Steinberger, JK orcid.org/0000-0002-5925-9602, Lamb, WF and Sakai, M orcid.org/0000-0002-9337-5148 (2020) Your money or your life? The carbon-development paradox. Environmental Research Letters, 15 (4). 044016. ISSN 1748-9326
Abstract
The relationship between human health and well-being, energy use and carbon emissions is a foremost concern in sustainable development. If past advances in well-being have been accomplished only through increases in energy use, there may be significant trade-offs between achieving universal human development and mitigating climate change. We test the explanatory power of economic, dietary and modern energy factors in accounting for past improvements in life expectancy, using a simple novel method, functional dynamic decomposition. We elucidate the paradox that a strong correlation between emissions and human development at one point in time does not imply that their dynamics are coupled in the long term. Increases in primary energy and carbon emissions can account for only a quarter of improvements in life expectancy, but are closely tied to growth in income. Facing this carbon-development paradox requires prioritizing human well-being over economic growth.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Leverhulme Trust RL-2016-048 Leverhulme Trust IAF-2018-018 ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) Not Known |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 14 Feb 2020 11:25 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 22:09 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | IOP Publishing |
Identification Number: | 10.1088/1748-9326/ab7461 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:157078 |
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