The important problem of steady state would not be production but distribution. You can no longer avoid the problem of relative distribution by resorting to growth. (Herman Daly, personal communication) What is the essence of the neoclassical growth model? What is the role of technology? And what is needed to make macro-economic (growth) theory relevant [...]
Conceptual framework The gradual change from mining ores to mining in-use-stocks can be considered a materials transition. The ratios between metal in the lithosphere, in in-use stocks and in end-of-lifetime stocks are indicators of the degree to which human use of the metal is progressing from virgin ore only to recycled material only. It can [...]
Energy use: economics of energy saving The dynamics behind the changes in energy intensity is an important topic in energy economics. Goods and services are produced with a variety of inputs and a so-called production function has been proposed to describe it. Engineers prefer to construct it on the basis of physical flows (engineering production [...]
A technology to supply water in relevant amounts is desalinization of seawater. It is at the intersection of water, food and energy issues, because the water for drinking and food is a necessity of life but its production from seawater requires lots of electricity. It competes with other technologies such as extracting water from air. [...]
Estimating food demand Past food demand equals use by definition and is determined from historical measures and correlations. To estimate long-term future food demand, populations at country level are segmented by income group and by urban versus rural (Bijl et al. 2018). Food quality is implemented by assessing food categories on the basis of end-use [...]
Measuring monetary flows: I-O matrices National economic models have usually more sectors than the economic growth models discussed so far. Such sectoral disaggregation is based on a table or matrix of the intersectoral flows, or intermediate deliveries, between economic sectors: the input-output (I-O) table. They offer a bridge between the empirical data on monetary transactions [...]
Modelling catastrophic change The simplest mathematical equation that represents bifurcations and catastrophic change is a first order differential equation of the form: (eqn. 1) Solving for the attractors (dX/dt = 0), it is seen that one root is X = 0 and it represents a globally unstable attractor and the other two roots are [...]
Models of oil and gas exploitation An important issue in sustainable development discourses is the depletion of finite resources of fossil fuels and minerals. The concepts of supply cost curves and reserve-production ratios (RPR) have been introduced in resource economics, in combination with learning-by-doing (see Appendix 8A.1 en Box 17.2 in Sustainability Science book and [...]
Energy forms and conversions Energy is a fundamental quantity in nature that is transferred between systems or parts of systems. It is ‘stored’ in a variety of forms and is associated with movement, combustion, heat and (the capacity to do) work. Boiling water for a cup of tea, using the microwave oven, switching on the [...]
Energy use: units Energy units. It is important to get some familiarity with the units of energy quantities (stocks) and flows. The energy stored in systems is a stock. Examples are the chemical energy stored in a liter of gasoline, the heat content of a cup of tea or the kinetic energy of a moving [...]