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European Association
of Environmental and Resource Economists
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EAERE President Correspondence
Colleagues,
Fifteen is an awkward, difficult age. Adolescence struggles into early adulthood. Acne is omnipresent. Hormones go ballistic, and sex is a 24-hour preoccupation. We become convinced that we must have been adopted at an early age; it is not conceivable that the pathetic ineptitudes who call themselves our parents and try to prevent us from fulfilment could possibly be related to us. Our genetic parents are somewhere else - beautiful, sophisticated, classy, rich, tolerant, indulgent. Narcissism, sentimentality and garrulous insecurity all strive to co-exist in a body that changes daily, and with a spirit that moves in emotional waves of highs and lows of erratic and sometimes alarming intensity. And the struggle is joined for an identity and personality that is comfortable, that provides enough stability to allow us to grow intellectually and emotionally. It is the point where idealism - the sense that fulfilment means more that maximising our own pecuniary self-interest - takes hold; we begin to sense that market failure is a reality, that adjustments in how we organise our lives may be necessary if the individual interest and the societal interest are to coincide.
EAERE will be 15 years old next year. Its founding members were:
Henk Folmer, Netherlands
Karl-Göran Mäler, Sweden
Juan Martinez-Alier, Spain
Ignazio Musu, Italy
David Pearce, UK
Rüdiger Pethig, Germany
Domenico Siniscalco, ItalyThey stated their aspirations for our association as follows:
- Contribute to the development and application of environmental economics as a science in Europe;
- Improve communication and contacts between researchers, teachers and students in environmental economics in the different European countries;
- Develop and encourage cooperation between teaching institutions of university level and research institutions in Europe.Organisations are not people - we don't have acne, and we're not collectively obsessed by sex. But we do share some traits. We strive to find our place in the world, to keep the wider public interest in view, to keep faith with the vision identified by our founders. To give concrete expression to our first objective - contribute to the development and application of environmental economics in Europe - we decided this coming year to recognise a small number of individuals who over a lifetime have made exceptional contributions to the development of our field, and to the application of environmental economics in Europe. A large number of nominations were received from our membership, from which a few were unanimously chosen for recognition by the Council.
As regards development of our field, we confined the choice to those who had already, or would shortly, reach the 'official' retirement age from their main institution, and Karl-Göran Mäler and David Pearce were selected. This is not the place to dwell on their manifold contributions, but I will provide a few personal reflections. Karl-Göran has written what many regard as the definitive book in our field, and he has consistently provided the intellectual ballast to the subject of environmental economics that ensured it was taken seriously by the economics mainstream. It is difficult to overstate the importance of such intellectual accreditation. As Director of the Beijer Institute, he has encouraged the integration of ecology and economics, an intellectual stretch that many have thought about, a few have tried to bridge, but with limited success. His consistent leadership in this area provides this interface with a status, a precedent and a template that will yield great intellectual and practical dividends. At a personal level, his combination of intellectual rigour, humour and complete unpretentiousness as to rank or position make him great company, notwithstanding his unaccountable (to Irish sensibilities at least) culinary enthusiasm for putrid herring ('surströmming').
Integration of economy and environment is a consistent thread in David Pearce's work - the idea that environment can and should be given 'parity of esteem' in managing the macro and the micro economy is at the heart of his contribution. He not only shows how it can be done, but gets involved in making it happen; his engagement with the UK government, the OECD, the World Bank, UN, European Commission and many others have all been directed at giving substance in the policy arena to our ideas. His books have numerous printings, and are translated into many languages; both scholars and those in the policy process in China, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Slovakia and Vietnam can read his work in their own language. His 'Blueprint for a Green Economy' (with Anil Markandya and Ed Barbier) shows that clarity, brevity and simplicity can be a powerful combination in shaping the terms and substance of the policy debate. The graduates of the Masters degree in environmental economics at UCL has of course comprised the '5th column' that has spread the Gospel of environmental economics throughout the world.
As regards outstanding achievement in the implementation of economics ideas, Jos Delbeke is our unanimous nominee. Henk Folmer and I first encountered Jos when we served together on a European Commission task force focused on understanding the relationship between the European Single Market and the environment. His ability to organise, to draw coherence from chaos and his dedication to embedding economics ideas in the decision-making system were apparent then. As he successfully progressed up the Commission's slippery career pole, a consistent strand of his work has been to inject economics ideas into the environmental policy arena. It's not easy. Camus observed that 'we're all special cases.' And most of the special interest constituencies that attempt to shape EU policy don't see the economic argument as central, and many regard it as inimical to their interest. And so keeping a regard for benefits and costs, for mobilising markets to protect the environment rather than the converse, for making economic efficiency and integration of environment and economy central rather than incidental, involves in the first instance fighting the case with the other services of the Commission, then getting the Member States and the European Parliament to buy into the idea, creating coalitions of interest to move an agenda forward in ways that are consistent with economic principles. We need his unique talents, because Europe faces a huge challenge in competing in the global economy, and so the environment also faces a challenge, since many see the choice as a trade-off - less conservation means more competitiveness. Achieving mutuality of interest requires advocacy of a high order from the Commission
Karl-Göran Mäler, David Pearce and Jos Delbeke will join us at our annual conference in Bremen, June 23-26, 2005 to celebrate their achievement. You are encouraged to send a short paragraph to Monica (monica.eberle@feem.it) recounting any positive professional or personal experience, interactions, use of publications etc. associated with one or more of these individuals. Get these to Monica by January 15, 2005. Katrin Millock (Newsletter editor) will use a selection to include in our next Newsletter (due out January 24, 2005) and we'll put them all on our web site.
On behalf of your Council, I wish you all a very enjoyable, safe and relaxed Christmas, and may 2005 be good to us all.
Frank J. Convery
EAERE PresidentFavourite Quote:
'This fictional account of the day-to-day life of an English game keeper is still of considerable interest to outdoor minded readers, as it contains many passages on pheasant raising, the apprehending of poachers, ways to control vermin, and other chores and duties of the professional game keeper. Unfortunately, one is obliged to wade through many pages of extraneous material in order to discover and saviour these sidelights on the management of a Midlands shooting estate, and in this reviewer's opinion, this book cannot take the place of JH Miller's Practical Gamekeeping.'
Review of Lady Chatterly's Lover in Field and Stream
Past Correspondence
