Reversing the arrow of arrears: The concept of “ecological debt” and its value for environmental justice

Warlenius, Rikard; Pierce, Gregory; Ramasar, Vasna

doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.10.014

Cited by 76 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Secondly, countries that import more resources than they export are responsible for parts of the trade partner's ecological debt, and they avoid environmental pressure on their domestic environments. These aspects provide a framework for a quantitative investigation of intra-and inter-generational equity (Brundtland et al 1987) and relate to the aspects defined by Martinez-Alier (2002) recently reviewed by Warlenius et al (2015). Equity, as understood here, remains merely a theoretical target, but is useful to calculate which countries have made disproportionate use of global resources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Researchers argue that unjust regulatory conditions between Northern and Southern countries in the exchange of resources are the main reason why the global North is indebted to the South in ecological terms (Warlenius et al 2015). Here we quantify the net trade of physical resources at the country level over the period of 1950-2010.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The concept of ecological debt is used to describe cumulative historical environmental injustices and there are several approaches used to quantify it (Warlenius et al 2015). Environmental injustice, like ecological debt, is a rather vague concept.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Environmental injustice, like ecological debt, is a rather vague concept. Joan Martinez-Alier (Paredis et al 2008;Warlenius et al 2015) underlines two aspects: firstly, unequal exchange, which is defined as "the fact of exporting products from poor regions and countries, at prices which do not take into account the local externalities caused by these exports or the exhaustion of natural resources, in exchange for goods and services from richer regions." and secondly, "... the tendency of wealthy countries to disproportionately utilize environmental space without paying for it" (both citations from Warlenius et al 2015: 25).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cumulative material flows provide indicators to quantify the ecological debt

Mayer¹,

Haas²

2016

Journal of Political Ecology

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There is ample evidence that an unabated growth in material consumption is likely to pass the earth system's source and sink capacities. In the face of limited resources, distributional questions increasingly gain importance. Material flow accounting is a methodological tool to trace biophysical patterns of disproportionate resource consumption across countries and the debt towards the environment, other parts of the world, and towards future generations through the excessive consumption of natural resources. At the core of this article, we address different developments of material use for individual countries and world regions from 1950 to 2010. During this phase, fossil fuel-based industrialization triggered an unprecedented growth in material consumption, mainly in the wealthy world regions of Europe, Australia, North America, and partly in the countries of the former Soviet Union, while low resource consumption persists in other regions. We thus calculated cumulative resource use from 1950 to 2010 to show the extent of this wealth built up upon countries' own resources, or through imports from other countries or world regions. We use the degree of net-import dependency of individual countries as a proxy for the ecological debt, and relate it to the domestic resource extraction in a country. Our observations show that there was a highly uneven distribution of resource extraction and use in the 60 years analyzed, which has important implications for future global resource policies. Keywords: Ecological debt, material flow accounting, international trade, global resource use RésuméIl est amplement prouvé qu'une croissance sans relâche dans la consommation matérielle est susceptible de passer les capacités du système de terre. Face à des ressources limitées, les questions de redistribution acquièrent de plus en plus d'importance. La comptabilisation des flux de matières est un outil méthodologique pour tracer des modèles biophysiques de la consommation des ressources disproportionnées entre les pays, et la dette due à l'environnement, d'autres parties du monde, et envers les générations futures, par la consommation excessive des ressources naturelles. Au coeur de cet article, nous examinons l'évolution de l'utilisation des matériaux par les différents pays et régions du monde à partir de 1950 jusqu'à 2010. Au cours de cette phase, l'industrialisation à base de combustibles fossiles a déclenché une croissance sans précédent de la consommation matérielle, principalement dans les régions riches du monde -Europe, Australie, Amérique du Nord, et dans certains des pays de l'ex-Union soviétique. Une faible consommation de ressources a persisté dans d'autres régions. Nous avons donc calculé l'utilisation des ressources cumulative entre 1950 et 2010 pour montrer l'étendue de cette richesse qui a été construit sur les ressources propres des pays, ou par les importations en provenance d'autres pays ou régions du monde. Nous utilisons le degré de dépendance nette des importations des pays en tant que proxy pour la ...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cumulative material flows provide indicators to quantify the ecological debt

Mayer¹,

Haas²

2016

Journal of Political Ecology

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“…The EUE perspective leads to the logical if radical claim that the North owes the South an 'ecological debt ' (cf. Bond 2010;Paredis et al 2004;Rice 2009b;Warlenius et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Core tenets of the theory of ecologically unequal exchange

Oulu

2016

Journal of Political Ecology

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In this article, core tenets and claims of the theory of ecologically unequal exchange (EUE) are synthesized. EUE theory postulates a net flow of natural resources from peripheral developing to core industrialized countries through international trade, a situation which undermines the development of the periphery while enhancing that of the core. The key claims and EUE mechanisms are categorized and discussed under three topics: 1) the structure of the capitalist world-economy, 2) monetary valuation, and 3) equity and justice. The treadmill logic of capitalism in which capital extracts ecological resources and release waste in an endless pursuit of profits creates an expansionary dynamic which draws peripheral countries into exploitative market relations. This peripheralization is supported by 'free trade' economic policies, while nation-states and other political-economic institutions such as the WTO and IMF provide the regulations which ensure proper functioning of the system. Monetary valuation caps it by obscuring the inverse relationship between thermodynamics and economics, in which low-entropy energy and materials indispensable in economic production processes are lowly priced while processed goods which have dissipated most of their matterenergy are highly priced, ensuring that biophysical resources and profits accumulates in the industrialized Northern countries. This EUE framework is applied to the EU's Raw Materials Initiative from the vantage point of policy as implicit theory. By challenging mainstream policies and their underlying theories, the EUE perspective demonstrates that alternatives to neoliberal policy prescriptions exist and policy can play a crucial role in bringing about the necessary structural changes. Key words: ecologically unequal exchange, environmental justice, EU, capitalism, free trade, policy RésuméDans cet article, les principes et les revendications de la théorie de l'échange inégal sur le plan écologique (EUE) de base sont synthétisés. La théorie soutient que naturellement il y a un flux de ressources à partir de la périphérie vers les pays centraux, par le commerce international. La périphérie souffre tandis que le centre est améliorée. Les principales revendications de l'article, ainsi que les mécanismes impliqués en EUE, sont classées sous trois thèmes et discutées: 1) la structure globale de l'économie capitaliste, 2) la valeur monétaire, et 3) l'équité et la justice. La logique de tapis roulant du capitalisme -dans une poursuite sans fin de profits -extrait les ressources écologiques et puis un des déversements de déchets. Il y a une expansion dynamique; certains groupes de pays périphériques sont attirés dans les relations de marché d'exploitation. Cette périphérisation est soutenue par des politiques économiques «libre-échange». Les états-nations et d'autres institutions politico-économiques, telles que l'OMC et le FMI, garantissent le bon fonctionnement du système par la réglementation. L'évaluation monétaire obscurcit la relation inverse entre la thermodyna...

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Global Environmental Change and Sustainable Development

Bothun¹

2019

Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education

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Reversing the arrow of arrears: The concept of “ecological debt” and its value for environmental justice

Cited by 76 publications

References 19 publications

Cumulative material flows provide indicators to quantify the ecological debt

Cumulative material flows provide indicators to quantify the ecological debt

Core tenets of the theory of ecologically unequal exchange

Global Environmental Change and Sustainable Development

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