Are Carbon Dioxide Emissions Decoupled from GDP Growth in Well-Functioning Democracies?

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (137 download)

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Book Synopsis Are Carbon Dioxide Emissions Decoupled from GDP Growth in Well-Functioning Democracies? by : Ole Martin Lægreid

Download or read book Are Carbon Dioxide Emissions Decoupled from GDP Growth in Well-Functioning Democracies? written by Ole Martin Lægreid and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Empirical studies of the relationship between GDP per capita and country-level CO2 emissions tend to focus on the direct effect of per capita GDP growth, rarely taking political institutions into consideration. This paper introduces theoretical insights from environmental political science research, which suggests that CO2 emissions models would gain explanatory leverage if moderators gauging political institutions were considered. We test these theories by estimating the potentially moderating effects of democracy, corruption, veto points and players, and civil society activity. Our results suggest a positive and linear per capita GDP-CO2 relationship, which is barely affected by any variations in political and institutional factors. The only significant moderator in our analysis is bicameralism in democratic, low corrupt countries, which generates a stronger effect of per capita GDP growth at low levels of GDP per capita. Our analysis thus lends rigor to studies in environmental economics that find a positive and linear per capita GDP-CO2 relationship, and does not provide support for theories common in environmental political science research.

Statehouse and Greenhouse

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Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 0815796358
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (157 download)

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Book Synopsis Statehouse and Greenhouse by : Barry G. Rabe

Download or read book Statehouse and Greenhouse written by Barry G. Rabe and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2004-02-17 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No environmental issue triggers such feelings of hopelessness as global climate change. Many areas of the world, including regions of the United States, have experienced a wide range of unusually dramatic weather events recently. Much climate change analysis forecasts horrors of biblical proportions, such as massive floods, habitat loss, species loss, and epidemics related to warmer weather. Such accounts of impending disaster have helped trigger extreme reactions, wherein some observers simply dismiss global climate change as, at the very worst, a minor inconvenience requiring modest adaptation. It is perhaps no surprise, therefore, that an American federal government known for institutional gridlock has accomplished virtually nothing in this area in the last decade. Policy inertia is not the story of this book, however. Statehouse and Greenhouse examines the surprising evolution of state-level government policies on global climate change. Environmental policy analyst Barry Rabe details a diverse set of innovative cases, offering detailed analysis of state-level policies designed to combat global warming. The book explains why state innovation in global climate change has been relatively vigorous and why it has drawn so little attention thus far. Rabe draws larger potential lessons from this recent flurry of American experience. Statehouse and Greenhouse helps to move debate over global climate change from bombast to the realm of what is politically and technically feasible.

Ecologically Unequal Exchange

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Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319897403
Total Pages : 335 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (198 download)

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Book Synopsis Ecologically Unequal Exchange by : R. Scott Frey

Download or read book Ecologically Unequal Exchange written by R. Scott Frey and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-07-04 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At a time of societal urgency surrounding ecological crises from depleted fisheries to mineral extraction and potential pathways towards environmental and ecological justice, this book re-examines ecologically unequal exchange (EUE) from a historical and comparative perspective. The theory of ecologically unequal exchange posits that core or northern consumption and capital accumulation is based on peripheral or southern environmental degradation and extraction. In other words, structures of social and environmental inequality between the Global North and Global South are founded in the extraction of materials from, as well as displacement of waste to, the South. This volume represents a set of tightly interlinked papers with the aim to assess ecologically unequal exchange and to move it forward. Chapters are organised into three main sections: theoretical foundations and critical reflections on ecologically unequal exchange; empirical research on mining, deforestation, fisheries, and the like; and strategies for responding to the adverse consequences associated with unequal ecological exchange. Scholars as well as advanced undergraduate and graduate students will benefit from the spirited re-evaluation and extension of ecologically unequal exchange theory, research, and praxis.

The Growth Report

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Publisher : World Bank Publications
ISBN 13 : 0821374923
Total Pages : 198 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (213 download)

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Book Synopsis The Growth Report by : Commission on Growth and Development

Download or read book The Growth Report written by Commission on Growth and Development and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2008-07-23 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The result of two years work by 19 experienced policymakers and two Nobel prize-winning economists, 'The Growth Report' is the most complete analysis to date of the ingredients which, if used in the right country-specific recipe, can deliver growth and help lift populations out of poverty.

Postgrowth and Wellbeing

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Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319599038
Total Pages : 153 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (195 download)

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Book Synopsis Postgrowth and Wellbeing by : Milena Büchs

Download or read book Postgrowth and Wellbeing written by Milena Büchs and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-07-20 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a detailed and critical discussion about how human wellbeing can be maintained and improved in a postgrowth era. It highlights the close links between economic growth, market capitalism, and the welfare state demonstrating that, in many ways, wellbeing outcomes currently depend on the growth paradigm. Here the authors argue that notions of basic human needs deserve greater emphasis in debates on postgrowth because they are more compatible with limits to growth. Drawing on theories of social practices, the book explores structural barriers to transitions to a postgrowth society, and ends with suggestions for policies and institutions that could support wellbeing in the context of postgrowth. This thought-provoking work makes a valuable contribution to debates surrounding climate change, sustainability, welfare states and inequality and will appeal to students and scholars of social policy, sociology, political science, economics, political ecology and human geography.

State and Environment

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 026252581X
Total Pages : 381 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

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Book Synopsis State and Environment by : Andreas Duit

Download or read book State and Environment written by Andreas Duit and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2014-05-30 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume of comparative studies documents the continuing relevance of the state in environmental politics and policy. The book also demonstrates the analytical power of the comparative approach to the study of environmental politics and policy, offering cross-national comparisons of environmental governance in both developed and developing countries. Some chapters are based on qualitative studies from a small number of countries; others offer statistical analyses of quantitative data from many more countries over a longer time period.

Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC)

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Publisher : Academic Press
ISBN 13 : 0128167963
Total Pages : 162 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (281 download)

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Book Synopsis Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) by : Burcu Özcan

Download or read book Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) written by Burcu Özcan and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2019-05-13 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC): A Manual provides a comprehensive summary of the EKC, summarizing work on this economic tool that can analyze environmental pollution problems. By enabling users to reconcile environmental and economic development policies, Environmental Kuznets Curve studies lend themselves to the investigation of the energy-growth and finance-energy nexus. The book obviates a dependence on outmoded tools, such as carrying capacity, externalities, ecosystem valuation and cost benefit analysis, while also encouraging flexible approaches to a variety of challenges. Provides a comprehensive summary of EKC studies, including advances in econometrics, literature reviews and historical perspectives Outlines solutions to common problems in applying EKC techniques by reviewing major case studies Explores frequently-utilized proxies for environmental quality

Building a Sustainable and Desirable Economy-in-Society-in-Nature

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Publisher : ANU E Press
ISBN 13 : 192186205X
Total Pages : 98 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (218 download)

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Book Synopsis Building a Sustainable and Desirable Economy-in-Society-in-Nature by : Peter Victor

Download or read book Building a Sustainable and Desirable Economy-in-Society-in-Nature written by Peter Victor and published by ANU E Press. This book was released on 2013-12-03 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world has changed dramatically. We no longer live in a world relatively empty of humans and their artifacts. We now live in the “Anthropocene,” era in a full world where humans are dramatically altering our ecological life-support system. Our traditional economic concepts and models were developed in an empty world. If we are to create sustainable prosperity, if we seek “improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities,” we are going to need a new vision of the economy and its relationship to the rest of the world that is better adapted to the new conditions we face. We are going to need an economics that respects planetary boundaries, that recognizes the dependence of human well-being on social relations and fairness, and that recognizes that the ultimate goal is real, sustainable human well-being, not merely growth of material consumption. This new economics recognizes that the economy is embedded in a society and culture that are themselves embedded in an ecological life-support system, and that the economy cannot grow forever on this finite planet. In this report, we discuss the need to focus more directly on the goal of sustainable human well-being rather than merely GDP growth. This includes protecting and restoring nature, achieving social and intergenerational fairness (including poverty alleviation), stabilizing population, and recognizing the significant nonmarket contributions to human well-being from natural and social capital. To do this, we need to develop better measures of progress that go well beyond GDP and begin to measure human well-being and its sustainability more directly.

Climate Change and Natural Disasters

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Publisher : Transaction Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1412864526
Total Pages : 187 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (128 download)

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Book Synopsis Climate Change and Natural Disasters by : Vinod Thomas

Download or read book Climate Change and Natural Disasters written by Vinod Thomas and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 2017-01-31 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The start of the new millennium will be remembered for deadly climate-related disasters—the great floods in Thailand in 2011, Super Storm Sandy in the United States in 2012, and Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013, to name a few. In 2014, 17.5 million people were displaced by climate-related disasters, ten times more than the 1.7 million displaced by geophysical hazards. What is causing the increase in natural disasters and what effect does it have on the economy? Climate Change and Natural Disasters sends three messages: human-made factors exert a growing influence on climate-related disasters; because of the link to anthropogenic factors, there is a pressing need for climate mitigation; and prevention, including climate adaptation, ought not to be viewed as a cost to economic growth but as an investment. Ultimately, attention to climate-related disasters, arguably the most tangible manifestation of global warming, may help mobilize broader climate action. It can also be instrumental in transitioning to a path of low-carbon, green growth, improving disaster resilience, improving natural resource use, and caring for the urban environment. Vinod Thomas proposes that economic growth will become sustainable only if governments, political actors, and local communities combine natural disaster prevention and controlling climate change into national growth strategies. When considering all types of capital, particularly human capital, climate action can drive economic growth, rather than hinder it.

Tomorrow's Economy

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262543850
Total Pages : 379 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

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Book Synopsis Tomorrow's Economy by : Per Espen Stoknes

Download or read book Tomorrow's Economy written by Per Espen Stoknes and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2022-04-12 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How we can achieve healthy growth--more regenerative than destructive, restoring equity rather than exacerbating inequalities. In Tomorrow's Economy, Per Espen Stoknes reframes the hot-button issue of economic growth. Going beyond the usual dialectic of pro-growth versus anti-growth, Stoknes calls for healthy growth. Healthy economic growth is more regenerative than destructive, repairs problems rather than greenwashing them, and restores equity rather than exacerbating global inequalities. Stoknes--a psychologist, economist, climate strategy researcher, and green-tech entrepreneur--argues that we have the tools to achieve healthy growth, but our success depends on transformations in government practices and individual behavior. Stoknes provides a compass to guide us toward the mindset, mechanisms, and possibilities of healthy growth.

Thinking in Systems

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Publisher : Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1603581480
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis Thinking in Systems by : Donella Meadows

Download or read book Thinking in Systems written by Donella Meadows and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2008-12-03 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The classic book on systems thinking—with more than half a million copies sold worldwide! "This is a fabulous book... This book opened my mind and reshaped the way I think about investing."—Forbes "Thinking in Systems is required reading for anyone hoping to run a successful company, community, or country. Learning how to think in systems is now part of change-agent literacy. And this is the best book of its kind."—Hunter Lovins In the years following her role as the lead author of the international bestseller, Limits to Growth—the first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet—Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001. Thinking in Systems is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute’s Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life. Some of the biggest problems facing the world—war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation—are essentially system failures. They cannot be solved by fixing one piece in isolation from the others, because even seemingly minor details have enormous power to undermine the best efforts of too-narrow thinking. While readers will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds readers to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner. In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, Thinking in Systems helps readers avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions.

Six Degrees

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Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 9781426202131
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (21 download)

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Book Synopsis Six Degrees by : Mark Lynas

Download or read book Six Degrees written by Mark Lynas and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2008 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In astonishing and unflinching detail, a noted science journalist explains how Earth's climate will be impacted with every degree of increase in global warming--and what can be done about it now.

World Development Report 2019

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Publisher : World Bank Publications
ISBN 13 : 1464813566
Total Pages : 201 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (648 download)

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Book Synopsis World Development Report 2019 by : World Bank

Download or read book World Development Report 2019 written by World Bank and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2018-10-31 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Work is constantly reshaped by technological progress. New ways of production are adopted, markets expand, and societies evolve. But some changes provoke more attention than others, in part due to the vast uncertainty involved in making predictions about the future. The 2019 World Development Report will study how the nature of work is changing as a result of advances in technology today. Technological progress disrupts existing systems. A new social contract is needed to smooth the transition and guard against rising inequality. Significant investments in human capital throughout a person’s lifecycle are vital to this effort. If workers are to stay competitive against machines they need to train or retool existing skills. A social protection system that includes a minimum basic level of protection for workers and citizens can complement new forms of employment. Improved private sector policies to encourage startup activity and competition can help countries compete in the digital age. Governments also need to ensure that firms pay their fair share of taxes, in part to fund this new social contract. The 2019 World Development Report presents an analysis of these issues based upon the available evidence.

Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781585761975
Total Pages : 1056 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (619 download)

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Book Synopsis Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States by : Michael Gerrard

Download or read book Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States written by Michael Gerrard and published by . This book was released on 2019-03-18 with total page 1056 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States provides a "legal playbook" for deep decarbonization in the United States, identifying well over 1,000 legal options for enabling the United States to address one of the greatest problems facing this country and the rest of humanity. The book is based on two reports by the Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) that explain technical and policy pathways for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. This 80x50 target and similarly aggressive carbon abatement goals are often referred to as deep decarbonization, distinguished because it requires systemic changes to the energy economy. Legal Pathways explains the DDPP reports and then addresses in detail 35 different topics in as many chapters. These 35 chapters cover energy efficiency, conservation, and fuel switching; electricity decarbonization; fuel decarbonization; carbon capture and negative emissions; non-carbon dioxide climate pollutants; and a variety of cross-cutting issues. The legal options involve federal, state, and local law, as well as private governance. Authors were asked to include all options, even if they do not now seem politically realistic or likely, giving Legal Pathways not just immediate value, but also value over time. While both the scale and complexity of deep decarbonization are enormous, this book has a simple message: deep decarbonization is achievable in the United States using laws that exist or could be enacted. These legal tools can be used with significant economic, social, environmental, and national security benefits. Book Reviews "A growing chorus of Americans understand that climate change is the biggest public health, economic, and national security challenge our families have ever faced and they rightly ask, ''What can anyone do?'' Well, this book makes that answer very clear: we can do a lot as individuals, businesses, communities, cities, states, and the federal government to fight climate change. The legal pathways are many and the barriers are not insurmountable. In short, the time is now to dig deep and decarbonize." --Gina McCarthy, Former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator "Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States sets forth over 1,000 solutions for federal, state, local, and private actors to tackle climate change. This book also makes the math for Congress clear: with hundreds of policy options and 12 years to stop the worst impacts of climate change, now is the time to find a path forward." --Sheldon Whitehouse, U.S. Senator, Rhode Island "This superb work comes at a critical time in the history of our planet. As we increasingly face the threat and reality of climate change and its inevitable impact on our most vulnerable populations, this book provides the best and most current thinking on viable options for the future to address and ameliorate a vexing, worldwide challenge of extraordinary magnitude. Michael Gerrard and John Dernbach are two of the most distinguished academicians in the country on these issues, and they have assembled leading scholars and practitioners to provide a possible path forward. With 35 chapters and over 1,000 legal options, the book is like a menu of offerings for public consumption, showing that real actions can be taken, now and in the future, to achieve deep decarbonization. I recommend the book highly." --John C. Cruden, Past Assistant Attorney General, Environment and Natural Resources Division, U.S. Department of Justice "This book proves that we already know what to do about climate change, if only we had the will to do it. The path to decarbonization depends as much on removing legal impediments and changing outdated incentive systems as it does on imposing new regulations. There are ideas here for every sector of the economy, for every level of government, and for business and nongovernmental organizations, too, all of which should be on the table for any serious country facing the most serious of challenges. By giving us a sense of the possible, Gerrard and Dernbach and their fine authors seem to be saying two things: (1) do something; and (2) it''s possible. What a timely message, and what a great collection." --Jody Freeman, Archibald Cox Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Harvard Law School Environmental and Energy Law Program

Austerity Ecology & the Collapse-Porn Addicts

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Publisher : John Hunt Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1782799613
Total Pages : 269 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (827 download)

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Book Synopsis Austerity Ecology & the Collapse-Porn Addicts by : Leigh Phillips

Download or read book Austerity Ecology & the Collapse-Porn Addicts written by Leigh Phillips and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2015-10-30 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Economic growth, progress, industry and, erm, stuff have all come in for a sharp kicking from the green left and beyond in recent years. Everyone from black-hoodied Starbucks window-smashers to farmers' market heirloom-tomato-mongers to Prince Charles himself seem to be embracing 'degrowth' and anti-consumerism, which is nothing less than a form of ecological austerity. Meanwhile, the back-to-the-land ideology and aesthetic of locally-woven organic carrot-pants, pathogen-encrusted compost toilets and civilisational collapse is hegemonic. Yet modernity is not the cause of climate change and the wider biocrisis. It is indeed capitalism that is the source of our environmental woes, but capitalism as a mode of production, not the fuzzy understanding of capitalism of Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, Derrick Jensen, Paul Kingsnorth and their anarcho-liberal epigones as a sort of globalist corporate malfeasance. In combative and puckish style, science journalist Leigh Phillips marshals evidence from climate science, ecology, paleoanthropology, agronomy, microbiology, psychology, history, the philosophy of mathematics, and heterodox economics to argue that progressives must rediscover their historic, Promethean ambitions and counter this reactionary neo-Malthusian ideology that not only retards human flourishing, but won't save the planet anyway. We want to take over the machine and run it rationally, not turn the machine off.

Guidance Manual for the Control of Transboundary Movements of Recoverable Wastes

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Publisher : OECD Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9264060758
Total Pages : 104 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (64 download)

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Book Synopsis Guidance Manual for the Control of Transboundary Movements of Recoverable Wastes by : OECD

Download or read book Guidance Manual for the Control of Transboundary Movements of Recoverable Wastes written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2009-02-23 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Guidance Manual includes detailed explanations on how to implement the OECD Decision on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Recoverable Wastes.

Decoupling Natural Resource Use and Environmental Impacts from Economic Growth

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Publisher : UNEP/Earthprint
ISBN 13 : 9789280731675
Total Pages : 60 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (316 download)

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Book Synopsis Decoupling Natural Resource Use and Environmental Impacts from Economic Growth by : United Nations Environment Programme. International Resource Panel

Download or read book Decoupling Natural Resource Use and Environmental Impacts from Economic Growth written by United Nations Environment Programme. International Resource Panel and published by UNEP/Earthprint. This book was released on 2011 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By 2050, humanity could devour an estimated 140 billion tons of minerals, ores, fossil fuels and biomass per year three times its current appetite unless the economic growth rate is decoupled from the rate of natural resource consumption. Developed countries citizens consume an average of 16 tons of those four key resources per capita (ranging up to 40 or more tons per person in some developed countries). By comparison, the average person in India today consumes four tons per year. With the growth of both population and prosperity, especially in developing countries, the prospect of much higher resource consumption levels is far beyond what is likely sustainable if realised at all given finite world resources, warns this report by UNEP's International Resource Panel. Already the world is running out of cheap and high quality sources of some essential materials such as oil, copper and gold, the supplies of which, in turn, require ever-rising volumes of fossil fuels and freshwater to produce. Improving the rate of resource productivity (doing more with less) faster than the economic growth rate is the notion behind decoupling, the panel says. That goal, however, demands an urgent rethink of the links between resource use and economic prosperity, buttressed by a massive investment in technological, financial and social innovation, to at least freeze per capita consumption in wealthy countries and help developing nations follow a more sustainable path.