Welcome to a workshop at the Institute for Futures Studies (IFFS) and remote

Organizers: Paul Bowman (IFFS) and Malcolm Fairbrother (Umeå University)

According to the IPCC, unless the world’s countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero within the next several decades, the impacts of climate change will likely be severe. Whether countries will be willing to eliminate their emissions within this timeframe depends, in large part, on the achievability of so-called “green growth”--roughly, economic growth that is promoted, or is at least not substantially hindered, by efforts to increase environmental sustainability, like efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  

This workshop invites both theoretical and empirical perspectives on green growth (and related ideas, like environmental sustainability), particularly as it relates to climate change. Among the questions that might be addressed include: 

• Are all kinds or instances of natural capital substitutable, or are there some kinds or instances of natural capital whose depletion can be offset with the accumulation of manufactured capital?
• Should certain environmental goods be attributed infinite value? 
• At what stage of economic development, if any, can economic growth be decoupled from negative environmental impacts, particularly greenhouse gas emissions?
• What are the central political, economic, or technological drivers of, or barriers to, green growth?

Green Growth Workshop Schedule (pdf)

Speakers

• Malcolm Fairbrother, Umeå University and IFFS
• Pernilla Hagbert, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
• Taylor Davis, Purdue University
• Kimberly Nicholas, Lund University
• Säde Hormio, University of Helsinki
• C. Tyler DesRoches, Arizona State University
• Julia Steinberger, University of Leeds
• Eric Brandstedt, Lund University
• Katya Rhodes, University of Victoria

For more information, contact .