Bridging environmental economics and sustainability assessment.

The research team Environmental Economics (EnvEcon) works as part of the department of Engineering management of the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Antwerp and as part of the Institute of Environment and sustainable development (IMDO). EnvEcon works on (i) environmental valuation methods, (ii) systemic techno-economic assessments; (iii) sustainability assessment methods. The majority of the PhD students of the EnvEvcon group (about 20 researchers in total) work on projects assessing techno-economic and sustainability performance of emerging environmental and energy technologies (enhanced landfill mining, plastic recycling, biowood valorization, biorefineries, carbon capture and utilization, encapsulation, etc…) with funding of FWO-SBO, Catalisti, VITO and EU H2020 MSCA-ETN. We developed a systemic techno-economic assessment approach integrating environmental aspects with techno-economic analysis. Research on environmental valuation methods focuses on the economic value of climate change adaptation and the valuation of ecosystem services. Steven Van Passel developed the first European Ricardian model, measuring the economic impact of climate change on agriculture. In addition, EnvEcon develops sustainability metrics (e.g. sustainable value approach). The environmental valuation This project proposal will bridge environmental economics and sustainability assessment. The ambition is to strengthen the position of EnvEcon of being a leading European group with the following focus:1) Develop and submit European project (Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe, JPI Climate, JPI FACCE,…) proposals on environmental valuation and sustainability assessment with EnvEcon in a leading position.2) Participate in European project proposals as partner/work package leader to further develop the systemic techno-economic assessments and increase the visibility of our research track.3) Further expand the research network and the working area including also developing countries.4) Stimulate EnvEcon researchers to participate in project writing of European project and individual scholarships. This project will be used as leverage to increase the participation of the EnvEcon research team in European projects. Researchers (postdoc(s), scientific team member(s)) will be (part-time) hired to write together on proposals with the ambition to (part-time) work on approved projects, and as such this project can support the development of several European project proposals. methods and sustainability assessments are applied on cases in both developed and developing countries (mainly Africa).

Keywords:ECONOMY AND ENVIRONMENT

Disciplines:Agricultural and natural resource economics, environmental and ecological economics