Steinberger, Julia K., Lamb, William F and Sakai, Marco orcid.org/0000-0002-9337-5148 (2020) Your money or your life? The carbon-development paradox. Environmental Research Letters. 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). |
Keywords: | climate change,well-being,economic growth,energy,food,decoupling,Easterlin paradox |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Environment and Geography (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 30 Mar 2020 08:41 |
Last Modified: | 21 Jan 2025 17:46 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab7461 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1088/1748-9326/ab7461 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:158888 |
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