The Economics of Sustainable Development

This book is a machine-generated literature overview that explores the interlinkages between communities, both rural and urban, and how they are dependent on natural resources and ecosystem services for livelihoods. With increasing urbanization and changing land use, sourcing food, fuel, and other basic needs from forests and grasslands is turning into a significant challenge, especially in the developing world where they have to balance regional aspirations against the environmental impact and legacy for forthcoming generations. As sources of sustainable livelihoods decline, it affects their ability to overcome poverty. Furthermore, economic impacts on the natural capital can undermine the long-term sustainability of communities, and negatively affect their health and well-being. To ensure economic growth and sustainable livelihoods, it is imperative to rethink how economic growth and agriculture can reduce their impacts on the natural environment. How dowe integrate economic, social, and environmental aspects into our economy? The book will discuss aspects of sustainable consumption, conservation of ecosystems and biodiversity, and making rural communities resilient to the impacts of climate change. By recognizing the economic value of ecosystem services, decision-makers can better understand the benefits and costs of different land uses and resource management practices and make more informed choices that promote sustainable livelihoods and natural capital conservation. The book will be a great resource for policy-makers, students of economics and sustainable development, non-governmental organizations working in this field, and corporate managers who are responsible for allotting budgets towards corporate social responsibility programs. ^

This volume focuses on the issue of sustainability, examining the implications for orthodox economic theory, of explicitly considering resource depletion, pollution abatement and sustainability. New insights are provided by injecting an economy-wide dimension into the largely microeconomic debate on the environment. This book applies rigorous economic analysis to the question of sustainable development. It considers the inter-relationship between growth and sustainability showing that one does not necessarily exist to the detriment of the other. Sustainability may be measured and defined in national accounting terms and the contributors explore a potentially powerful theoretical definition. Case studies on Morocco and China examine some of the domestic policy requirements of sustainability, revealing the desirability of quite complex combinations of policies. International policy aspects of sustainability are considered, such as technology transfers and the establishment of workable agreements to reduce global pollution. The volume demonstrates the need to build the sustainability debate on sound economic foundations, and the ability of economists to provide such foundations.