Material throughput is a means of measuring the so-called social metabolism, or physical dimensions of a society's consumption, and can be taken as an indirect and approximate indicator of sustainability. Material flow accounting can be used to test the dematerialisation hypothesis, the idea...

This paper examines the influence of global discourses on policies and programmes for Natural Resource Management (NRM) in Australia, and the emergence of 56 formalised regional NRM bodies and their community-based Boards of management with responsibilities for NRM planning and implementation....

China is an economic powerhouse with annual economic growth averaging close to 9% over the last 25 years. However, as a result of this extremely rapid economic growth, the scale and seriousness of its environmental problems are clearly evident. Consequently, a number of environmental problems,...

The current energy system is largely based on the use of fossil fuels. This poses serious constraints on the actual capacity of the economic systems to comply with two related conditions of sustainability, in terms of pollution and scarcity of natural resources. To examine this issue more...

This paper discusses the policy uses, and limits, of three key concepts for defining 'environmentally adjusted' macro-economic indicators for a national economy. The first is change in the system boundary, an enlargement of the scope of national economic accounting to include natural assets;...

The purpose of the Activities Implemented Jointly (AIJ) programme is to foster the transfer of technology for global warming abatement from developed to developing countries. Projects should not only reduce greenhouse gases, but also contribute to the sustainable development goals of host...

An optimisation methodology is applied on the islands of Kephalonia and Ithaca (Prefecture of Kephalonia) in Greece, where various Renewable Energy Sources (RES) can be found and could be exploited to satisfy part of their energy needs. These resources are examined and a case study is performed...

Fundamental to policies of sustainable development is the assumption that values will not depreciate through time. This assumption is inconsistent with the economic approach to policy-making. Economic analysis, by interpreting social values in terms of money, necessarily discounts values in the...

An 'Environmental Diamond' for the Levant is proposed, similar to the World Bank's 'Development Diamond'. It would serve as a framework for evaluating ecosystem risk for the countries in the Jordan Basin that are currently facing a sustainability crisis. The approach followed by this paper was...

Large areas of Oaxaca, southern Mexico, exhibit high biodiversity in the absence of official protected areas. This paper discusses some of the key mechanisms and practices employed by local communities to help conserve their forest resources. The findings suggest that learning from local...