Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 24th Aug 2026, 01:48:43am WEST
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Daily Overview |
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Integrated Assessment Models Location: B005 Session Chair: Michael Sureth, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) | |
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Developed economies are growing while reducing their environmental impact 1: University of Colorado Boulder, Department of Environmental Studies; 2: University of Colorado Boulder, Department of Environmental Studies; 3: University of Wyoming, Department of Economics Affluence is broadly associated with greater well-being, across all income levels, and also greater environmental impacts. Many impacts are currently unsustainable. This poses a central question in environmental economics: can economic growth be decoupled from environmental impacts? Some argue that growth and affluence drive innovations which are key to reducing environmental impacts while increasing well-being (“green growth”). Others argue that holding constant or decreasing affluence is necessary to make environmental impacts sustainable (“de-growth”). A third group argues that policies should focus on reducing environmental impacts to sustainable levels, agnostic to any effects on growth (“a-growth”). To inform this debate, here we compile and analyze global trends in nine representative anthropogenic environmental impacts and pressures: CO2 and SO2 emissions; energy use; nitrogen, phosphorus and land use for agriculture; material footprint; fisheries catch; and biodiversity loss. The intensities of most impacts (i.e., impact or pressure per dollar gross domestic product (GDP)) are decreasing in most World Bank income groups. Five of nine impacts are decreasing in absolute terms in the high-income group: phosphorus, agricultural land, CO2, SO2, and fisheries. Our results highlight promise and remaining challenges for sustainable economic growth. | |