Living in the “Anthropocene” beyond the Limits to Growth: assessing the impact of human societies on the environment

Bibliography for the lecture:

-    Daly, H. E.; Farley, J. (2011). “Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications (2nd ed.)”. Washington, DC: Island Press. Chapters 4,6,7

-    Daly, H. E (2007). “Ecological economics and sustainable development”. Edward Elgar Publishing. PART 1 (Basic concepts and ideas).

-    Lewis, S. L., and Mark A. Maslin (2015) "Defining the anthropocene." Nature 519.7542, pagg. 171-180.

-    Meadows, D.H., Randers, J., Meadows, D.H (2004) “Limits to growth: the 30-year update”. Universe Books, New York (selected readings)

-    Steffen, Will, et al. (2011). "The Anthropocene: conceptual and historical perspectives." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 369.1938, pagg. 842-867.

Comparative overview of main school of through and theoretical approaches for understanding the relation between economics and the environment. From environmental economics to ecological economics, the circular economy and the donut economics.

Bibliography for the lecture:

-    Daly, H., E.; Farley, J. (2011). “Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications (2nd ed.)”. Washington, DC: Island Press. Chapters 1-3

-    Daly, H., E. (2007). “Ecological economics and sustainable development”. Edward Elgar Publishing. Part 3.

-    Jeroen C.J.M. van den Bergh (2001) "Ecological Economics: Themes, Approaches, and Differences with Environmental Economics" Regional Environmental Change, 2(1), pp. 13-23

-    Hallegatte, Stéphane, et al. (2012) “From growth to green growth-a framework”. No. w17841. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2012.

-    European Environmental Agency (2016) “Circular economy in Europe: Developing the knowledge base”. EEA Report No 2/2016. Available at http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/circular-economy-in-europe

-    Raworth, K. (2012). "A safe and just space for humanity: can we live within the doughnut." Oxfam Policy and Practice: Climate Change and Resilience 8.1 (2012): 1-26

Overview of main indicators, methods and tools to analyse sustainability, assess the impact of human activity on the environment and the climate, and measure wellbeing beyond GDP.

Bibliography for the lecture:

-    Daly, H. E.; Farley, J. (2011). “Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications (2nd ed.)”. Washington, DC: Island Press. Chapter 14

-    Stiglitz, J. E., Sen, A., Fitoussi J. P. (2010). "Report by the commission on the measurement of economic performance and social progress." Paris: Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress.

-    UNEP International Resource Panel (2011). “De-coupling natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth”.

-    Wiedmann, T. O., Schandl, H., Lenzen, M., Moran, D., Suh, S., West, J., & Kanemoto, K. (2015). “The material footprint of nations”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(20), 6271-6276.

Useful websites for the lecture:

WWF Living Planet index: http://www.livingplanetindex.org/home/index

Ecological Footprint: http://www.footprintnetwork.org/resources/footprint-calculator/

Human Development Index: http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-index-hdi

Happy Planet Index: http://happyplanetindex.org/

CAIT Climate data explorer: http://cait.wri.org/

Material Flows: www.materialflows.net

Towards a sustainable and inclusive financial system: exploring the role of development banks, financial institutions, central banks and governments for aligning financial practices and financial flows to the Sustainable Development Goals and divesting from carbon stranded assets.

Bibliography for the lecture:

-    2030 Sustainable Development Agenda: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/development-agenda/

-    Daly, H., E.; Farley, J. (2011). “Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications (2nd ed.)”. Washington, DC: Island Press. Chapter 20

-    Global Green Growth Institute (2016) “Mind the Gap: Bridging the Climate Financing Gap with Innovative Financial Mechanisms”. Insight Brief 1, November 2016.

-    Inter-American Development Bank (2015) “Stranded Assets and Multilateral Development Banks”, working paper, Washington, DC.

-    Monasterolo I., Battiston S., Janetos A. and Z. Zengh (2016) “A synthetic indicator of investors portfolios’ exposure to GHG emissions” Available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2766569.

-    New Climate Economy (2016) “The sustainable infrastructure imperative. Financing for Better Growth and Development”.

-    UNEP FI (2015). “The financial system we need. Aligning the financial system to sustainable development”.

Climate change, resource depletion and sustainability, a focus on: trade agreements; fossil fuels subsidies; the role of the State for climate mitigation and adaptation.

-    Bast et al. (2015). “Empty promises: G20 subsidies to oil, gas and coal production”. Oversea Development Institute (ODI) and Oil Change International (OCI). http://www. qualenergia. it/sites/default/files/articolodoc/Fossil_subsidies_full_ODI. pdf.

-    Daly, H., E.; Farley, J. (2011). Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: Island Press. Chapters 18

-    Gallagher, K., Porterfield, M. (eds) (2016)/ “Trade in the Balance: Reconciling Trade and Climate Policy. A Report of the Working Group on Trade, Investment, and Climate Policy” (selected readings). The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. Available at: https://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/files/2016/11/Pardee_TradeClimate_110316final.pdf

-    Lazarus, M. and Tempest, K. (2014). “Fossil Fuel Supply, Green Growth, and Unburnable Carbon.” SEI Discussion Brief. Stockholm Environment Institute, Seattle, WA. http://tinyurl.com/Fossil-Fuel-Green

-    Porterfield, M.C., Gallagher, K. (2015). “TTIP and Climate Change: Low economic benefits, real climate risks”. Investment Treaty News, December 1st. International Institute for Sustainable Development. Available at://tinyurl.com/TTIP-Climate-Change

Towards a complex systems approach for disentangling the climate-finance-inequality nexus. Insights from evolutionary, macro-ecological, post-Keynesian economics approaches and network analysis.

Invited speaker’s lecture

Bibliography for the lecture:

-    Balint, T., Lamperti, F., Mandel, A., Napoletano, M., Roventini, A., & Sapio, A. (2016) “Complexity and the economics of climate change: a survey and a look forward”. Forthcoming in Ecological Economics.

-    Battiston S., Mandel A., Monasterolo I., Schuetze F. and Visentin G. (2016). “A Climate Stress-Test of the EU Financial System”. Available at SSRN 2726076. Forthcoming in Nature Climate Change.

-    Lamperti, F., G. Dosi, M. Napoletano, A. Roventini, and A. Sapio (2016). “Faraway, so close: an agent-based model for climate, energy and macroeconomic policy”. LEM working paper, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.

-    Monasterolo I., Raberto, M. (2016). “The EIRIN flow-fund behavioural model of green fiscal and monetary policies”. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2748266. Under final review at Ecological Economics.

-    Monasterolo I., Jones A., Tonelli F., Natalini D. (2013). “Hybrid System Dynamics - Agent Based model to simulate Complex Adaptive Systems: a new methodological framework for sustainability analysis”.