GREEN ECONOMICS:
Workshop 1:
A Christian Perspective
Tim Cooper
Christian Ecology Link conference
End of the Age of Thorns: Surviving consumerism
5th March 2011
GREEN ECONOMICS: ORIGINS
• Development of Green political philosophy
– Carson, Ward, Ehrlich, Schumacher, Capra, Porritt
• Scientific studies of global environmental trends
– Club of Rome (Limits to Growth)
• Emerging critique of conventional economics
– TOES (The Other Economic Summit) 1980s
– Boulding, Daly, Pearce, Jacobs, Ekins, Costanza
DISSATISFACTION WITH
NEOCLASSICAL ECONOMICS
• Rooted in scientific world view
– Instrumentalist / utilitarian
– Assumption of human rationality
• cf. ‘bounded rationality’ - cognitive limitations
– Assumption that individuals are inherently materialistic
and selfish
• Choices based on wanting more rather than less
• Decisions based on ‘utility maximisation’ i.e. personal benefit
– Flawed quantitative bias
– Unrealistic models
• Simplistic market structures
• Information not available to consumers
GREENING ECONOMICS
• Emergence of ‘heterodox’ forms of economics
– New schools of thought (behavioural, institutional,
ecological)
• Ecological starting point
– Limits (critique of economic growth)
– Biomimicry (cyclical)
• Intrinsically multidisciplinary
– Sustainability’s three pillars (economic,
environmental, social)
• Focus on quality of life
– Happiness and income (Easterlin, Layard)
SUSTAINABILITY
HAPPINESS
PROSPERITY…
…WITH A PURPOSE (CTBI report 2005)
…WITHOUT GROWTH (SDC report 2009)
THE CHRISTIAN SOCIAL
CONSCIENCE
“The thinking of all the mainstream
denominations…has converged around
one key proposition: that under the right
conditions, economic growth can serve
God’s purposes.”
CTBI, 2005
12 STEPS TO A SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY
Building a Sustainable Macro-Economy - not dependent on growth and debt
1. Developing macro-economic capability
2. Investing in public assets and infrastructures
3. Increasing financial and fiscal prudence
4. Reforming macro-economic accounting
Protecting Capabilities for Flourishing - freeing people from materialistic
consumerism
5. Sharing the available work and improving the work-life balance
6. Tackling systemic inequality
7. Measuring capabilities and flourishing
8. Strengthening human and social capital
9. Reversing the culture of consumerism
Respecting Ecological Limits - establishing clear resource and
environmental limits on economic activity.
10. Imposing clearly defined resource/emissions caps
11. Implementing fiscal reform for sustainability
12. Promoting technology transfer and international ecosystem protection.
SDC, 2009
ECOLOGICAL / GREEN ECONOMICS
• Highlights interdependence and co-evolution of
human economies and natural ecosystems
– natural capital
• Based on ‘strong sustainability’
– limits to technology / material substitution
• Explicitly value-based (normative)
– equity
• Distinct from environmental economics
– application of conventional economic tools to
environmental problems
UNRESOLVED TENSIONS
• Levels of growth
– Is ‘recession’ necessarily good?
• Trade and the environment
– Are localisation and internationalism in
conflict?
• Policy impacts and the poor
– Are higher energy prices ‘fair’?
THE CHRISTIAN GOD
• Where does He fit in?
• A view from the USA
CHRISTIAN ECONOMICS
• Does it exist?
– Few notable scholars
– Different methods, standards of evidence, types of
knowledge
• A cross-disciplinary relationship between
theology and economics?
• Application of Christian ethics to conventional
economics?
• Use of economics in interpreting Biblical text?
• Would it take only one, distinctive form?
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
• Daly and Cobb’s four principles
– A check against idolatry
– A perspective that transcends one’s own
– Commitedness and directed commitment
– Understanding our relation to the future
WHAT MIGHT IT MEAN
– Identifying specific Biblical practices
• Keeping the Sabbath
• Opposing usury
– Applying broad ethical principles
• Work
• Creation care
• Social justice
• Generosity/philanthropy
POLICY INSTRUMENTS
• Regulatory
– Standards e.g. inefficient refrigeration
• Market-based
– Taxes and subsidies e.g. landfill tax,
renewables obligation certificate
• Voluntary
– Informal agreements with industry e.g. green
claims code
FOR DISCUSSION
1. What risks does the Government face if it
addresses over-consumption in an ‘era of
austerity’?
2. Should the Government introduce a price floor
for energy prices and/or introduce a fuel tax
escalator?
3. Is localisation an appropriate economic strategy
or a form of dangerous insularity?
4. Would Christian economics inevitably be
‘green’?
RESOURCES
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New Economics Foundation
Green Economics Institute
Jubilee Centre
Association of Christian Economists