SUSTAINABILITY ECONOMICS – A SUMMARY OF A SHORT COURSE
by
Peter Bartelmus
1. INTRODUCTION 
AND
OVERVIEW
Course
objectives

What on earth is
wrong?
© P. Bartelmus, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany.
The course contains copyrighted material, which is intended for personal use or teaching purposes
only.
2. SCHOOLS OF ECO–NOMIC THOUGHT
 Environment-economy
 Market and policy
failure

History: from frontier
economics to deep
ecology

Ecological vs.
environmental
economics
interaction
© Arik Bartelmus
3. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT:
FIG LEAVE OR CORNUCOPIA
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT



What is development?
What is sustainable
development?
Operationalizing
sustainable development
SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC
GROWTH
Economic growth with
some environmental
protection
4. THE PHYSICAL BASE OF THE ECONOMY

Aggregation: from
statistics via indicators to
indices
Case study: climate
change
Material flow accounts

Ecological sustainability


5. MONETARY VALUATION:
COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS AND GREENING THE
NATIONAL ACCOUNTS
Cost-benefit analysis:
damage values
 The System for integrated
Environmental and Economic
Accounting: prices and costs
 Indicators of environmental
and economic sustainability:
EDP, ECF

7. PREDICTION
WILL OUR ECONOMIES BE SUSTAINABLE?

What are the limits to growth?
Environmental
impact

EKC hypothesis: will
prosperity by good for the
environment?
GDP p.c.