Perspectives on the Economics of the Environment in the Shadow of Coronavirus
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Perspectives on the Economics of the Environment in the Shadow of Coronavirus
Accepted: 15 July 2020 / Published online: 27 August 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
1 COVID‑19 and Its Implications for Environmental Economics Ingmar Schumacher, as curator of the Perspectives collection IPAG Business School Paris, France The Environmental and Resource Economics special issue “Economics of the Environment in the Shadow of Coronavirus” comes at a hugely critical time for environmental economists and policy makers alike. We are in a situation of significant social change, a change that could potentially lay the foundation for mankind’s future in the years to come. As part of this special issue, ERE is trialling a novel, experimental form of article, drawing together short, focussed pieces from a wide group of authors addressing the plethora of issues which such a fundamental challenge as the coronavirus pandemic generates. These provide critical and reflective perspectives on the environmental, socio-economic and policy paths that may be taken in the near and further future—strategies that could lead mankind either on roads to a much more sustainable development, or along paths that could bring about more instability, inequality and further environmental pressures. This innovative article combines short, policy-relevant and less technical papers that deal with specific aspects and provide clear recommendations for policy makers and suggestions for future research alike. The target audiences are policy makers and companies, but also researchers who want quick yet sufficiently detailed knowledge about particular analyses relating to COVID-19 and issues in environmental economics. We hope that the articles contained within this Perspectives collection provide the necessary information for policy makers to take wise decisions for our future, and for researchers the knowledge to help guide policy makers in their decisions. Pushing the Boundaries on Spaceship Earth Humankind has been very fortunate to have lived through a period of sustained economic growth pretty much since the agricultural revolution, with especially high rates of growth starting from the second half of the twentieth century. This economic progress has allowed us to make unprecedented improvements in consumption, in health, in education and in addressing inequality. Many of us have been fortunate enough to have lived without a war for the past 70 years, which is widely believed to be due to the development of international
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Perspectives on the Economics of the Environment in the Shadow of Coronavirus
institutions and a deepening of international trade that led to widespread cooperation and, with it, it brought a new era of global stability. At the same time, the rapid increases in humankind’s population, from around 2 billion in 1930 to 7.8 billion in 2020, coupled with an increase in real-world GDP by a factor of roughly 40 during the same period, have led mankind to progressively push closer to the boundaries of planet Earth.
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