| Abstract |
Due to the increasing environmental problems, conventional environmental policy will not suffice to secure a development path that can be sustainable on a global scale. This article establishes a conceptual framework for general strategies to reach the goals of ecological sustainability and individual well-being. Environmental impact, material input, income/production, the amount of services utilised, and wellbeing are the fundamental elements of this framework and their linkages are highlighted as possible targets of ecological economic policy. It is clear that current environmental policies, based on a rather narrow, reductionist view of the man-nature relationship, will not suffice. We investigate under which conditions a de-linking of individual well-being from environmental impacts can be achieved; a dramatic dematerialisation of the industrialised economies turns out to be a crucial element. This dematerialisation, we argue, can be achieved only putting a limit to quantitative economic growth, but nevertheless without decreasing the individual well-being, by concentrating the attention on highly valuable eco-efficient services rather than on the production/acquisition of material goods. |
