Klimagune Conferences & Workshops

Abstract There is much hope that environmental innovation and societal transitions will remove the threats posed by climate change and peak oil. I offer a critical perspective on this and synthesize theoretical and empirical insights about innovation and structural change. It will be argued that environmental innovations are very different from “general/normal innovations”. Necessary conditions for a sustainability transition and associated policies are formulated. I draw attention to three types of escape routes which make certain strategies and policies ineffective. This includes attention for ineffective biodiversity policy. Next, an extended argumentation is offered for pricing environmental externalities. This entails a discussion of the particular advantages of tradable permits in the context of innovation and transition. Finally, attention is given to the relationship between macroeconomics and transition thinking in which context economic growth and the current crisis will be addressed.

CV Jeroen van den Bergh is affiliated with the Institute of Environmental Science & Technology and the Dept. of Economics & Economic History of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. In addition, he is professor of Environmental and Resource Economics in the Faculty of Economics & Business Administration and the Institute for Environmental Studies, VU University Amsterdam. Previously, he was professor of Environmental Economics (1997-2007) and Professor of ´Nature, Water and Space´ (2002-2007) at VU University Amsterdam, and Member of the Energy Council of the Netherlands (2003-2007). He obtained a Master in Econometrics from Tilburg University and a PhD in Economics from VU University Amsterdam. He has more than 120 journal publications and (co-)authored/edited 16 books. He was awarded the Royal Shell Prize 2002 and the IEC Premi (Sant Jordi) de Medi Ambient 2011. He is editor-in-chief of the Elsevier journal "Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions"