27 August - 2 September 2017

Oxford Summer School in Ecological Economics 2017

Green Economy: Ecosystems, Economy and Policy

The School will address key elements of the new economy transformation, exploring the cutting edge methods and policy applications in ecological economics. With a clear sustainable development focus, it will draw on the expertise of a range of disciplines: economics, ecology, physics, environmental sciences, sociology, psychology, complex systems theory, etc. to address the current challenges: climate change, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, water shortages, social cohesion and achieving sustainability. The course will be composed of a theoretical and applied modules and will address three key elements of the new economy transformation: an industrial ecology approach, multiple criteria methods for decision making and new tools for measuring progress.

In the theoretical part, it will analyse the concept of economy-environment interactions and industrial ecology, which highlights the importance of intersectoral flows of matter and energy required for the production of the goods and services. The method of environmentally extended input-output analysis, actively used for policy applications around the world, will be introduced to illustrate this approach. Ideas of interdisciplinary synthesis and methodological pluralism will be introduced alongside institutional economic approaches. Next, it will explore the system of tools for decision making based on multicriteria methods, used for policy appraisal, which applied at different levels could shift the patterns of decisions making towards more socially equitable and more environmentally friendly as well as economically sound decisions. Acting as a bridge to the policy module, the final theoretical session will criticise existing approaches to measure macro sustainability performance and will introduce new conceptual tools for the assessment of progress. A particular attention will be paid to ecosystems, the impacts of the economy on the ecosystems and alternative ecosystem services assessment and valuation techniques.

The applied module will be taught by active professionals and experts, who advise international organizations, national and city governments around the world and have experience working with EU institutions. The School will draw on the EU experience of environmental policy and will focus in its applied part on green fiscal reform, climate change, renewable energy, multidimensional poverty measurement, sustainable cities and values. The scope of sustainability issues addressed during the Summer School, covering not only economic and environmental, but also social sustainability, will make this Summer School truly unique.

The course is designed for multiple points of entry and could be helpful for PhD students, government experts, representatives of international organizations and business. The course will give participants an opportunity to explore key methodologies for ecological-economic analysis and to apply these to various case studies. Oxford Summer and Winter Schools in Ecological Economics organized by Environment Europe attracted participants from 40 countries, including Canada, USA, Mexico, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, UK, France, Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Bosnia, Latvia, Ghana, Nigeria, China, India, Taiwan, and Australia (please see the map).

The course is taught by the leading ecological economists, environmental policy and sustainable urban development experts in Europe.