In a concise and crisp manner, this book presents the state of the art in ecological economics, an interdisciplinary field focused on the analysis of sustainability of global, national and regional economic systems. An elegant guide, the book offers a range of cutting edge methods used in sustainability research including multicriteria decision aid (MCDA), input-output analysis, and life cycle analysis.This book is packed with references for students with some background in economi...

To assess urban sustainability performance, this book explores several clusters of cities, including megacities, cities of the Global South, European and North American cities, cities of the Middle East and North Africa, cities of Central and South East Asia, a city state of Singapore and a large group of global cities. It applies a multi-criteria approach using a panel of environmental, economic, social and smart indicators to assess progress and policies in global cities including London...

This open access book builds on the European Union’s (EU) Horizon 2020 project ‘Financial and Institutional Reforms for an Entrepreneurial Society’ (FIRES). The authors outline how Europe can move towards more inclusive, innovative and sustainable growth through reforms that will rekindle its entrepreneurial spirit. Based on decades of research and countless discussions with stakeholders, the book also features the FIRES project’s full list of policy interventions and institutional reforms...

Do we have the rights to optimism? Can capitalism deliver a next great wave of growth? The future, wrote William Gibson, is already here. It just isn't evenly distributed yet. Lucid and polemical, Turnaround Challenge is a dig into that future and its meaning for business. It dissects the nexus of social, economic, environmental and governance crises confronting us, and a series of colliding megatrends with the potential to reshape opportunities for growth. Three...

A unified framework for analyzing urban sustainability in terms of cities' inflows and outflows of matter and energy.Urbanization and globalization have shaped the last hundred years. These two dominant trends are mutually reinforcing: globalization links countries through the networked communications of urban hubs. The urban population now generates more than eighty percent of global GDP. Cities account for enormous flows of energy and materials—inflows of goods a...

The role and meaning of sustainable development have been recognized in the scientific literature for decades. However, there has recently been a dynamic increase in interest in the subject, which results in numerous, in-depth scientific research and publications with an interdisciplinary dimension. This edited volume is a compendium of theoretical knowledge on sustainable development. The context analysed in the publication includes a multi-level and multi-aspect analysis starting from th...

Beijing and Shanghai comprise the axes of China's two leading urban regions. Their economic fortunes will affect the overall growth of China. The economic composition of the two megacities differs significantly and the future sources of competitive advantage also lie in different areas although there is some overlap. Shanghai with its diverse industrial base is the industrial powerhouse of China. Its strongest growth prospects still lie in activities associated with manufacturing industry but...

This paper intends to find the predominant factors for corporations to reduce their carbon emissions. In light of an in-depth literature review, various determinants have been assessed and compared according to their importance. Results show that carbon pricing schemes creating revenue which can be redistributed are the most effective governmental measures. Even though there are ways to circumvent these systems, such as moving operations, bribery or using bargaining power to adjust bills i...

This open access book makes a case for a socially inclusive energy transition and illustrates how engineering and public policy professionals can contribute to shaping an inclusive energy transition, building on a socio-technical systems engineering approach. Accomplishing a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions economy in 2050 is a daunting challenge. This book explores the challenges of the energy transition from the perspectives of technological innovation, public policy, social values and ...

Low-Carbon Energy Security from a European Perspective draws on the European Commission's funded project MILESECURE-2050. It considers low-carbon energy security and energy geopolitics in Europe, with a focus on four thematic clusters: challenging the energy security paradigm; climate change and energy security objectives (the components of a secure and low-carbon energy system); energy security in a geopolitical perspective, as it relates to economics, resource competition, and availabili...

Innovation is a systemic phenomenon in which institutions, such as firms, government entities and public policy incentives, interact in complex ways. Targeting specific sectors of an economy in order to improve the competitiveness and capabilities of domestic firms, interventionist innovation policies can result in the structural transformation of host economies. Numerous examples exist of such policies working successfully in emerging economies and they can be applied to any economic sect...

This book analyses the potential for active stakeholder engagement in the energy transition in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) in order to foster clean energy deployment.Public acceptability and bottom-up activities can be critical for enduring outcomes to an energy transition. As a result, it is vital to understand how to unlock the potential for public, community and prosumer participation to facilitate renewable energy deployment and a clean energy transition – and, consequently, to...