Politics of Sustainability -- India and China

The title of the talk -- Politics of Sustainability -- intrigued me and it was heavily promoted on the UMass Amherst website, so I gathered two of my doctoral students, one from China and the other from India, and off we went to hear former United Nations policy advisor Mukul Sanwal speak on climate change and sustainability. His talk was under the auspices of the political science department at UMass and Five Colleges, Inc.

Mr. Sanwal worked for the United Nations from 1993 to 2007, serving first as a policy advisor to the executive director of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and later to the executive secretary of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Given that the IPCC just produced its Fifth Assessment report, and it has been getting a lot of attention in the media, his topic was especially timely.

Sanwal began his talk by stating that what India and China will do will frame the future. He emphasized the shifting of the population from being producers to being consumers and noted that the global middle class will triple by 2030. He noted that the climate crisis is caused by the scarcity of resources, or the distribution of resources, and sees the problem as one to be managed, and not solved -- I thought this rather pessimistic but very much appreciated his emphasis on conservation and the importance of altering the behavior of consumers. We need to have better ways of measuring carbon imprints and environmental impacts on the consumption side.

In terms of economic development, we are seeing major migrations to urban areas, especially in China and India, and urban design for sustainability is critical. The population was 1.6 billion in 1900 and will increase to 9 billion in 2050. The urban population was 30% (of 2.5 billion) in 1950 and will be 70% (of 9 billion) in 2050. Economies are now driven by the services sector and not just industry.

It is expected that the transport sector will generate half of the global emissions by 2050.

We need to educate the population about changes in lifestyle and, where feasible, also have the right legislation.

Changing behavior is not easy and society needs to agree that changes need to be made. And we can make the changes through the food that we eat, the homes that we live in, and the modes of transport that we use as well as the products that we buy.

We need a common vision for human welfare (and that of our planet).

Ken Toong, our award-winning Executive Director (and chef) of Auxiliary Enterprises, was also in the audience, and he made some great comments on what his group is doing in sustainability in terms of reducing food waste in the dining commons and also serving red meat infrequently. He is in the blue shirt in the photo above.

Lots of ideas were generated -- thanks to Mr. Mukul Sanwal for sharing his experiences and wisdon with us today.

Three Women Write a Book on Environmental Networks -- Was it Too Early?

In 1999, two of my former doctoral students, Kanwalroop "Kathy" Dhanda and Padma Ramanujam, both of whom were from India, and I had our book, "Environmental Networks: A Framework for Economic Decision-Making and Policy Analysis," published by Edward Elgar Publishing in the series: New Horizons in Environmental Economics.

The book was based on years of our research and publications that we had authored and co-authored that had appeared in such top journals as: Operations Research, Transportation Science, Networks, the Journal of Regional Science, and Energy Economics, among others.

I always wondered, how many books, even of a nontechnical nature, have been published with three (or more) females as co-authors?

Now, with parts of the world reporting record-breaking summer heat and Congress mired in inertia regarding the passage of a major climate bill, as David Leonhardt writes in The New York Times, I thought it important to bring this book to the renewed attention of policy makers.

The book describes rigorous tools for the determination of pollution permits and taxes, and associated environmental emissions, from both stationary sources, such as firms, as well as from moving sources of pollution, such as vehicles. Padma's doctoral dissertation was on the latter topic and it was awarded the 1999 Transportation Science Section of INFORMS dissertation prize.

The Harvard economist, Richard Stavins, whose work we cited in our book, told Leonhardt recently that he would actually prefer a bill that cut emissions less in the short term but created a template for much bigger cuts in the future. Success, to me, would be the beginning of political acceptance of carbon pricing, he said.

Leonhardt believes that: A utility-only cap, even a flawed one, really would represent a whole different kind of progress than a souped-up version of fuel economy rules. A cap — any decent cap — remains the best benchmark of success.

Interestingly, the doctoral dissertation of my most recent PhD student to graduate, Dr. Trisha Woolley, entitled: "Sustainable Supply Chains: Multicriteria Decision-Making and Policy Analysis for the Environment," focuses on the electric power industry and utilities and considers both carbon taxes (either centralized or decentralized) as well as pollution permits.

In the next few weeks, before the Senate breaks for its August recess, or in September, before the midterm election campaign takes over, major issues regarding the climate bill will be decided, we expect and hope.

Rachel Carson with her book, "A Silent Spring," changed the world.

It is time for another book to do the same and break the legislators out of their inertia.

And yes, women do write "Big Ideas" books, something that Germaine Greer has even been emphasizing although, ironically, some of these books may be rather mathematical and scientific!