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Creating a Sustainable and Desirable Future

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Global Ecological Governance and Ecological Economy

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Abstract

This chapter describes what an “ecological economy” embedded in an “ecological civilization” could look like and how we could get there. We believe that this future can provide full employment and a high quality of life for everyone into the indefinite future while staying within the safe environmental operating space for humanity on earth. This is consistent with the new UN Sustainable Development Goals. To get there, we need to stabilize population more equitably share resources, income, and work invest in the natural and social capital commons reform the financial system to better reflect real assets and liabilities create better measures of progress reform tax systems to tax “bads” rather than goods promote technological innovations that support well-being rather than material growth, and create a culture of well-being rather than consumption. Several lines of evidence show that these policies are mutually supportive and the resulting system is feasible. The substantial challenge is making the transition to this better world in a peaceful and positive way. There is no way to predict the exact path this transition might take, but painting this picture of a possible end-point and some milestones along the way will help make this choice and this journey a more viable option.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This chapter is adapted from a report commissioned by the United Nations for the 2012 Rio + 20 Conference as part of the Sustainable Development in the twenty-first century proJect see R. Costanza et al., Building a Sustainable and Desirable Economy-in-Society-in-Nature (New York: United Nations Division for Sustainable Development, 2012) and from a shorter version published as Chapter 11, pp. 126–142. In: State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible? Island Press. Washington, D. C.

  2. 2.

    Total debt from “Z. 1 Statistical Release”, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, at www. federalreserve. gov / datadownload / Download. aspx? rel = Z1&series = 654245a7abac051cc4a 9060c911e1fa4&filetype = csv&label = include&layout = seriescolumn&from = 01 / 01 / 1945&to = 12 / 31 / 2010.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Public Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

    Robert Costanza

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  1. Robert Costanza
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Economics of Shandong Academy of Social Sciences, Jinan, Shandong, China

    Weiguo Zhang

  2. Rural Development Institute, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China

    Fawen Yu

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Costanza, R. (2022). Creating a Sustainable and Desirable Future. In: Zhang, W., Yu, F. (eds) Global Ecological Governance and Ecological Economy. Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-7025-1_1

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