Low carbon economy
From MoxyWiki
On achieving a low carbon 'circular' economic development as the over-arching strategic intent
The concept of ‘sustainability’, and its derivatives ‘sustainable development’ and 'applied sustainability', are not readily quantifiable. The plethora of 'sustainability plans’, which fail the test of whether they are ‘actionable’, given limitations in the availability of natural resources, and human and financial capital, furnishes ample evidence of the limitations. And the strategic thinking about sustainability is generally carried out without sufficient regard to the decision context – the key drivers of, and impediment to, making the change.
On the other hand, ‘economic development’ – or the lack of it – is part of our daily lives. Reductions in the intensity of carbon wastage through ‘emissions’ and ‘discharges’ can be expressed quantitatively. Proposals regarding trajectories to those 'low carbon' end points can be transacted towards achieving bounded rational consensus.
There needs to be concern about more than carbon emissions and discharges. A ‘Circular Economy’ is one in which emissions and liquid and solid discharges circulate within the boundary of the system in which wealth creation is taking place; flows of energy and materials crossing the boundary are kept low to the extent practicable. --Geoff.Whitfield 12:38, 6 July 2010 (EST)
While the 'counting' approach, based on the flows of carbon, as measured by inputs and outputs (and all that generates – carbon cap and trading, monetizing the intermediates etc) feels logical and “testable”, and is just plain sensible, the goals of the Cochabamba Accord, which is all about sustainability but without the numbers, are not dissimilar. Susan Wood[1]
Constraints on the pursuit of low carbon circular economic development
The constraints include:
- the negative impacts of physical ‘externalities’, related to the flow of energy and materials across the boundary of the system;
- land use limitations; and,
- social externalities.
References
- ↑ adapted from the email from Susan Wood, 05/07/2010
