Hållbar tillväxt - möjlighet eller motsägelse? En granskning av aktörer och strategier inom EU och Lissabonprocessen
Sustainable Growth - prospect or problem? A study of the EU Lisbon Process
Author
Summary, in English
In 2000 the European Council agreed on the so called ‘Lisbon Strategy’, the purpose of which is to make the European Union the strongest and most competitive economy in the world and also to fight unemployment and secure social welfare systems. One year later, in 2001, an ‘environmental dimension’ was supplemented to the Lisbon Strategy at the Council meeting in Gothenburg. An ‘EU Strategy for Sustainable Development’ was adopted, clarifying the ambitions of environmental and social sustainable development in the Union as well as in relation to the global dimension.
The EU is thus engaged in a comprehensive ‘Lisbon process’ with ambitious political goals for the year 2010 in the ‘economic dimension’, the ‘social dimension’ and the ‘environmental dimension’. To meet the targets of both ‘economic sustainability’ and ‘environmental sustainability’, a central assumption is that of ‘sustainable growth’. While economic growth in terms of a growing GDP is at the core of the economic dimension, a ‘decoupling’ of this growth from unsustainable environmental trends and use of natural resources is necessary to meet ambitions related to the environmental dimension. The Lisbon process is thus characterized by a dominant focus on economic growth, and the goals of the environmental dimension is
expected to be reached by the process of ‘decoupling’ based on ambitious environmental policies.
The purpose of this study is to make a close and critical scrutiny of the Lisbon process and the assumption of ‘sustainable growth’. A basic question is to clarify what is meant by ‘sustainability’ in the economic and the environmental dimension respectively, and also, to analyse the meaning of ‘sustainable growth’. Secondly, I will investigate the relationship between the economic and environmental dimensions of the strategy. Are the goals expressed in different dimensions compatible and mutually supporting or are they conflicting? By illuminating these issues, the study moves towards a final set of questions:
- What are the arguments that encourage or counteract the Lisbon assumption of ‘sustainable growth’?
- Is the European Union approaching ‘sustainable growth’ in the light of empirical data and indicators?
- What are the prospects for the Lisbon process as a way towards global ‘sustainable development’?
The transdisciplinary approach of Ecological Economics and
Human Ecology represent my theoretical points of departure. These research fields have in common the ambition of integrating different disciplinary perspectives on problems concerning the relationship between nature, society and man, i.e. issues of ‘sustainable development’. Reality is viewed as an integrated and interdependent system where ecological, social, cultural and mental processes interact. In this study perspectives from Physical Resource theory, Systems Ecology, World System theory and different branches
of Economics, among others, are used to meet the transdisciplinary ambition of a comprehensive systems approach. Empirically, this study is basically founded on three parts: a study of literature, a number of interviews, and statistics related to different
parameters judged relevant for ‘decoupling'.
The EU is thus engaged in a comprehensive ‘Lisbon process’ with ambitious political goals for the year 2010 in the ‘economic dimension’, the ‘social dimension’ and the ‘environmental dimension’. To meet the targets of both ‘economic sustainability’ and ‘environmental sustainability’, a central assumption is that of ‘sustainable growth’. While economic growth in terms of a growing GDP is at the core of the economic dimension, a ‘decoupling’ of this growth from unsustainable environmental trends and use of natural resources is necessary to meet ambitions related to the environmental dimension. The Lisbon process is thus characterized by a dominant focus on economic growth, and the goals of the environmental dimension is
expected to be reached by the process of ‘decoupling’ based on ambitious environmental policies.
The purpose of this study is to make a close and critical scrutiny of the Lisbon process and the assumption of ‘sustainable growth’. A basic question is to clarify what is meant by ‘sustainability’ in the economic and the environmental dimension respectively, and also, to analyse the meaning of ‘sustainable growth’. Secondly, I will investigate the relationship between the economic and environmental dimensions of the strategy. Are the goals expressed in different dimensions compatible and mutually supporting or are they conflicting? By illuminating these issues, the study moves towards a final set of questions:
- What are the arguments that encourage or counteract the Lisbon assumption of ‘sustainable growth’?
- Is the European Union approaching ‘sustainable growth’ in the light of empirical data and indicators?
- What are the prospects for the Lisbon process as a way towards global ‘sustainable development’?
The transdisciplinary approach of Ecological Economics and
Human Ecology represent my theoretical points of departure. These research fields have in common the ambition of integrating different disciplinary perspectives on problems concerning the relationship between nature, society and man, i.e. issues of ‘sustainable development’. Reality is viewed as an integrated and interdependent system where ecological, social, cultural and mental processes interact. In this study perspectives from Physical Resource theory, Systems Ecology, World System theory and different branches
of Economics, among others, are used to meet the transdisciplinary ambition of a comprehensive systems approach. Empirically, this study is basically founded on three parts: a study of literature, a number of interviews, and statistics related to different
parameters judged relevant for ‘decoupling'.
Publishing year
2005
Language
Swedish
Publication/Series
Forskningsrapport 2005:1
Full text
Document type
Report
Publisher
Ekonomihögskolan, Mälardalens högskola, Västerås
Topic
- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering
Keywords
- EU
- Lisbon Strategy
- Environmental Kuznets Curve
- Lisbon process
- EU Strategy for Sustainable Development
- decoupling
- sustainable growth
- economic growth
- sustainable development
- environmental policy
- Ecological Economics
- on economic growth
- perspectives
- Human Ecology
- ecological modernisation
Status
Published
Report number
2005:1
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1652-3512