10 papers in ecological economics that changed me.

1. The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth (Boulding, 1966).
Concisely covers most core principles of ecological economics, comparing the “cowboy” economy we have with the “spaceman” economy we need.
eeeforum.org/wp-content/upl…
2. In Defense of a Steady-State Economy (Daly, 1972)
This essay picks up, and masterfully refutes, many critiques and obfuscations from ‘growthmaniacs’ – drawing on the concept of a steady-state economy that Daly pioneered.
sci-hub.se/https://doi.or…

📢BIG NEW PAPER📢
I'm thrilled to announce that we have a new study out in Nature Sustainability today.
We propose a compensation scheme across 168 countries based on excess CO₂ emissions beyond fair shares of global carbon budgets. A thread🧵1/
nature.com/articles/s4189… The study is based on the idea that the atmosphere is a commons–a natural wealth for everyone to access equitably and sustainably.

We obtained remaining global carbon budgets for 1.5° and 2° from the IPCC and distributed fair shares across 168 countries, based on population. 2/

An impressive new study led by @jaredmstarr shows the massive and rage-inducing scale of carbon inequality.

They find that super-rich US households emit +2000x more CO2e than average low-income country households. I had to see what that looks like👇 1/
doi.org/10.1016/j.ecol… @jaredmstarr That's not all. They find US household emissions for the bottom 99% *declined* by 14-23% from 1996-2019, depending on the decile.

Meanwhile, emissions by the top 0.1% *increased* by a staggering 50% to reach ~950 t CO2e (and the next 0.9% increased by 9%).🤯😱2/

This is such an odd piece from the editors of @Nature that it makes me wonder if they are being deliberately misleading or if it’s just poorly written. I’m so confused. A 🧵
nature.com/articles/d4158… @Nature First, after a big paragraph on how poorly received the message of Limits to Growth was in the 1970s, they fail to mention the core “action” that Meadows et al call for to achieve ecological and economic stability. Read the book yourself here: clubofrome.org/publication/th…

Exploring post-growth futures in the EU – I took part in this remarkable event last week, hosted by @ThomasArnold19 at @EUScienceInnov @EU_Commission, with an all-star cast of speakers. Links to recording and materials 👇 and a🧵doughnuteconomics.org/stories/151 .@JEPaquetEU (DG R&I) 🔥opening:
"The question is not whether we need to re-invent a post-growth model ... The case for a post-growth model, I think, is won. The question for me is: how do we do that? I hope that you will focus very much not on *whether*, but much more on *how*."

I’m SO glad to announce that we have a new study out in Nature Sustainability today.
nature.com/articles/s4189…

And at least as exciting: it’s accompanied by a major update to our interactive website at goodlife.leeds.ac.uk. Here is a brief highlights 🧵 The starting point is our 2018 study for a single year (with @DrDanONeill, @lamb_wf and @jksteinberger) doi.org/10.1038/s41893…

And this earlier study was inspired in turn by the global Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries, created by @kateraworth.

With countries unveiling their latest climate pledges for #COP26, I wanted to see how they stack up against national fair shares of the 1.5C carbon budget that take historical responsibility into account. A 🧵(with charts!🤓) Here’s a global picture of cumulative CO2 emissions since 1850. Humanity passed the ‘safe’ 350 ppm CO2 boundary in 1988, and the 1.5C boundary is fast-approaching. The net zero curve by 2050 is equivalent to global emission cuts around 8% PER YEAR. Globally. 😱

*NEW ARTICLE ALERT* 📢

Provisioning systems for a good life within planetary boundaries (with @DrDanONeill and @mmbuchs) published in Global Environmental Change.

authors.elsevier.com/a/1bXYa3Q8oQ6n… (link expires Sep 26)

I learnt so much writing this paper!
[Thread] The starting point is the brilliant analytic framework created by @JKSteinberger, @DrDanONeill and @lamb_wf that proposes the concept of ‘provisioning systems’, which mediate the links between resource use and social outcomes... 2/
doi.org/10.1038/s41893…