Intergenerational Behavior and Climate Change Policy

Friday, October 26, 10:15 - 12:00 at the Pufendorf Institute, Sölvegatan 2, Lund

Seminar leader: Erik Wengström, Economics

In this seminar, Erik will present economic research on intergenerational fairness issues. More specifically, he will present an ongoing project that addresses the question of how future generations are likely to respond to the behavior of earlier generations. For example, do increased climate-change actions of an earlier generation spur increased actions of future generations? The project will also study how such reciprocal behavior is affected by uncertainty about future environmental costs as well as inter- and intra-generational income inequalities. Finally, the project will analyze implications of our economic experiments on climate economic models and climate change policy.

E. Wengström is Associate Senior Lecturer in Economics at the Lund University School of Economics and Management. His research is directed towards understanding preferences and behavior of individuals and organizations.   

This seminar is part of the Pufendorf-based research project on Consumption, Environment, and the Generation Goal. For further information, please see http://www.pi.lu.se/research-activities/the-generational-goal

The Politics of the Generational Goals

A series of seminars is starting up on October 5. Welcome!

The first seminar is about "The Politics of the Generational Goals".

Friday, October 5, 14:15 - 15 at the Pufendorf Institute, Sölvegatan 2

Seminar leader: Åsa Knaggård, Political Science

The theme of this seminar is the Swedish generational goals for the environment. Many of the goals are very hard to obtain. The goal for climate change is, for example, based on international cooperation, rather than national action. How can we then understand the generational goals? Are they meant to be instrumental or should we rather understand them as symbols for a general political direction with only weak connections to actual political actions?  What role can the generational goals play today? The problematic will be exemplified by the climate goal.

Å. Knaggård is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political Science at Lund University. Her research interest concerns the role of ideas in the stability and change of political institutions and practices, especially concerning environmental problems.

First meeting for the project

A full day meeting for the project "The generational goal – changes of consumption patterns and their environmental impacts" will take place on September 21, 2012.

The meeting will start at 9 a.m. at the Pufendorf institute at Lund University.

All partners are welcome!

The generational goal – changes of consumption patterns and their environmental impacts

A kick-off meeting of a research programme "The generational goal – changes of consumption patterns and their environmental impacts" funded by the Pufendorf institute at Lund University took place on 19 of April 2012.

The purpose of the research programme is to study the generational goal adopted by the Swedish parliament in June 2010 and supported by several parliamentary parties. According to the generational goal, “the overall goal of Swedish environmental policy is to hand over to the next generation a society in which the major environmental problems in Sweden have been solved, without increasing environmental and health problems outside Sweden’s borders”. Environmental policy, therefore, should aim at ensuring that “patterns of consumption of goods and services cause the least possible problems for the environment and human health”. With the proposed research programme we aim to investigate how the goal can be interpreted and translated into action pathways.

The research team will study historical and current changes of consumption patterns and their global environmental effects. This will provide an opportunity to deal with some of the vital questions for humankind. The research programme will result in new knowledge that would serve as an input to Swedish climate politics. Even though consumption patterns and their global impacts are being studied in several disciplines, the broad and collaborative approach on changes in consumption patterns and their global effects is a unique feature of this programme. In addition to generating knowledge relevant for policy making, the research team aims to reach out to the public through media and debate book(s).

Research team comprises:
1. Annika Carlsson-Kanyama, Environmental science
2. Magnus Jiborn, Philosophy
3. Astrid Kander, Economic History
4. Mikael Klintman, Sociology
5. Åsa Knaggård, Political Science
6. Magnus Lindmark, Economic History
7. Oksana Mont, Sustainable consumption and production
8. Leos Müller, History
9. Håkan Pihl, Business administration
10. Erik Wengström, Economics

The project will run from September 2012 till June 2013.