To cope with the lack of quantifiable knowledge about the occurrence of nature-related risks, scenario analysis has emerged as a way to investigate possible futures. We argue that expressing scenario narratives as causal models – leveraging causal Bayesian graphs – opens up new avenues for designing and using scenarios. As one use case of this approach, we show how dynamic Bayesian networks to assess

The Circular Economy (CE) paradigm has gained traction in both academic discourse and industrial practice. While a transition towards a CE is generally associated with more sustainable futures, less is known about its socio-economic feasibility. This article provides a systematic literature review of contributions to macroeconomic modelling which evaluate environmental and socio-economic impacts of

Ecological economics emphasizes the interaction between economic systems, governance, environment and society. Doughnut economics has emerged within ecological economics, aiming to ensure a good life for all within planetary boundaries. Its framework can be operationalized at multiple scales and across diverse contexts and has been adopted in over forty cities and regions worldwide. In 2021, the Municipality

As climate change generates more damaging weather-related events more often, the question of who bears intensifying disaster risk becomes increasingly pertinent. Drawing on disaster sociology, the environmental justice literature and quantitative studies of disaster impacts in real-estate markets, this paper contributes to research efforts to explore distributional questions of climate risk. We examine

Transport infrastructures dedicated to low-carbon public transport are seen as a central tool in public policy strategies to mitigate climate change. Yet, the development of transport infrastructures has significant direct and indirect negative effects on biodiversity and social acceptability of these impacts remain little assessed. In this study, we analyse potential impacts of 20 tramway existing

This work focuses on the global economic efficiency of energy use, defined as the ratio at world scale of Gross Domestic Product to Final Energy Consumption, including food for humans and feed for draft animals. With a simple hypothesis of energy efficiency gains being proportional to economic activity, it evidences that for the last two centuries energy efficiency grew on average exponentially with

We present an updated, stock-flow consistent version of the ‘Dystopian Schumpeter meeting Keynes’ agent-based integrated assessment model. By embedding the model in a fully specified accounting system, all balance sheet items and financial flows can be explicitly and consistently tracked throughout a simulation. This allows for improved analysis of climate change and climate policy scenarios in terms

Nature and biodiversity are in an unprecedented decline. One of the main policy solutions for reversing this trend involves putting a monetary value on biodiversity impacts. However, one of the concerns about valuing changes in biodiversity using economic valuation methods revolves around the methodological assumption that the public accurately and adequately understands and perceives this inherently

As the realized experiences of wildfires threatening communities increase, the importance of proactive evacuation preparation and wildfire risk mitigation on private property to reduce the loss of lives and property is shaping wildfire policy and programs. To date, research has focused on pre-wildfire evacuation preparation and risk mitigation independently. This paper examines the substitutability

It is well established in the literature that fish products with the ecolabel of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) obtain price premiums in food retailing compared to non-labeled substitutes. However, premiums vary substantially between species, with the expensive Atlantic cod commanding much higher MSC premiums than low-value species like Alaska pollock, indicating that the most affluent consumers

Degrowth has gained attention in recent years as a paradigm for environmental activism and policy. While degrowth is often associated with prefigurative politics, there is emerging interest among degrowth proponents in contentious mass politics and engagement with other social movements. Debate has thus emerged over what kinds of social forces might be mobilised in pursuit of a degrowth transition

Understanding the role of energy in economic growth has been particularly successful when measuring it as useful exergy with, however, the major shortcoming of treating this (intermediate) flow as a primary factor of production. Here, we solve this issue by conceptualizing the economy with an extended energy macro sector (E-Sector) encompassing all primary-to-final-to-useful exergy conversions, supplying

The global transition to a carbon-neutral economy presents significant challenges, particularly in the deployment of renewable energy and storage technologies. A key aspect of this transition is the production and use of green hydrogen. This depends on the deployment of electrolysers and fuel cells, requiring critical raw materials in their manufacturing processes. In the European Union (EU), these

Adequate warmth, cooling, lighting, and electrical device use are indispensable in upholding suitable living standards, health, and social inclusion. The energy crisis that followed the COVID-19 pandemic and exacerbated by rising energy prices due to the Russian-Ukrainian war has pushed energy poverty to the forefront of the EU political agenda. Although it is largely contingent upon the availability

We estimate public benefits associated with conserving wild Spring Chinook salmon and Winter Steelhead in Oregon’s Willamette Basin, both listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Using a choice experiment survey, we examine Oregonians’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) through higher taxes to support different recovered fish populations at various recovery timelines. Results indicate substantial

The biodiversity components of ESG ratings are analysed to understand whether this disclosure mechanism can affect investment decisions, improve outcomes for biodiversity or lead to better management of nature-based risks. We analyse the relationship between stock returns and firms' biodiversity ratings and how biodiversity ratings are related to firm characteristics. We conclude that biodiversity

Integrated conservation and development efforts in low- and middle-income countries have emphasized the devolution of forest management to local communities. This approach is posited to benefit both communities and conservation, but those benefits may depend on community capacity to capture value added, e.g., by processing forest products. In Mexico, most forests are under community management, but

Against the backdrop of environmental pollution, resource depletion and imbalance between supply and demand, the scrap copper trade market has become increasingly active. This paper adopts the complex network analysis method to not only explore the pattern evolution of the global scrap copper trade, but also innovatively use the temporal exponential random graph model to analyze the dynamic formation

The agglomeration bonus has been proposed as an effective and cost-effective instrument for inducing the spatial aggregation of conservation measures. It consists of a spatially homogenous base payment (like most existing payment schemes) plus a bonus for each adjacent land parcel that is conserved, too. While the agglomeration bonus has been investigated in numerous theoretical studies, very few applied

The bioenergy industry is a core component of the EU approach to reduce its dependency on non-renewable resources while attempting to support biomass producers and farmers in rural areas. However, bioenergy activities also pose governance challenges associated with intensified inter-organizational collaborations and network relations between farmers, bio-industries and other supply chain actors. Often

As strategies to increase forest cover become more widespread as part of countries' environmental commitments, assessing the trade-offs between economic and environmental aspects of forestry activities is an increasingly pressing issue. This article addresses this question by assessing the cost-effectiveness of increasing forest cover under different land use management strategies that differ in their

Governments provide more than USD 800 billion annually in environmentally harmful subsidies at the global level despite international commitments. This paper introduces a novel and replicable framework for identifying biodiversity-harmful subsidies within national budgets. Our multidimensional approach is based on the five drivers of biodiversity loss: land use change, resource exploitation, climate

Environmental values are commonly explained through three theories: post-materialism suggests affluence enables environmental concern, materialism argues environmental harm drives concern, while disconnection theory posits economic growth creates both concern and degradation. We test these frameworks at two levels. First, using aggregate U.S. time-series data (1990–2021), and Vector Autoregression

Intensive agriculture and increasingly homogeneous agricultural landscapes are major drivers of biodiversity loss. The implementation of landscape features (e.g. hedges, trees, and field margins) as part of ecological focus areas on farms is a promising approach. This study aims to fill the gaps in understanding the influence of factors related to farmers' willingness and ability on their implementation

The catastrophic consequences of natural disasters on social and economic systems are extensively documented, yet their influence on individuals' sense of control over their life outcomes remains unexplored. This study pioneers an investigation into the causal effects of natural disaster-related home damage on the locus of control. Utilizing Australian longitudinal data, we implement an individual

During heatwaves in cities, urban heat islands (UHI) can occur that unequally affect different neighborhoods due to variations in their structures, the quality of their buildings, vegetation, and human activity. Some populations are particularly vulnerable, such as older adults, young children, and low-income households, all of whom have fewer options when exposed to an UHI. For the first time, in

Europe's ambitious climate goals highlight the importance of combining energy policies with technological decarbonization; however, these efforts alone may not achieve the necessary emissions reductions. Existing models for low-carbon transitions often focus on technological interventions, without fully integrating the decarbonization potential of behavioural shifts towards sufficient consumption.

Since 2017, industrial policies in the United Kingdom have prioritized revitalizing industrial clusters through subsidies for low-carbon technologies and infrastructure. This study introduces the Industrial Decarbonization Paradigm (IDP) to examine dominant technological designs, policy-driven technological channeling, industrial regimes, and the persistence of path dependence across three major industrial

Nature-related risks can lead to financial losses. The connection between ecosystems and socioeconomic systems is complex and multifaceted. Ecosystem services are the ecological processes that serve human needs. The degree to which a specific ecological process fails to meet specific human needs could be a useful metric able to ground the cascade of risks to which companies, governments, financial

The voluntary carbon market is presented as a solution to fund land and ecosystem restoration in developing economies. While the empirical literature has focused on assessing its ecological effectiveness, limited attention has been given to how this market interacts with other funding streams within national contexts. Delineating the types of projects that the voluntary carbon market can effectively

Faced with increasing recommendations for a more plant-based diet, the catering sector is particularly affected. This study investigates how future chefs' representations and identities (professional or otherwise) influence their intentions to offer less meat-based and more plant-based menus, either by reducing meat in dishes or replacing meat-based dishes with vegetarian options. Theories of representations

When farmers adopt conservation tillage, they are making a management change that is expected to improve manageable characteristics of soil health. The current literature on the value of soil health, however, primarily focuses on the value of inherent soil characteristics. In this paper we close the gap in the literature by estimating the value of improvements in soil health. Using a sample of farmers

This note analyses Simon N. Patten's criticism of John B. Clark's marginal productivity theory of distribution for its neglect (among other things) of the role of environmental factors in determining economic value in markets. Whereas Clark's theory centered on the distribution between labor and capital income, with land earnings understood as a sub-part of interest, Patten intended to retain the classics'

The direct material consumption of technological systems is connected to three challenges: the overall metabolism of the technological system; the growing material complexity of technologies; their reliance on critical or geologically scarce materials. These challenges are often examined in isolation, overlooking their interrelated nature. We propose a systematic, multi-level perspective, leveraging

This paper empirically tests the impact of pro-environmental identity on environmental behavior by priming study participants with their previously stated attitude towards the environmentalist movement Fridays for Future. On the basis of a large-scale survey experiment including the incentivized choice between a voucher for a flight or a train ride, we find evidence that respondents who receive such

While it may be attractive to pursue win-win outcomes or positive synergies between environmental quality and human welfare, it does not necessarily mean that these goals are mutually reinforcing. With improved material standards, a large number of middle-class individuals with higher consumption demand and purchasing power are challenging ecological sustainability through frequent and high-intensity

Since energy consumption in residential buildings produces 26 % of CO2 emissions worldwide, there is an urgent need to improve the energy efficiency of older buildings. This is expensive, and a component often poorly estimated is opportunity costs: the losses a building owner incurs by investing in an energy-efficiency upgrade rather than in a more profitable project. Some recent studies assume opportunity

In the context of economic policy advice, the common understanding of sustainability focuses on the preservation of natural capital. In the Anthropocene, which is characterised by anthropogenically induced, abrupt and/or long-term, often irreducible ecosystem dynamics and a co-evolution of technology and environment, this understanding reaches its limits. We therefore propose three modifications: shifting

The burden of petrochemical pollution on communities of Color is well established, but the corresponding distribution of economic benefits is unclear. We evaluated employment equity in chemical manufacturing (NAICS 325) and petroleum/coal products manufacturing (NAICS 324) among U.S. states and core-based statistical areas (CBSAs) relative to racial education gaps, using data from the Equal Employment

One of the most urgent and challenging open questions for degrowth scholarship and practice concerns how to pursue a degrowth social-ecological transformation within the existing structures in the real world. However, the marked emphasis on democratic planning for non-reformist reforms in a degrowth strategy (i) underestimates the lack of favourable conditions for democratic planning (i.e., political

The growing frequency and severity of extreme weather events has spawned a rapid increase in policies and programs designed to enhance the resilience of small-scale producers through the promotion of climate-adaptive agricultural practices. However, gaps exist in the conceptualization and measurement of farm-households' resilience in face of climatic stress. Furthermore, comparative evidence to understand

We investigate the socio-economic effects of further activating the circular value chain for clothing on the labour market in the Netherlands. We develop a value chain model to evaluate the direct gross effects of changes in production, consumption, and end-of-life activities and map the value chain, limited to the part of the clothing value chain that takes place within the geographical borders of

The purpose of this study was to identify cost-efficient combinations of control measures (harvest of established invaders) and prevention measures (ballast water treatment and antifouling to prevent invaders) to achieve targets for the maximum population sizes of two invasive crabs, the Asian shore crab (Hemigrapsus sanguineus) and brush-clawed shore crab (Hemigrapsus takanoi), in interconnected water

The aim of this study was to explore how the choice of a functional unit (FU) influences the environmental and economic rankings of food categories. For each adult in the latest French national dietary survey (n = 2121), we built a dataset providing the energy and nutritional content, environmental impacts (14 metrics) and monetary cost of 20 food categories as consumed. The cost and environmental

When uncertainty prevails, conservation decision makers allocate funds, inputs and resources between future states of nature to hedge their bets. Decision makers explicitly or implicitly substitute biodiversity in one future state of nature for biodiversity in another. However, the decision making frameworks common in conservation biology do not model, explain or justify such behavior. Frameworks such

This study examines the links between corporate governance and ecological investment decisions, focusing on arrangements aimed at democratizing decision-making: integration of new actors in decision-making processes, the development of ecological competencies within the firm, and the introduction of sustainability criteria into its management. Our study is based on an original database of 1788 establishments

Understanding global patterns of resource use and their underlying drivers is crucial for environmental sustainability. Because production and consumption are globally highly interconnected, dynamic, and unequally distributed, examinations of changes in cross-country differences in resource use can shed light on questions of development, equity, and responsibility for environmental pressures.

There is a substantial ‘biodiversity financing gap’: each year, only about one sixth of the funding required for biodiversity conservation is actually provided. Most biodiversity financing is from public sources; less than one fifth is from private ones. However, the potential of private financing is huge and could help fill the biodiversity financing gap. We study how this might be achieved by using

This study examines the environmental impacts of human food consumption from an economic policy perspective, investigating how fiscal policy can mitigate the environmental footprints associated with this consumption. Focusing on carbon emissions (CF), water use (WF), and food loss and waste (FLW), the analysis uses Spain as a case study to estimate price elasticities of footprints (how footprints respond

US agencies have long used the pay-the-polluter (PTP) approach in which government pays agricultural polluters to adopt conservation practices on a voluntary basis to address nutrient pollution. However, limited fiscal resources and continued poor water quality have led to calls for a new paradigm, the polluter-pays-principle (PPP), in which agricultural polluters must clean up their nutrient emissions

Urban forests provide ecosystem services that are public goods with local (shade) to global (carbon sequestration) benefits and occur on both public and private lands. Thus, incentives for private tree owners to invest in tree care may fall short of those of a public forest manager aiming to optimize ecosystem service benefits for society. The management of a forest pest provides a salient focus area

The expansion of conservation tillage helps to improve soil health in countries affected by the soil erosion, such as the Republic of Moldova. The main objective of this paper was to investigate Moldovan farmers' preferences for the hypothetical policy scheme designed to promote conservation tillage in the framework of a discrete choice experiment. The heterogeneity of farmers' preferences was explained

This study extends Alpízar's (2006) price discrimination model for protected areas in nature-based tourism from a continuous demand to a discrete choice model. The original model provided a discrimination price solution for national and foreign visitors to a single site choice, limiting the model's application. Meanwhile, our extended model recognizes multiple recreational site options, each with a

The decarbonisation of UK industrial clusters via CCUS can support jobs and gross value-added (GVA). However, worker and skills shortages have been identified as a common challenge across UK clusters, and the net zero space, with average wage rates increasing as different sectors compete for a limited pool of labour. This paper employs multi-sector economy-wide CGE scenario simulations and linked regional

This paper investigates the behavioural drivers of voluntary carbon offsets, which allow individuals to reduce their emissions by funding environmental and energy projects. Despite the growth of the voluntary carbon market, the factors influencing these decisions remain under-researched. This study uses two incentivized online experiments to examine the role of information salience and information

This study investigates the distributional impacts of carbon taxes, traditionally examined through simulation studies on the regressivity of hypothetical tax scenarios. However, the dynamic influence of actually implemented carbon taxes on consumption/income poverty and inequality in a cross-country setting has been less scrutinised. This paper assesses the effect of carbon taxes introduced in the

Snowmaking is the primary adaptation of winter tourism to climate change and requires increased water use in winter. However, water withdrawals during this period coincide with the mountain low-flow period, which can potentially cause conflicts with other human uses and ecosystems. To address concerns about water availability, the number of reservoirs is increasing. Ski lift operators promote these

A major problem for common pool resource regulation, such as fisheries management, is over-capitalization following investment irreversibility. Understanding theoretical implications of capital as an irreversible investment input better could help to avoid over-capitalization. This article analyzes the case where irreversibly invested capital can be substituted by flexibly adaptable inputs such as