Ohhhhh ecological economics, where to start… At the conference there were more than 100 different sessions with 3 – 5 presentations each, so it was actually pretty overwhelming to figure out where to go and who to listen to. Plus, one of the great attractions, but also of the main complications is the interdisciplinarity of the field – there was work on social psychology and group organization (holla! that was us!), ideas on a completely new monetary system that blew my mind, very in-depth presentations on planetary boundary quantifications, for example in land use, and so much more!
What really blew me away though were the keynote speakers. They were all very well-chosen, combining great insights with impressive public speaking skills to make for very enjoyable first sessions of the day.
On the first day, Johan Rockström gave an update on his Planetary Boundaries framework (which I explained in one of my first-ever posts… how the time flies!) and was followed by Dan O’Neill who gave a presentation of concepts in his book called ‘Enough Is Enough. Building A Sustainable Economy In A World Of Finite Resources’. I’ll go into his talk into more detail because his book, and ideas, were pretty new to me, and very inspiring. [On a side note, he is the nicest guy to talk to, I randomly befriended him and his team from Leeds University when talking about Iceland travel plans, and we ended up spending our last night in town all together.]
Back to serious business though… ‘Enough Is Enough’ introduces and advocates for steady state economics. That is, instead of having economic growth as a main policy goal and a measure of economic success, we should move toward a balanced state of yearly throughput that is in line with the Earth’s resource balance. As an example of how we are failing at this, Earth Overshoot Day tracks at what day in the year we have ‘used up’ all renewable resources that the planet can provide during a one-year period. It’s getting earlier and earlier, and has moved from early October in 2000 to August 19th this year.
How to remedy that? This was the burning question on everybody’s tongue in ISEE – the conference theme was ‘Wellbeing and Equity Within Planetary Boundaries’ – and Dan O’Neill (and co-author, Rob Dietz) present a couple of very tangible steps toward an economy of enough.
Steady-state economics was originally introduced as a concept by Herman Daly and comprises 4 features of the economy:
– A sustainable scale of steady stocks and flows in the economy
– Fair distribution of the global wealth
– An efficient allocation of resources (using markets only when appropriate)
– And a high quality of life that is at least to an extent decoupled from GDP.
Now, this all sounds nice, but the real struggle is – how do we get from this economy to that other one? Their book provides policy proposals in 7 different areas. Dan wasn’t able to go into all of them in detail, and I haven’t read the book (yet) so this just gives you a general idea.
Here is their game plan:
1. Enough Throughput. – Limiting resource use and waste production (through the use of policies, caps etc.)
2. Enough People. – Stabilizing population size (‘we don’t only need smaller footprints, but also fewer feet’)
3. Enough Inequality. – Redistributing income and wealth
This is an interesting one. Dan quoted Henry C. Wallich, who said that
Growth is a substitute for equality of income. So long as there is growth there is hope, and that makes large income differentials tolerable.
He then asked – could in that case equality of income also be a substitute for growth in advancing societal welfare? And could we achieve that through minimum and maximum incomes set in society, and minimum incomes that are independent of the work one actually does? What would people do in their time in that case?
4. Enough Debt. – Reforming monetary and financial systems.
This was also new to me and I think I will get more into it in a couple of posts since I visited more sessions on the concept of a new monetary system. These videos from Positive Money give a pretty good introduction to the main points – that commercial banks are creating money by issuing debt, and are thus important drivers of economic growth. Ecological economists suggest full-reserve banking as a workable alternative, but again – this will be a blog post in itself.
5. Enough Miscalculation. – Changing the way we measure progress.
Yes!! Dan advocated for stopping to use GDP since it has so many flaws attached to it – most importantly, that it is a measure of economic activity, but cannot differentiate between positive and negative activity. Thus, an oil spill and its subsequent clean-up, while a societal ‘bad’, can actually boost an economy according to the GDP measure. We need another indicator.
6. Enough Unemployment. – Securing meaningful jobs.
This is the main argument against any sort of steady-state/de-growth suggestion: “you will create unemployment, and unemployment makes people unhappy.” But then again we are living in a world that is divided into some overworked and burnt-out individuals and others that are unemployed – what about dividing up the societally important work more fairly? Plus, we normally have used efficiency improvements to increase output at constant working hours – how about decreasing working hours at constant output? Then people would have more leisure time which they could actually spend with people they care about. More on that topic – and the funny paradox attached to scientists working on this proposal – also in a coming blog post.
7. Enough Business As Usual. – Rethinking commerce and the way businesses create value.
I would have actually liked to know more about this topic, but Dan didn’t go into too much detail – I presume it’s about ‘green’ and socially responsible business practices?
You can read the introduction and first chapter here and find out more about the conference that the policy proposals stemmed from on their website. Also, they have an extensive reading list if you find your interest peaked and your schedule extremely free. I for one am hoping to get my hands on their book asap because I feel it’s an idea whose time has come.
What do you think of the ideas of steady-state economics?
Bastante es bastante – el libro sobre una economía de estado estacionario (traducción alternativa: economía de fase estable)
Cuando fui a la conferencia, también había una reunión regional de económicos ecológicos de America Latina en la cual lamentaron el hecho que la mayoría de la conferencia era solamente en inglés, sin la posibilidad para gente de otra lengua maternal de exprimir sus sentimientos y pensamientos sin deber traducirlos. Esta opinión me dio aún más motivación para continuar a resumir mis escritos también en español, no importa que haya poca gente que lo lee, quizás sera útil para alguien interesado en los temas de una economía de estado estacionario. 🙂
Una de las presentaciones que más me impresionaron era la de Dan O´Neill, un economista canadiense que está basado a Leeds University en Inglaterra. Él interpretó el tema de la conferencia – bienestar y equidad dentro de los límites planetarios – a través de hablar sobre un sistema económico de suficiencia en vez de superfluencia. Se llama la economía de estado estacionario y es una idea radicalmente diferente del sistema actual, donde lo que importa es el crecimiento ilimitado mesurado en PIB. En cambio, se basa en cuatro metas:
– una escala sostenible de contingentes y flujos estables en la economía
– una distribución equitable de la riqueza mundial
– una asignación eficiente de recursos naturales (solamente usando los mercados cuando es apropiado)
– y una calidad de vida alta que es al menos parcialmente desvinculada del consumo material.
Estas ideas no son nuevas, pero su ejecución no es evidente – ¿cómo vamos a mover de nuestra economía a aquella? Es ahí donde el libro de O´Neill (y su coautor Rob Dietz) es innovador, ya que da propuestas políticas en siete áreas diferentes que vamos a resumir abajo.
[traducir “enough” al español es un poco complicado, porque tiene el sentido de “bastante” o “suficiente” tanto como el sentido de “no más”. He tomado la traducción que más me pareció adecuado, ¡pero me gustarían sus correcciones si piensan que he cometido errores!]
1. Suficiencia de producción de material – limitar el uso de recursos y la producción de residuos a través de instrumentos políticos como límites máximos;
2. Suficiencia de gente – estabilizar el tamaño de la población mundial;
3. No más desigualdad – O´Neill habló de un ecónomo que dijo que el crecimiento es solamente un sustituto para la igualdad de ingresos. En este caso, ¿no podría la igualdad de ingresos sustituir al crecimiento en la aumentación del bienestar societal?
4. No más deudas – reformar el sistema monetario y bancario, porque al momento parece que los bancos comerciales pueden crear moneda cuando dan préstamos a sus clientes. Voy a escribir más sobre éste tema en una entrada futura.
5. No más cálculo erróneo – cambiar nuestras medidas del éxito de PIB a algo que más corresponde a lo que queremos medir – felicidad, bienestar o satisfacción de vida.
6. No más desempleo – redefinir el empleo significativo y redistribuir las horas de trabajo para eliminar el agotamiento tanto como el desempleo. Además, podríamos utilizar las avanzas tecnológicas para reducir las horas de trabajo, manteniendo constante la producción, en vez de aumentar la producción con horas de trabajo constantes.
7. No más “sigamos con lo mismo” en el comercio – redefinir como las empresas crean valor a través de productos más sostenibles o ideas empresarias totalmente nuevas.
Se puede leer más sobre este tema en el sitio web del Centro para el Avance de una Economía de Fase Estable, aunque solamente en inglés. Aquí también se tiene un artículo de periódico que habla más de estás temas, aún es de 2007.
¿Qué pensáis de la economía de fase estable? ¿Será posible?
Food (Policy) For Thought 
¡Hola! Me he comenzado recientemente en el planeta de la caza y ciertos compañeros utilizan telémetros, pero voy un tanto perdido.