Ecological Economics Lecture 01 Syllabus for Tiago Domingos Assistant Professor Environment and Energy Scientific Area Department of Mechanical Engineering Doctoral Program in Climate Change and Sustainable Development Policies Doctoral Program and Advanced Degree in Sustainable Energy Systems Doctoral Program in Mechanical Engineering Doctoral Program in Environmental Engineering

Main Issues in Ecological Economics Ecological Economics: The science of sustainable development Scale –Ecology; –Environmental dimension of sustainability Distribution –Ethics and Sociology; –Social dimension of sustainability (Allocative) Efficiency –Economics; –Economic dimension of sustainability Constraints –Epistemology –Thermodynamics

Value and Indicators Economic –Valuation techniques –National Accounting and Macroeconomic Variables –Genuine Savings and Green Net National Product –Cost-Benefit Analysis Social –Human Development Index –Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare –Gini coefficient Biophysical –Ecological Footprint –Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production Multi-criteria analysis

Ecological Economics in Space and Time Theories of growth and sustainable development –Solow growth model –Ayres’s theory of growth –Growth accounting –Weak vs. strong sustainability –Economy and environment in a historical perspective The network dimension: direct vs. indirect effects –Life Cycle Assessment –Input-Output Analysis The temporal and spatial dimensions –Inflation rate and discount rate –Exchange rate and purchasing power parity

Assessment Course project (1-2 students) –Preferentially, theme chosen by the students –Should incorporate (almost) all the topics in the course –Carried out along the semester –Intermediate deliveries (at least 3) –Possibly, some small presentations along the semester –First deadline: choice of topic by (if necessary, e- mail interaction before that)

Uncertainty Knowns Deterministic problems Known unknowns Stochastic problems (risk) Unknown unknowns True uncertainty Dealing with uncertainty –Adaptive management –Resilience –Precautionary principle