Sustainable Development: Concepts, Rationalities and Strategies

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vi

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2. Sustainable Development: Concepts, Rationalities and Strategies

   • Sylvie Faucheux, Martin O’Connor, Jan Van Der Straaten

   Pages 1-15

3. The Implications of Environmental Sustainability for Economic Growth

   • Paul Ekins, Michael Jacobs

   Pages 17-32

4. Ecological Distribution and Distributed Sustainability

   • Martin O’Connor, Juan Martinez-Alier

   Pages 33-56

5. Bioeconomic Conceptions and the Concept of Sustainable Development

   • Franck-Dominique Vivien

   Pages 57-68

6. Sustainable Development and Public Policy

   • Jan Van Der Straaten

   Pages 69-83

7. The Political Economics of Sustainability

   • Peter Söderbaum

   Pages 85-101

8. Rational Assumptions in Energy Scenarios

   • Brita Olerup

   Pages 103-116

9. Short-Run and Long-Run Adjustment to Environmental Policy: A Neo-Austrian Approach

   • Gunter Stephan

   Pages 117-139

10. Sustainability and Structural Change

    • Inge Røpke

    Pages 141-155

11. Sustainability Concepts and Total Economic Valuation

    • J. Walter Milon

    Pages 157-167

12. A Practical Sustainability Criterion When There is International Trade

    • John L. R. Proops, Giles Atkinson

    Pages 169-194

13. How Strong is Weak Sustainability?

    • Peter Victor, Susan Hanna, A. Kubursi

    Pages 195-210

14. Sustainability Principles and Depreciation Estimates of Natural Capital in Brazil

    • Ronaldo Serõa Da Motta

    Pages 211-226

15. Environmental Decision Making: A Comparison Between Cost-Benefit Analysis and Multicriteria Decision Aid

    • G. Munda, P. Nijkamp, P. Rietveld

    Pages 227-238

16. Sustainability, Uncertainty, and Intergenerational Fairness

    • Richard B. Howarth

    Pages 239-257

17. Sustainable Development, Rationality and Time

    • Alessandro Vercelli

    Pages 259-276

18. Towards a Decision-Making Framework to Address Sustainable Development Issues

    • G. Froger, E. Zyla

    Pages 277-297

19. Sustainable Development and the Process of Justifying Choices in a Controversial Universe

    • Olivier Godard

    Pages 299-317

20. Back Matter

    Pages 319-325

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3 decision support techniques that do not depend exclusively on market incentives and monetary valuation. The World Conservation Strategy published by the mCN (1980) recognised the full dimensions of these problems, and introduced the concept of sustainable development, placing the emphasis on the exploitation of natural systems and the use of biological natural resources within limits so that the availability of these resources for use by future generations would not be jeopardised by the current use of them. At this time, the imposition of quotas and the definition of critical loads and environmental standards were suggested as the sorts of instruments necessary to cope with the problems of limited availability of environmental resources. Although the mCN publication did not obtain a high international profile, the idea of policy norms to respect critical loads has become quite widely accepted in the environmental policymaking of Western countries. This has often put the policy agencies in difficult situations. Polluting industries are inclined to argue that the critical loads are defined too restrictively. The complexity and time lags of ecological effects makes it hard to say exactly what constitutes a critical load beyond which there will be irreversible damage, and lobbying interests can play on these uncertainties to try and weaken the environmental standards. In addition, polluting industries can use the argument of negative impacts on "the economy" (particularly as regards employment and export prospects) to blackmail governments, regulatory agencies and the general public.

• development
• economics of sustainability
• environment
• environmental policy
• sustainability
• sustainable development

• Centre d’ Economie et d’ Ethique pour l’ Environnement et le Développement, Université de Versailles-St. Quentin en Yvelines, France

  Sylvie Faucheux, Martin O’Connor

• Department of Leisure Studies, European Centre for Nature Conservation, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands

  Jan Straaten

Policies and ethics