Annals of the University of Oradea: Economic Science (Dec 2020)
APPROACHES TO THE CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABILITY IN ECOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMY
Abstract
In the economy, there are different approaches to sustainability. In this article I want to present the differences of approach of sustainability in the environmental economy and the ecological economy although the line between the two tendencies is not always emphasized. Focusing on differences by systematizing positions on the sustainable dimension of the economy and decision-making procedures related to nature. For this I will present the definitions of the environmental and ecological economies drawing attention to the differences and similarities. Using a high degree of simplification, they are the growth-oriented environmental economy, and the stable (equilibrium), dimension-oriented ecological economy (Turner, 1999). It is particularly tempting to combine these approaches with the two concepts of sustainability that stand out in professional debates, the theory of weak and strong sustainability. Perhaps this is also why this distinction is often used in international literature in relation to sustainability (Schaltegger – Burritt, 2005). Researchers usually see the difference between weak and strong sustainability in terms of natural and artificial capital. According to the theory of poor sustainability, natural and artificial capital are fundamentally substitutable. Thus, in order to meet the sustainability criterion, it is sufficient that the combined value of the two types of capital does not decrease, i.e. the destruction of a natural resource creates an artificial capital of at least the same value. According to the theory of strong sustainability, natural capital is not, or to a very small extent, substitutable for artificial capital, and therefore constitutes an absolute constraint on external sustainability, the minimum level of which must be maintained in order to be sustainable. However, this distinction is problematic in several respects. On the one hand, different authors define - up to four - different theories along the strong / weak sustainability dimension (Goodland – Daly, 1996, Turner, 1988). On the other hand, sometimes different concepts are behind the same names (Goodland – Daly, 1996, Turner, 1988, Gutés, 1996, Kerekes, 2006, Fleischer, 2006). Moreover, the theories of strong and weak sustainability do not necessarily differ in determining the path to sustainability. According to some interpretations, the theory of strong sustainability defines the conservation of the value of natural capital as a criterion of sustainability, which in itself reflects a traditional approach of the environmental economy.
