THEORETICAL OPTIMISM STUDIES
Good lives can be provided to the whole world’s population while reducing environmental damage
Ending mass human deprivation and providing good lives for the whole world’s population can be done while at the same time achieving ecological objectives. This is demonstrated by a new study by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) and the London School of Economics and Political Science, recently published in the scientific journal World Development Perspectives.
Around 80% of humanity cannot access necessary goods and services and lives below the threshold for “decent living”. Some narratives claim that addressing this problem will require massive economic growth on a global scale, multiplying existing output many times over, which would exacerbate climate change and ecological breakdown.
The authors of the new study dispute this claim and argue that human development does not require such a dangerous approach. Reviewing recent empirical research, they find that ending mass deprivation and provisioning decent living standards for 8.5 billion people would require only 30% of current global resource and energy use, leaving a substantial surplus for additional consumption, public luxury, scientific advancement, and other social investments.
This would ensure that everyone in the world has access to nutritious food, modern housing, high-quality healthcare, education, electricity, induction stoves, sanitation systems, clothing, washing machines, refrigerators, heating/cooling systems, computers, mobile phones, internet, and transport, and could also include universal access to recreational facilities, theatres, and other public goods.
The authors argue that, to achieve such a future, strategies for development should not pursue capitalist growth and increased aggregate production as such but should rather increase the specific forms of production that are necessary to improve capabilities and meet human needs at a high standard, while ensuring universal access to key goods and services through public provisioning and decommodification.
In the Global South, this requires using industrial policy to increase economic sovereignty, develop industrial capacity, and organize production around human well-being.
At the same time, in high-income countries, less-necessary production (of things like mansions, SUVs, private jets and fast fashion) must be scaled down to enable faster decarbonization and to help bring resource use back within planetary boundaries, as degrowth scholarship holds.
The authors demonstrate that the standard development strategy, which is to increase aggregate economic growth, is inefficient at achieving human development. In the existing economy, capital invests in what is most profitable, rather than what is most necessary for human development. As a result, poverty may persist – or even increase – despite economic growth.
Furthermore, in many cases the prices of essential goods like food and housing increase at a faster rate than prices across the rest of the economy, particularly during periods of privatization and market deregulation. This means that people may suffer reduced access to essential goods even as their PPP incomes increase. This problem can be addressed through strategies of decommodification, public provisioning and price controls.
“If human well-being is the objective, it is not GDP (aggregate production in market prices) that matters, but whether people have access to the specific goods and services they need to live good lives. We need to distinguish between what is important for human well-being and what is not”, says Jason Hickel, researcher from ICTA-UAB and the UAB Department of Anthropology.
“Poverty is not an intractable problem that requires long timeframes and large increases in production that conflict with ecological objectives. The solution is straightforward. We can do it right now, by shifting production away from capital accumulation and elite consumption in order to focus instead on providing socially beneficial goods and services for all,” Hickel said.
Co-author Dylan Sullivan, from ICTA-UAB and Macquarie University, says: “This research shows a post-growth economy could ensure universal access to the benefits of industrialization, all while leaving a substantial surplus of energy and resources for recreation, public luxury, and technological advancement. It’s really exciting to think about what we could do with this surplus, what kind of modernity we want to build.”
JOURNAL
World Development Perspectives
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Data/statistical analysis
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
People
ARTICLE TITLE
How much growth is required to achieve good lives for all? Insights from needs-based analysis
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
24-Jul-2024
Microgrids: Resilient city for everyone
KIT researchers have developed a model that takes into account a fair design of decentralized energy systems
IMAGE:
KARLSRUHE AT NIGHT. IN THE FUTURE, MICROGRIDS COULD SHIELD CITIES FROM THE DANGERS OF LARGE-SCALE POWER OUTAGES. (PHOTO: GABI ZACHMAN / KIT).
view moreCREDIT: PHOTO: GABI ZACHMAN / KIT
Local decentralized energy systems, known as microgrids, can make urban infrastructures more resilient and reduce risks for the population, for example, in large-scale power outages due to natural hazards or cyberattacks. In the current issue of the Nature Sustainability journal, researchers from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) present design criteria for microgrids that allow for fair treatment of different social groups alongside technical factors. The study shows how cities can shape the transformation towards a secure and more sustainable energy supply more equitable (DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01395-7).
Climate change increases the probability of extreme events, as we have seen during the massive flooding of large parts of southern Germany in June. The question of how cities and municipalities can make power supply more resilient and more secure in the face of such crises is bringing so-called microgrids into focus. Decentralized systems for generating, storing, and distributing energy, for example with networked photovoltaic power-generation systems and combined heat and power plants, are intended to make large-scale power outages in the entire urban area less likely and to ensure that critical infrastructures for the provision of public services will continue functioning.
A group of German and US researchers, led by Dr. Sadeeb Simon Ottenburger, Head of Department at the Institute for Thermal Energy Technology and Safety (ITES) at KIT, has developed a model for the spatial design of microgrids. Their study provides urban planners with a template for a planning process that integrates various aspects – including socio-economic factors and issues related to societal participation in the planning process. Involved were employees of ITES, KIT’s Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS), and, in the USA, the Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC) at the University of North Carolina and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado.
„Energy Gerrymandering”: Who Has Access to the Energy Supply?
“A special feature of our approach is that we do not consider technical parameters or cost issues as isolated factors, but rather look at the question of what role the design of microgrids plays in terms of a fair energy distribution,” explains Ottenburger. “Imagine the city as a jigsaw puzzle. The size and arrangement of its pieces can vary. The boundaries of energy networks are the result of deliberate decisions and have an impact on the population. In the event of a crisis, it makes a difference how the health, security, and food provision services are distributed within individual microgrids, but also throughout the entire urban area.” The study uses the term “degrees of freedom” to emphasize the importance of design flexibility. To refer to the potentially negative impact of districting that does not take social equity issues into account, the authors used the term “energy gerrymandering”, akin to “political gerrymandering” known from the USA, where electoral districts are divided to the advantage of certain groups. Thus, microgrid districts might be defined in a way that creates an unfair distribution of resources and benefits. Strong and wealthy groups could be favored, while socially weaker and vulnerable groups could be left behind. “Resilience also includes a definition of how access is designed for different groups of the population,” says Ottenburger.
Metrics for Assessing Well-being
The study focuses on the relationship between the different vulnerabilities of socio-economic groups and equitable access to energy and other services. To this end, the researchers have developed metrics using existing vulnerability indices that describe the well-being of the population as a measurable variable and show how power disruptions affect socially and economically vulnerable groups in particular: The sick or elderly, families with children, and low-income earners.
Data from Case Study After Hurricane
The study evaluated data from a comprehensive case study conducted after the power outages caused by Hurricane Florence in New Hanover County, North Carolina, in September 2018. The data was contributed by the US project partners. It allowed the researchers to analyze the critical infrastructure, its vulnerability in relation to the geographical distribution of socially disadvantaged households, and their access to basic services. The project team used this data to develop a universal design that allows for a comprehensive assessment of urban resilience for each city and to generate proposals for the design of microgrids, taking technical and social aspects into account.
Multiple Microgrids per City
One of the authors’ specific recommendations is that a city should have not just one, but several microgrids to ensure a fair distribution and accessibility of critical services such as health and safety structures. Concerning the districting of supply networks, city administrations should actively involve institutions in the areas of health care and security, representatives of different social groups, educational institutions, and social services in the planning and decision-making processes to fairly consider the needs of all social groups.
“The search for optimized microgrid designs is highly complex and new algorithms are needed to develop viable models from the available data,” says Ottenburger. “The key point is that resilient solutions are not necessarily a question of more investment, but above all of sophisticated planning. We should make sure that all groups have a voice and can participate in these processes.”
Original publication
Sadeeb S. Ottenburger, Rob Cox, Badrul H. Chowdhury, Dmytro Trybushnyi, Ehmedi Al Omar, Sujay A. Kaloti, Ulrich W. Ufer, Witold-R. Poganietz, Weijia Liu, Evgenia Deines, Tim O. Müller, Stella Möhrle, Wolfgang Raskob: Sustainable urban transformations based on integrated microgrid designs, Nature Sustainability, 16 July 2024, DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01395-7
Further information on the Institute for Thermal Energy Technology and Safety (ITES) at KIT
Being “The Research University in the Helmholtz Association”, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 10,000 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,800 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.
JOURNAL
Nature Sustainability
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Data/statistical analysis
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
Not applicable
ARTICLE TITLE
Sustainable urban transformations based on integrated microgrid designs
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
26-Jul-2024
