperation towards new international agreements, institutions and distributive measures. The complex problems facing many poor economies such as deforestation, land degradation, overpopulation and resource exhaustion will demand the increasing use of environmental economics in development policy making. In all these areas, the authors demonstrate how sustainability can be brought from the periphery to the center of economic management.The book provides a blueprint for the start ofa century in which our ultimate dependence on the environment will have to be at the heart of the business and policy decisions we take if we are to achieve genuinely sustainable development for economies all around the globe.

Ten years ago, Blueprint for a Green Economy made front-page news. Its central message, that environmental problems have their roots in economic 'failures', served to change the direction of environmental policy. The goal of sustainable development was seen to be illusory unless an economic perspective was brought to bear on the issue. A decade on, two of the original authors, David Pearce and Ed Barbier, return to the original theme to see what has changed. They find that the picture has improved, with governments worldwide now talking the language of environmental economics and making steps towards an economics-based environmental policy. However, there is a long way to go and Blueprint for a Sustainable Economy maps out the agenda again, with special reference this time to developing country problems where the neglect of environmental quality is costing nations dear. The authors show that their original formulation of the meaning of sustainable development has flourished into whole theories of how to achieve sustainability and how to measure a sustainable path for modern economies. They also show that all the principles applicable to a nation, or to the world as a whole, are equally applicable to corporations. Here is a blueprint for the start of the century.

The meaning of sustainable development Valuing the environment Measuring sustainable development: economic approaches Measuring sustainable development: ecological approaches The causes of environmental degredation Solving environmental problems I: property rights, markets and macroeconomy Solving environmental problems II: choosing policy instruments Business and the environment Ecological economics: a new paradigm?. Focuses on developing country problems where the neglect of environmental quality is costing nations dear. This book shows that the original formulation of the meaning of sustainable development has flourished into whole theories of how to achieve sustainability and how to measure a sustainable path for modern economies. This book covers all major areas of the sustainability debate and provides case study examples