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This paper estimates the impact of the introduction of a tax on unsorted waste increasing the 35-l bag price from 0.24 to 1.95 CHF in 2013 in the canton of Vaud. Using panel data for 22 districts over the period 2010–2017, we identify the effects over time of the waste tax on unsorted waste and recycling. The neighbouring cantons of Geneva and Valais form our control group. The waste tax decreases the amount of yearly unsorted household-waste by about 47 kg, corresponding to a reduction of about one fourth per inhabitant. The effect is strongest the year after the introduction of the tax and is persistent over time. We further find a robust increase in organic waste recycling. For recycling of paper and glass, the effect is not clear-cut. Interestingly, in terms of weight, the reduction in unsorted waste is not fully compensated by increased recycling. Given that there are no signs for illegal waste disposal, this means that consumers probably reduced their total packaging bought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity markets offer considerable promise but are accompanied by controversies. Here, we map the utilization of native species (NS) from Brazil's biodiversity across eleven industrial sectors: foodstuffs, beverages, textiles, clothing, leather, wood, pulp and paper, biofuels, pharmochemicals, rubber and furniture. We show that there exists a diverse range of NS use in industrial products (48%) and activities (73%). These economic activities represent potential annual exports of approximately USD $50 billion. However, we found that only 1% of the potential business, USD $500 million of annual exports, is consolidated and can be traced to such products. We show that biodiversity markets and larger annual revenues locate in municipalities away from places in which biodiversity products originate. Therefore, the biodiversity business in Brazil remains largely untapped. This prompts a critical examination of the role of biodiversity within the Brazilian industry and its alignment with the Brazilian Biodiversity Law and the Nagoya Protocol. Our study is a pioneering effort that provides strategic recommendations. We suggest that the responsibility for sustainable NS utilization predominantly falls on sectors dominated by major corporations, most notably pharmochemicals and biofuels. These industry sectors possess the potential to lead the transition towards responsible and sustainable biodiversity practices within Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses a longitudinal national U.S. dataset with 232,309 pairs of same-household observations to estimate one-year or two-year changes in recycling behavior. Most households recycled at least one material, as 83% recycle paper, cans, glass, or plastic in the past year, with an average recycling rate of 2.8 materials. Recycling habits are stable, as 68% of households do not change the number of materials recycled from the previous year. Changes in county recycling are reflected in immediate changes in household behavior but at 25% of the change in the county recycling rate. Recycling rates are greater after being newly exposed to deposit laws (+7%), moving to a state with effective recycling laws (+6%), or newly available single-stream recycling (+4%). If market prices for the returned cans doubled, household recycling of cans would increase by 12%, although price responsiveness of recycling other materials is less. Shocks to the household may diminish recycling in the short term, including marriage (−2%), arrival of a newborn (−1%), and either large increase in income (−1%) or large decrease in income (−3%). The estimates for the total number of materials and which particular materials a household recycles follow similar patterns. • A third of US households alter recycling, many due to personal and policy changes. • Recycling laws, deposits, and single-stream are associated with increased recycling. • Increases in prices for cans and glass are associated with increases in recycling. • Household shocks such as a 20% change in income or a newborn child disrupt recycling. • More than 80% of US households recycled at least one material in the past year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing overconsumption to a level that ensures well-being within planetary boundaries is one potential strategy to mitigate climate change. Such strategies might imply considerable changes to consumerist lifestyles. This paper examines individual-level gains and losses that might motivate or hinder people to uptake consumption-reduced lifestyles and accept corresponding demand-side measures. To identify such gains and losses, the paper combines (1) an interdisciplinary systematic literature review spanning eight concepts that assess voluntary consumption reduction from different angles with (2) a qualitative vignette study based upon a sample of mainstream consumers. The paper develops the gains and losses of reduced consumption taxonomy (GLORCY), which comprises three main categories of gains and losses that consumers experience, associate, or anticipate to result from consumption reduction. The taxonomy differentiates personal, social, and universal main categories and provides detailed categories for each. These findings provide relevant insights into motivators and barriers to be considered for promoting consumption reduction strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between work and ecological transition by exploring ecological labour among neorurals, i.e., people who have left cities to live closer to nature in the countryside. In Diois, a mountainous area in south-eastern France where I did the fieldwork on which this paper is based, neorurals have been at the forefront of inventing more ecological ways of living for fifty years, but these solutions struggle to become mainstream. The article shows that under capitalism, ecological labour – defined as a human activity that goes into producing ecologically sustainable ways of living – struggles to become a job because it is labour-intensive and gets outcompeted by less ecological, technology-intensive alternatives. In contemporary France, ecological labour can become a "green job" only in the presence of superior purchasing power, otherwise it becomes unvalorised "reproductive" labour that limits the spread of ecological solutions. As long as the primary job-creation mechanism is built on two contradictory mechanisms – gains in labour productivity and strong local purchasing power – capitalist economies remain growth-addicted economies that upset ecosystems on an industrial scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Profound transformations in human beings are necessary if we are to exist in harmony with ourselves, other beings and nature. Only if such transformations take place, can the deep social changes that degrowth proponents call for come about. Yet what mechanisms could contribute to trigger and support (or hinder) inner growth? This question, which remains largely unexplored in degrowth scholarship, is addressed in the present contribution. Drawing on critical realist philosophy, humanism and deep ecology, it introduces and develops the concept of deepgrowth. The concept denotes processes through which a human – through inner growth enabled and supported by multiple external and internal mechanisms – becomes a harmonious being. The paper reflects on human nature and identifies several mechanisms that may enable or constrain transformations in the selves of humans. These mechanisms are situated on various planes of social being: material transactions with nature, social interactions, social structures and inner being. Noting that degrowth scholarship ought to reflect more systematically upon eco-social policies in relation to inner being, the paper discusses how combinations of such policies may contribute to facilitate deepgrowth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using oil, gas, and coal to produce platform chemicals on an enormous scale, the petrochemical industry constitutes a core part of the global energy order. Given demand growth for petrochemicals, the sector is set to become increasingly important to fossil fuel interests. Arguing that internationalised networks help structure the social metabolism and are important for transformative change, this paper sets out to analyse economic ties in the global petrochemical industry. In this paper, we conceptualise such relations and explore how they foster alignment on a global scale. We emphasise the role of internationalised networks in global socio-technical regimes, arguing for the importance of economic ties that establish a financial and juridical relation. On this basis, we theorise that extensive lead firm ties strengthen global regimes and shape socio-technical reconfigurations to align the interests of incumbent actors. Applying this framework, we analyse ownership relations amongst lead firms in the global petrochemical sector. We find a polycentric but global network aligning interests across major producers which we argue helps maintain and reproduce commitments to fossil fuels. The findings illustrate the relevance of pursuing parallel transitions along the petrochemical value chain, including energy, chemicals, and plastics, to break from fossil fuel dependency. • The petrochemical industry is key to the global fossil energy order. • Lead firm networks conditions pressures for transformative change. • Major petrochemical firms are integrated through ownership networks. • Ownership integration amongst lead firms underpin commitments to fossil fuels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Degrowth has been at the centre of ecological economics since the days of its inception. Recently, degrowth scholarship and practice have turned to questions of strategy. To contribute to this debate, this paper uses the methodology of problematisation to reveal and discuss unquestioned assumptions that underpin discursive degrowth-strategy practices and hinder effective strategising. Based on Buch-Hansen's assessment of the (not yet actualised) prerequisites for a degrowth paradigm shift, discursive practices are analysed against the aim of building a comprehensive coalition of social forces and achieving broad-based consent. In addition, the paper draws on Gramscian theory to introduce a third unactualised prerequisite: the will to coerce and rule. The analysis contributes to further developing a theory of deep social-ecological-economic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can the ecological footprint framework be used for measuring resource security? Wackernagel et al. (2021) assert it can, emphasizing the role of biocapacity balance – the difference between a country's biocapacity and the ecological footprint of its consumption. This paper argues that a positive biocapacity balance is not a good indicator of resource security, as it misrepresents climate change's relevance to national resources, overlooks resource depletion, and enforces an overly restrictive notion of "semi-autarky". The paper suggests a set of guidelines to better capture resource security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sappi Saiccor mill in Umkomaas, KwaZulu Natal (KZN) Province, is a global pulp producer. It is also a major emitter of noxious substances in the heavily polluted and historically marginalised South Durban area. Taking a qualitative, narrative approach, this paper examines Saiccor's legacy of contamination, community opposition to the mill, and responses of state actors responsible for governing industrial risk. Through a conceptual framework combining theories around participatory environmental governance, legitimacy and state capture, the article explores the extent to which measures deployed by/on behalf of the Sappi Saiccor mill to engage with local residents and activists can be considered legitimate. The paper argues that prevalent corporate instrumentalism and a lack of political will continue to undermine the legitimacy of community engagement processes, which remain characterised by mistrust. It concludes the South African state cannot be relied upon to support genuinely inclusive, deliberative, empowering and reflexive governance practices. It is therefore left to organised civil society to force discourse beyond hegemonic, ecologically-modernised, technocentric ideals, and to bring issues of power, agency, and social justice to the fore of public and policy debate. The way might then be paved for strong political leadership committed to transparent, equitable environmental governance processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While many transition scenarios describe potential low-carbon systems, few link these system-level outcomes to the microlevel stakeholder decision-making needed to actualise them, resulting in a 'planning gap'. Closing this gap requires that insights from modelling-based transition scenarios on what must happen to achieve climate targets are linked to those on how to make it happen from stakeholder-focused transition scenarios. This link requires a different understanding of decision-making rationality from that of a representative agent with rational expectations, as employed in much climate-change modelling currently. Rationality conceived as 'frame-sensitive reasoning' can better account for heterogenous stakeholders' alternative preferences, the actions they take in pursuit of them, and the effect of these actions on low-carbon transitions. This paper augments the Intuitive Logics (IL) stakeholder-focused scenario approach to enable frame-sensitive reasoning and provide modelling-based transition scenarios with realistic innovation-diffusion assumptions. In so doing, the paper assists in closing the planning gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do 'green' environmental concerns – such as about biodiversity, climate change, pollution – deter citizens from having children? This paper reports the first longitudinal evidence consistent with that increasingly discussed hypothesis. It follows through time a random sample of thousands of initially childless men and women in the UK. The paper shows that those individuals who are committed to a green lifestyle are found to be substantially less likely to go on later to have offspring. Probit and Weibull survival models are estimated. The results are robust to controlling for people's age, education, income, marital status, mental health, life satisfaction, optimism, and physical health. The paper's key estimated effect-size is substantial. A person entirely unconcerned about environmental behaviour is estimated to be just over 50% more likely to go on to have a child than a deeply committed environmentalist. • Will fertility decline because humans become so concerned about environmental damage? • Using UK data on thousands of randomly selected young adults, we provide the first longitudinal evidence that those who have environmental concerns and act in a 'green' way go on to have fewer children. • The estimated effect-size is large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the first to calculate welfare, measured by the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW), for the EU-15 countries in a standardized and comparable way. This paper does so by building on a case study for Belgium by Van der Slycken and Bleys (2023) that puts forward a "2.0 methodology" with two distinct ISEWs that deal with cross-time and cross-boundary issues. Both welfare and GDP per capita improved in the EU-15 between 1995 and 2018. Yet, there is an important divergence between welfare and GDP: over time experiential welfare per capita and the per capita benefits and costs of present activities improved by respectively 10,5% and 13,4%, which is less than one third and half of the growth in GDP per capita that grew by 32,4%. These welfare trends are mainly driven by individual consumption growth, the shadow economy and welfare losses from income inequality, which compensated about half of the welfare gains of the former two categories. The gap between welfare and GDP diverged especially after the financial crisis when welfare started stagnating. At the end of the studied period, the EU-15 had already recovered from the financial crisis from a GDP perspective, but not from a welfare view. Since welfare in 2018 was less than 2% lower than the period-maximum, there is no conclusive evidence in favor of the threshold hypothesis at the level of the EU-15. However, the fact that welfare levels in nine countries are more than 5% lower than their peak values signals a clear threshold for these countries. Yet, welfare can be increased beyond previous peaks with postgrowth policies that focus on social and ecological welfare. • Two variants of the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare with distinct time and boundary choices are compiled for the EU-15. • From 1995 to 2018, GDP per capita grew by 32,4% while welfare per capita only increased by 10,5% and 13,4%. • Welfare and GDP increasingly diverged, especially after the financial crisis when welfare started stagnating. • By 2018, the EU-15 had already recovered from the financial crisis from a GDP perspective, but not from a welfare view. • A majority of the EU-15 countries has a clear welfare threshold point with 2018-values being lower than period maxima. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the potential implications of the proposed European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and the recently adopted United Kingdom (UK) legislation on deforestation-free supply chains (henceforth 'the legislation') for different stakeholders in Brazil. These regulations intend to address global commodity-driven deforestation and forest degradation by ensuring that targeted commodities and products placed on (or exported from) markets are of minimal risk of being associated with - in the EU - deforestation and forest degradation or - in the UK - illegal deforestation. The paper examines potential compliance readiness in cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soybean and tropical timber supply chains in Brazil, indicating specific challenges that may arise. Through the construction of a "Compliance Likelihood Index", our research provides comparable indications to policymakers on sectors and stakeholders that may need stronger support to meet the requirements, in order to maintain Brazil's access to EU and UK markets. The paper indicates that coffee is the sector with the highest level of incentivization and smallest hurdles for compliance, while the cattle sector may face stronger challenges to rapidly adjust its production system towards a deforestation-free value chain and prove compliance. Results of our analysis also highlight the need for collaboration between the EU/UK and Brazil in order to promote alignment between domestic and demand-side legislations so that they are mutually reinforcing. Results of this exercise, which has a focus on the producer-country view of demand-side legislation, will contribute to discussions on the merits of different approaches to strengthen the governance of deforestation-risk commodity trade. [Display omitted] • Brazil's coffee sector may currently have the greatest likelihood of ready compliance. • Cattle may be the sector to which the regulations may pose the greatest challenges. • The EU and UK should focus on providing financial means and technical assistance for smallholders. • The EU and UK legislation will need to be accompanied by domestic policies and regulations in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waste generated from electrical and electronic equipment, known as e-waste, is increasing worldwide. Developed countries like those in Europe produce the most significant proportion of e-waste worldwide and, therefore, rely on exporting it to other countries for waste disposal. As Europe is transiting towards a Circular Economy and tackling environmental-related problems, there has been an increase in environmental policies and regulations in this area. This paper presents empirical evidence of how European Union regulations have affected the exports of e-waste. Yearly data from 2010 to 2018 for a panel of 18 European Union countries were analysed using the PCSE (Panel-Corrected Standard Error) estimator. In order to measure environmental regulation, Environmental Tax Revenues from the manufacture of computers, electronic, and optical products were selected. The findings of this paper suggest that taxation is ineffective in reducing e-waste exports, with a tax on manufacturers actually increasing them. Also, high dependence and sub-standard e-waste collection systems increase e-waste exportation. Given that countries often depend on foreign raw materials, a sensible approach would be to invest in collection points for e-waste to take economic advantage of this waste's vital elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on subjective well-being (SWB) and the environment has found robust evidence of positive net marginal SWB from pro-environmental behavior (PEB), that is, positive marginal SWB net of the associated costs in terms of money, time and effort (Finding 1). Accordingly, people could increase their SWB (utility) by behaving more pro-environmentally. In addition, net marginal SWB is found to be larger with respect to more costly than with respect to less costly PEBs (Finding 2). Finding 1 is at odds with rational choice theory's demand that marginal utility be equalized with marginal costs, that is, net marginal utility be zero. The finding can be (and has been) explained by decision error, that is, a failure in forecasting the well-being consequences of an act of choice. This paper uses the rational-choice decision-error framework to show that the net marginal SWB from a PEB is increasing in its marginal costs if the following holds: First, observed levels of PEB are the result of rational choice between PEB and a "conventional" counterpart; second, there is positive net marginal SWB at observed PEB levels (due to decision error); and third, the PEB and its counterpart are substitutes for each other. Furthermore, the paper argues that the ability of the rational-choice decision-error framework to explain not only Finding 1 but Finding 2 provides strong support for that framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is argued that the political feasibility of climate mitigation policies depends heavily on their distributional effects. This paper therefore studies the distributional effects of the European Commission's Fit-for-55 package at the household level in seven EU countries, analyzing a carbon tax on transport and heating fuels as well as variations of a lump-sum refund. Based on the resulting income distributions, different inequality measures are computed. The paper aims to extend previous methodological approaches by including inequality measures such as the Theil index and Atkinson index and comparing the results of carbon taxes on transport and heating fuels for seven EU countries in a consistent manner. I find that a household-size specific lump-sum refund not only mitigates the negative distributional effects of a carbon tax but also reduces overall inequality compared to the baseline scenario without a tax. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we develop a modified production model to calculate changes in pollution abatement costs (PAC) when both data on bad outputs and information on the inputs assigned to pollution abatement activities are not available. To calculate the PAC of reducing bad output, we introduce a measure that captures variation in the abatement intensity of technologies used to reduce water discharges. We then decompose the change in PAC into three components to identify their relative contribution to changes in PAC: (1) changes in the level of inputs, (2) changes in pollution abatement intensity, and (3) technological change. We demonstrate how to calculate PAC and these three components using data from 1997 to 2007 on a sample of pulp mills required to comply with the effluent limits for dioxin set by the U.S. EPA's Cluster Rule. We find regulation-induced technological change is consistently associated with declining PAC, while both changes in inputs and abatement intensity are associated with increasing PAC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efforts to assess the possibilities for decoupling economic growth from resource use and negative environmental impacts have examined their historical relationship, with varying and inconclusive results. This paper shows that ambiguities in the historical measurement arising from definitional changes to GDP are sufficiently large to affect the results. I review the history of structural revisions to GDP using the example of the United States, and on international comparisons of purchasing power parity, and compare decoupling results using GDP vintages reported between 1994 and 2021 for most countries. Between vintages, 10–15% of countries switch between relative decoupling and recoupling from energy or materials on decadal intervals, and up to as many countries as decouple absolutely in an older vintage stop or newly start absolutely decoupling in the newer vintage. GDP vintages also affect environmental Kuznets curve results on absolute decoupling in Grossman and Krueger's seminal paper and accelerate the International Energy Agency's annual global decline in energy intensity by up to −0.2 percentage points. Inconsistencies in economic measurement introduce ambiguity into historical decoupling evidence and model projections into the future. To advance debate, rigorous reporting and sharing of data vintage for subsequent comparison and replication are urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voluntary environmental arrangements generally coexist with State-based and private rules, creating a property rights system that legitimizes certain behaviors. In a world of positive transaction costs, legitimacy ensues from imperfect monitoring activities, opening room for opportunism. In this paper, we discuss how the existence of multiple rules in a scenario of high monitoring costs affects the performance of an environmental policy. We discuss the case of deferred prosecution agreements (TAC, acronym in Portuguese), which are voluntary arrangements designed with the goal of incentivizing slaughterhouses to monitor the environmental practices of ranchers in the Brazilian Amazon. More specifically, we study how the signature of a TAC agreement affects deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazônia Legal region at the municipality level. This paper adopts a difference-in-differences approach to analyze a sample of Brazilian municipalities between 2006 and 2017. Our results, which remain robust across alternative estimators and subsamples, show that the signature of a TAC agreement increases deforestation rates by 0.2 standard deviations. We argue that the signature of a TAC agreement, by creating an imperfect proxy for "good behavior" that enables both compliant and non-compliant organizations to access credit, may incentivize deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dominant conception of the circular economy presents it as a politically neutral, technology-driven process of efficiency improvements and green market expansion. However, it does not consider the social embedding of circularity and thereby risks undermining the transition out of de facto linear economies. This paper begins with a critique of the dominant conception of the circular economy and its shortcomings in relation to allocation, justice, and sustainable scale. Second, the paper contributes toward theorizing an alternative, social economy-based embedding of circularity. We theorize how the social economy embeds circularity through: (1) business models reflecting the needs and interests of their stakeholders and, with them, a primacy of social value creation; (2) production and consumption based on active citizen involvement in deliberation and decision-making; (3) an approach to technology that seeks to empower technology users; and (4) the promotion of regional economies and circular value chains based on a sense of place. Our theory propositions are inspired by prior empirical research at the intersection of the circular economy and the social economy. We discuss the potential and the challenges of a social economy embedding of circularity against the background of vested interests and incumbents profiting from low circularity and unsustainability. • A critique of circular economy in relation to allocation, justice and scale. • A novel theoretical approach to social economy-based embedding of circularity. • Theory propositions about business, governance, technology and environment. • Reasons for stasis and for transformation toward socially embedded circularity. • Examples of social economy-embedded circularity from cooperatives and nonprofits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Latin America and the Caribbean region has benefited significantly from economic growth driven by the extractive sector. At the same time, the region has experienced high levels of conflicts related to this sector. This paper presents an overview of citizens' perceptions of the extractive industries in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. Using a representative sample for each country, we identify regional and country-specific determinants of the societal social license to operate (SLO). The societal SLO is an unwritten license of social approval accorded to extractive projects by citizens at large. This paper investigates social acceptability, capturing public sentiment toward the mining and the oil and gas sectors. We analyze 6,806 responses from a telephone survey conducted during the first quarter of 2021 employing a Random Digit Dialing (RDD) strategy to contact citizens. While our findings confirm that perceptions vary across countries, we show that governance is the strongest predictor of societal SLO, consistent with the literature's evidence. In addition, procedural justice, distributive justice, and nationalism play essential roles in shaping individuals' attitudes. We corroborate regressions' results with non-parametric tests. These findings suggest that strengthening government institutions and their perception could contribute to preventing conflict around extractive industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate transparency through firms' disclosures is often considered a prerequisite for the redirection of investments toward low-carbon economy. In order to provide effective incentives to improve this transparency, it is therefore crucial to identify its drivers. In this paper, we investigate the determinants of two stages of climate transparency: i) the likelihood of responding to the CDP questionnaire; and ii) the extent to which companies comply with the TCFD recommendations. Using a global sample of 571 firms over the period 2020–2021, we estimate a Two-Part Fractional Response Model. First, the results confirm the relevance of considering two stages of climate transparency as the drivers that explain the first stage differ from those explaining the second. We find evidence that variables related to environmental/climate performance and commitment are good predictors of firms' transparency regarding climate risks and opportunities. Our results show that climate transparency is strongly influenced by governance mechanism variables (apart from gender diversity). We also highlight that regulatory factors only impact the second stage of climate transparency. • The paper investigates the drivers of corporates' voluntary climate disclosures. • The first stage of climate transparency is the likelihood answering the CDP survey. • The second stage is the level of compliance with TCFD recommendations. • The study sample consists of 571 international firms over the period 2020–2021. • Determinants differ according to the two stages of transparency and regions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquaculture has been identified as a food sector with potential to provide protein and essential micronutrients to a growing global population, with salmon aquaculture often viewed as a leader in innovation and adoption of new technologies. Despite a broad range of negative externalities in salmon aquaculture, sea lice infestations remain the most harmful of environmental issues within the industry. In response to these challenges and driven by the need for a higher degree of control over the production conditions, salmon producers in Norway have been investing in new technologies that are often perceived as the last resort for sea lice abatement. The challenge is to design a regulatory regime that encourages innovation toward a sustainable mix of production technologies in the future. In this paper, we propose to use feed-in tariffs (FITs), a dynamic Pigouvian subsidy, as a regulatory instrument that can promote investments in abatement technologies by the salmon farming industry. We ground our discussion of FITs for aquaculture in experiences from the renewable energy sector in Spain and Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing call to better understand society's relationship with the natural environment and the environment's economic contribution to the economy and human well-being. This paper presents a new methodology for estimating the spatial monetary value of the marine environment at sub-national scales which integrates recent developments in the spatial mapping of marine habitats with those in marine natural capital accounting, coupled with an improved understanding of the links between natural capital and ecosystem services. While this methodology has direct relevance to environmental planning, management and natural capital accounting across the world, for demonstration purposes, the application here focuses on Northern Ireland's marine waters, and its marine protected areas, from UK-wide evidence. Through this method, indicative monetary values of societal benefits gained from Northern Ireland marine waters in 2019 are in the region of £51.1–83.3 million (US$65.2–106.4 million) when considering eight societal benefits currently amenable to valuation at the national UK level. The strengths and limitations of the approach are acknowledged and to operationalise this approach, an Excel-based decision support tool, the BEACH (Benefit Evaluation through Assessment of Component Habitats) tool, has been developed to make value estimations accessible to a wider range of stakeholders. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The absolute cap policy has been widely used to alleviate environmental pollution. However, two practical problems must be solved to formulate effective absolute cap policies. First, there is always a conflict between efficiency and fairness. Second, the allocation scheme is often infeasible without considering the materials balance (MB) principle, especially in multi-pollutant scenarios. The MB principle comes from the physics field and requires that the mass of inputs is equal to the mass of both desired and undesired outputs. To address these two problems, this paper proposes joint allocation and compensation schemes in multi-pollutant scenarios based on the MB principle. The new approach can simultaneously satisfy efficiency and fairness principles and improve the feasibility and accuracy of allocation and compensation schemes. A case of China's thermal power industry is used to demonstrate the approach. These results indicate that the principles of efficiency and fairness can be satisfied simultaneously by the combination of the allocation scheme and compensation scheme. If the MB principle is not considered, the abatement potential and potential benefit may be overestimated, and the allocation scheme is infeasible for most provinces. Moreover, the compensation amounts may be significantly underestimated without the MB principle. • Multi-pollutant allocation scheme with the materials balance principle is proposed. • A supporting compensation scheme associated with pollution reduction is designed. • The new approach can simultaneously satisfy efficiency and equity principles. • The feasibility and accuracy of allocation and compensation schemes are improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been widespread debate about whether the way in which we measure economic activity is fit for purpose in the twenty-first century. One aspect of this debate is to move away from measuring a nation's income (GDP) towards monitoring a nation's assets (their inclusive wealth), as a better indicator of sustainable economic development. We provide the first critical comparison of the approaches of leading international organisations – the World Bank and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) – to estimating changes in wealth. Our paper reveals important inconsistencies in how these organisations measure sustainability and the conflicting messages that policy makers receive, despite a common underlying conceptual framework linking changes in a nation's wealth to future well-being. We attribute these differences to methodological (applied theory) choices made by researchers at the respective institutions. These choices matter. At the most extreme, countries that perform the worst according to the UNEP are shown to perform well according to the World Bank. This confusion in signals makes better policy making more difficult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]