Green Capital - A New Perspective on Growth

Challenging the certainty that ecological preservation is incompatible with economic growth, Green Capital shifts the focus from the scarcity of raw materials to the deterioration of the great natural regulatory functions (such as the climate system, the water cycle, and biodiversity). While we can find substitutes for scarce natural resources, we cannot replace a natural regulatory system, which is incredibly complex. It is then essential to introduce a new price into the economy that measures the costs of damage to these regulatory functions. This shift in perspective justifies such innovations as the carbon tax, which addresses not the scarcity of carbon but the inability of the atmosphere to absorb large amounts of carbon without upsetting the climate system.

About the author

Christian De Perthuis is a professor of economics at University Paris-Dauphine and head of the Climate Economics Chair. He is the author of several books, including Economic Choices in a Warming World, and as chairman of the Green Tax Committee, designed the carbon tax that was introduced by the French government in January 2014. Pierre-André Jouvet is a professor of economics at the University of Paris-Ouest-Nanterre-la Défense and the scientific director of the Climate Economics Chair. His recent book is Global Environmental Commons: Analytical and Political Challenges in Building Governance Mechanisms.

Summary

Translation of: Le capital vert: une nouvelle perspective de croissance, published in 2013.

Report

"By systematically destroying the natural foundations of our economic and social development, we deprive ourselves of the chance for sustainable growth. Is there a way out? The answers that de Perthuis and Jouvet provide are a model of realism, characterizing in operational terms the radical shifts required to escape the trap we are in." Claude Henry, Sciences Po Paris and Columbia University

Product details

• Authors: Christian De Perthuis, Christian Jouvet De Perthuis, Pierre-Andre Jouvet, Pierre-André Jouvet, Christian de Perthuis, Christian De Jouvet Perthuis
• Assisted by: Michael Westlake (Translation), Westlake Michael (Translation)
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.10.2015
• EAN: 9780231171403
• ISBN: 978-0-231-17140-3
• No. of pages: 288
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Biology > Ecology; Social sciences, law, business > Business > International economy; BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Development / Sustainable Development, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Green Business, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Environmental Economics, The environment, Environmental Economics, Science / Environmental Science, Civil engineering, surveying & building, nature; environmental science