T.I.M.E. European Summer School 12-06-29

SUSTAINABILITY & ECONOMICS

2 JULY 13 JULY, 2012

Objectives The objective with the course is to give the student a deeper knowledge in both technical and non-technical issues concerning sustainability and its interaction with economic issues. Topics to be discussed are e.g. alternative measurement tools to gross domestic product (GDP), climate change, transport systems in a global context and corporate social responsibility. The course will be performed in collaboration with BME (Budapest), ITU (Istanbul), KTH (Stockholm), OUSL (Sri Lanka), SUPELEC (Paris), UniTn (Trento) and UPM (Madrid). All sites will be audio and visually connected by Internet in real time. After the course the student should be able to:

! account for the general principles of sustainability and how it interacts with economic conditions and restrictions

! account for the principles of large infrastructure systems, as e.g. water systems, related to sustainability and economics

! describe alternative measurement tools to GDP ! account for the meaning of Clean Tech for a sustainable development

Introduction The importance of land as a resource was recognized as primary by the French physiocrats in the 18th century and by John Stuart Mill in the 19th century. However, economists in the first two thirds of the 20th century were still primarily concerned with problems of unemployment, investment, growth and fiscal policy. In the 1960s, Boulding and Mishan were among the first to call attention to the environmental costs of economic growth, although mainstream economists were still slow to recognize the implications of the fact that materials extracted from the earth and utilized for economic purposes are not literally consumed, but become waste residuals that do not disappear and may cause environmental damage and result in unpaid social costs. Environmental economics finally emerged as a recognized branch of the discipline around 1970 when the deteriorating state of the human environment began to achieve headline status. Earthday in 1970 marked the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. and comparable agencies in other western countries. This was followed quickly by the publication of One Earth by Ward & Dubos (1972) and the UN Stockholm Conference in 1972. The Stockholm conference resulted in the

T.I.M.E. European Summer School 12-06-29

institutionalization of environmental concerns at the international level through the creation of an Environmental Directorate at the OECD and a new UN agency, UNEP. Although the concept of sustainability has been around for a long time, it became more widely used in the 1980s. Back in 1983, the Secretary-General of the United Nations established a commission called the World Commission on the Environment and Development. This commission is frequently referred to as the Brundtland Commission, after Gro Harlem Brundtland, the head of the commission and formerly the Prime Minister of Norway. The commission was asked to look at the world's environmental problems and propose a global agenda for addressing them. She put together a team that went around the world and talked to people in all walks of life: fishermen, farmers, homemakers, loggers, school teachers, indigenous people and industry leaders. They asked what peoples' environmental concerns were and how they should be addressed. The result of the study was that there wasn't one environmental issue that was first and foremost in peoples' minds. People talked about living conditions, resources, population pressures, international trade, education, and health. Environmental issues were related to all of these, but there was no hard and fast division separating environmental issues, social and economic issues. All the problems were intertwined. There were links between the environment, the economy and society that caused problems in one of these areas to affect the other areas. As a result, the Brundtland Commission came up with a definition of sustainable development which emphasizes meeting needs, not just now, but in the future as well: "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". In spite of the current concern that a strong interaction between sustainability and economics is needed, the theoretical and methodological contribution of economics to sustainable development nowadays is still inadequate. This is indicated, for example, by the fact that the concept of sustainable development is still rejected by many mainstream neoclassical economists. In response, the merger-movement of "Ecological Economics" consisting of many disparate scientific approaches has formed. This creates a scientific divide which is undesirable from a research policy point of view. Sustainability Economics can be described as economics for sustainable development (SD) or economics for sustainability. It represents a broad interpretation of ecological economics where environmental and ecological variables and issues are basic but part of a multidimensional perspective. Social, cultural, health related and monetary/financial aspects have to be integrated into the analysis. The key features of Sustainability Economics are: a) A comprehensive approach encompassing the ecological, economic and

social dimensions of sustainability

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b) the development of economic methods and concepts that deal with problems of sustainability

c) a strengthening of policy-orientated economic approaches for sustainability

d) integration of the sustainability concepts of general economics (such as sustainable finance) into the environmental economics SD debate

e) an identification of "bridges" between different economic "schools of thought" (e.g. neoclassical economics, ecological economics, evolutionary economics) by means of studying integration and disintegration processes in general science and exploring venues of interdisciplinary approaches (e.g. consilience).

References ! Ayres, R. U., 2008. Sustainability economics: Where do we stand? Ecological

Economics 67, 281-310. ! Boulding, K. E., 1966. In: Garrett, Baltimore M.D. (Ed.), Environmental quality in a

growing economy. In Essays from the 6th RFF Forum. Johns Hopkins University Press.

! German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin). Sustainability Economics. http://www.sustainabilityeconomics.de (accessed 29-June-2012).

! Mill, J. S., 1848. Principles of political economy with some of their applications to social philosophy. C.C. Little and J. Brown, London, UK.

! Mishan, E.J., 1967. The costs of economic growth, 1st ed. Staples Press, London, UK.

! Sustainable Measures, West Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A. http://www.sustainablemeasures.com/Training/Indicators/Def-Br1.html (accessed 29-June-2012).

! Sderbaum, P., 2008. Understanding Sustainability Economics Towards Pluralism in Economics. Earthscan, London, UK.

! Ward, B., Dubos, R., 1972. One earth: the care and maintenance of a small planet. paperback ed. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, UK.

Course content The different sites will take it in turn to give lectures every morning from Monday to Thursday. They will be sent by video link to the other sites. In the afternoons, group discussions will be held (both locally and remotely) on the topic given in the lecture on the morning. Thereafter, oral presentations and discussions (seminars) will be held between the sites by video link. After the lecture day, there will be time to write individual assignments of the days topic at each site. Two study tours will be arranged each Friday at each site. They will be followed by local group discussions and presentations on video link in the afternoons. Written individual reflections of the course have to be submitted at mid-term of the course. The work will be performed in small groups and individually.

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Description of the lectures, study tours and group assignments are shown below. Lectures and study tours (Hours are given in Central European time (GMT+2 including daylight saving hour)) Monday the 2nd of July 8.15 8.45 Course introduction An overview of the course content and course details will be given. Monday the 2nd of July 8.45 11.30 Replacing GDP as a measure of progress Lecturer: Mr. Gyorgy Horvth, Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) Tuesday the 3rd of July 8.45 11.30 The Impact of Climate Change on Water Resources Lecturer: Prof. Bruno Majone, University of Trento (UniTn) Wednesday the 4th of July 8.45 11.30 European issues on Sustainability & Economics Lecturer: Dr. Xavier Timbeau, SUPELEC Thursday the 5th of July 8.45 11.30 Corporate Social Responsibility Lecturer: Eng.V.R. Sena Peiris, Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) Friday the 6th of July 9 14 Study visit. Local arrangements at each site. Monday the 9th of July 8.45 11.30 Social-Political Factors and Mitigating Climate Change Lecturer: Dr. Marcus Carson, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) Tuesday the 10th of July 8.45 11.30 Modelling for Sustainability Lecturer: Dr. Attila F!r, Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) Wednesday the 11th of July 8.45 11.30 Clean Tech - Using Technology to Change the World Lecturer: Prof. Luz Fernndez, Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM)

T.I.M.E. European Summer School 12-06-29

Thursday the 12th of July 8.45 11.30 Water Resources and Management Lecturer: Prof. Ali Erturk, Istanbul Technical University (ITU) Friday the 13th of July 9 14 Study visit. Local arrangements at each site. Friday the 13th of July 18.00 18.30 Summary and break-up. Individual assignments Tasks for individual written assignments will be distributed at the end of each lecture day, based on the topic given during that day. The deadline for submitting all the individual assignments in Bilda is the 22nd of July 2012 at 24.00 GMT+2. Individual assignments not being submitted in Bilda before the deadline will not be evaluated. .

Teachers and other persons involved KTH, Stockholm: Prof. Torsten Fransson Torsten.Fransson@energy.kth.se Tel.: +46-8-790 74 75 (Head of Department of Energy Technology, Programme Director and Course examiner) Dr. Peter Hagstrm peter.hagstrom@energy.kth.se Tel.: +46-8-790 74 72 (Programme Manager) Cell: +46-70-231 96 85 Mr. Florian Fruth florian.fruth@energy.kth.se Tel.: +46-8-790 74 81 (Course assistant) Cell: +46-70-320 92 40 Dr. Marcus Carson (SEI) (Lecturer) BME, Budapest: Prof. Peter Moson moson@bme-tk.bme.hu (T.I.M.E. institutional coordinator at BME) Ms. Ildiko Varga elekgaborne@gmail.com Tel.: +36-702-270 055 (Financial and organizational issues)

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Mr. Gyorgy Horvth george@eik.bme.hu Tel.: +36-206-630 515 (Course responsible and lecturer) Prof. Attila F!r (Lecturer) ITU, Istanbul: Prof. Idil Arslan Alaton arslanid@itu.edu.tr (Vice Dean of the Graduate School, T.I.M.E Coordinator and responsible for the TESS programme) Mr. Mustafa Coban cobanmu@itu.edu.tr (ICT support) Mr. Erdem Cicek ciceke@itu.edu.tr (ICT support) Prof. Ali Erturk (Lecturer) OUSL, Sri Lanka: Mr. Ruchira Abeyweera ruchira@kth.se Tel: + 94 (0)11 - 2881 - 227 (T.I.M.E. institutional coordinator at OUSL) Cell: +94 (0)71 - 6853 - 609 Eng. W. R. De Mel (Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, OUSL) Dr. N. S. Senanayake (Program Facilitator SEE World M Sc) Dr. D. H. R. J. Wimalasiri (Asst. Program Facilitator SEE World M Sc) Eng. D. C. Wijewardena (Asst. Program Facilitator SEE World M Sc) Eng. H. D. N. S. Priyankara (Asst. Program Facilitator SEE World M Sc, and ICT support) Eng, V. R. Sena Peries (Lecturer) SUPELEC, Paris: Dr. Claude Lhermitte claude.lhermitte@supelec.fr Tel.: +33-169-851 243 (Head of International Relations Office)

T.I.M.E. European Summer School 12-06-29

Ms. Anne S. Chrtien Anne.Chretien@supelec.fr (Local organization, accommodation etc) Dr. Xavier Timbeau (Lecturer) UniTn, Trento: Prof. Riccardo Zandonini riccardo.zandonini@unitn.it (Deputy Dean for international relations) Ms. Virna Eccli Virna.Eccli@ing.unitn.it (Erasmus Office) Prof. Bruno Majone (Lecturer) UPM, Madrid: Prof. Isabel Ortiz isabel.ortiz@upm.es (Main responsible for TESS) Ms. Ana Domnguez adominguez@etsii.upm.es (Technical support at the International Office) Mr. Toms Prieto Remn tc.prieto@upm.es (Course assistant) Prof. Luz Fernndez lfernandezg@etsii.upm.es (Lecturer) Literature Lecture material and parts not included elsewhere will be found in Bilda an electronic platform administrated at KTH. Course requirements - Participation in all course sessions (lectures, group discussions and study

tours). - Approval of all individual assignments. - Approved participation in all students presentations (seminars). - Submission of midterm reflections Examination: 5 ECTS credits, given by KTH and ITU.

T.I.M.E. European Summer School 12-06-29

Grades ECTS grades (A F, where F is failed) will be received, mainly based on the individual assignments. The deadline for submitting all the individual assignments in Bilda is the 22nd of July 2012 at 24.00 GMT+2 (including daylight saving hour).