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Population, Ecological Footprint and the Sustainable Development Goals

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  • Partha Dasgupta

    (University of Cambridge)

  • Aisha Dasgupta

    (Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office)

  • Scott Barrett

    (Columbia University)

Abstract

The Anthropocene can be read as being the era when the demand humanity makes on the biosphere’s goods and services—humanity’s ‘ecological footprint’—vastly exceeds its ability to supply it on a sustainable basis. Because the ‘ecological’ gap is met by a diminution of the biosphere, the inequality is increasing. We deploy estimates of the ecological gap, global GDP and its growth rates in recent years, and the rate at which natural capital has declined, to study three questions: (1) at what rate must efficiency at which Nature’s services are converted into GDP rise if the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals for year 2030 are to be sustainable; (2) what would a sustainable figure for world population be if global living standard is to be maintained at an acceptably high level? (3) What living standard could we aspire to if world population was to attain the UN’s near lower-end projection for 2100 of 9 billion? While we take a global perspective, the reasoning we deploy may also be applied on a smaller scale. The base year we adopt for our computations is the pre-pandemic 2019.

Suggested Citation

  • Partha Dasgupta & Aisha Dasgupta & Scott Barrett, 2023. "Population, Ecological Footprint and the Sustainable Development Goals," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 84(3), pages 659-675, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:84:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s10640-021-00595-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s10640-021-00595-5
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dasgupta, A. & Dasgupta, P., 2017. "Socially Embedded Preferences, Environmental Externalities, and Reproductive Rights," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1724, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    2. Inklaar, Robert & de Jong, Harmen & Bolt, Jutta & van Zanden, Jan, 2018. "Rebasing 'Maddison': new income comparisons and the shape of long-run economic development," GGDC Research Memorandum GD-174, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen.
    3. Aisha Dasgupta & Partha Dasgupta, 2017. "Socially Embedded Preferences, Environmental Externalities, and Reproductive Rights," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 43(3), pages 405-441, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Gianluca Gucciardi, 2024. "Do venture capital investments contribute to the achievement of the sustainable development goals?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(8), pages 8716-8746, December.
    2. Priyanka Pradhan & Puspanjali Behera & Litu Sethi & Badri Narayan Rath & Narayan Sethi, 2025. "Can green growth and ecological footprint mitigation go hand on hand? The role of sectoral energy consumption, green innovation, and greenfield investment in emerging economies," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 1-27, April.

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