Ecological Economics Glossary

The capacity of a given biologically productive area to generate renewable resources and absorb waste.

The study of the biological basis of economic activity, emphasizing energy flows and thermodynamic constraints.

The maximum population or economic activity that an environment can sustain indefinitely without degradation.

A resource that is rivalrous in consumption but non-excludable in access, such as fisheries or groundwater.

A systematic method for comparing costs and benefits of a project or policy, criticized by ecological economists for undervaluing long-term environmental costs.

A planned reduction of material and energy throughput in wealthy economies to achieve sustainability and equity.

The rate used to determine the present value of future costs and benefits; ecological economists argue conventional rates undervalue future environmental damage.

Kate Raworth's framework for a safe and just economy operating between a social foundation and an ecological ceiling.

A measure of human demand on ecosystems expressed in global hectares of biologically productive land and water.

The benefits humans derive from ecosystems, including provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural services.

A thermodynamic measure of disorder; in ecological economics, it highlights the irreversibility of resource degradation.

A cost or benefit of an economic transaction that affects parties not directly involved in the transaction.

An alternative to GDP that accounts for environmental degradation, income inequality, and social factors.

The principle that future generations should inherit a stock of natural and social capital no less than that of the current generation.

A systematic assessment of the flows and stocks of materials within a system, measured in physical units.

The stock of natural resources and ecosystems that provides flows of valuable goods and services.

The macroeconomic concept that the economy has an ideal size relative to the biosphere it depends upon.

A market-based approach where beneficiaries of ecosystem services compensate landowners or stewards who maintain them.

Nine quantitative thresholds for Earth-system processes within which humanity can safely operate.

The principle that preventive action should be taken when an activity threatens environmental harm, even without full scientific certainty.

An economy with stable population and stable throughput of materials and energy at sustainable levels.

The principle that natural capital cannot be substituted by manufactured capital and must be maintained intact.

The flow of energy and materials from the environment through the economy and back as waste.

A situation where individuals acting in self-interest collectively deplete a shared resource.

The view that natural capital can be replaced by equivalent amounts of manufactured or human capital.