Articles from Science for Environment Policy

Meeting the need for green skills in Europe's job market (6/1/11)
For a new green economy to be successful, governments should support the development of green skills in the labour market, according to a new report. This could be achieved by improving or adding to the existing core skills of workers, whilst mainstreaming environmental awareness into education and training.
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Call for Natural Capital to be mainstreamed into finance ministries (6/12/10)
Although the value of biodiversity and ecosystem services has been recognised, it is still not fully integrated into policy-making. A new report has developed an action plan that recommends that governments create a "Natural Capital" minister in the Finance Ministry, develop a set of Natural Capital Accounts and form an inter-departmental committee to oversee programmes in this area.
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Macro-economic models need to widen their perspective (18/11/10)
The recent recession has prompted the adoption of 'return to growth' policies but the tools used to assess growth often have a narrow economic focus. A new report has assessed current macro-economic models and suggests they need to incorporate the impact that environmental factors can have on the economy, and vice versa, and recommends they should consider limits on resource and material consumption.
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Sustainable de-growth: an alternative to sustainable development? (16/9/10)
Sustainable de-growth is the transition to a smaller economy with less production and consumption. A new study has explored its origins and compared it to sustainable development. The study found that to become a viable alternative to sustainable development, 'de-growth' needs to be more clearly defined, and its implications for employment need to be considered very carefully.
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Policies to encourage green industry (30/9/10)
New research has outlined three instruments to encourage green industry: adequate governmental resources, co-operation between interest groups and effective negotiation between state and interest groups. Taking the example of the organic food sector, it explored why Denmark has met these conditions whereas Australia has not.
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Updating the monetary value of biodiversity (4/3/10)
New research has updated a major report on the monetary value of biodiversity. The second EU-funded Cost of Policy Inaction (COPI II) report has expanded the existing valuation database to include more regions, more ecosystems and more information on the services they provide and their economic values. The new data could be used to calculate a more accurate figure for the global value of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
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