Economics of Sustainable Development

The growing population and the never satiated demands for higher and higher consumption pose concerns regarding the sustainability of the impressive economic growth registered by many countries including India. Since the increasing demand of the population is often met by the greater exploitation of available resources, this tends to exert additional pressure on the aggregate resource base of the economy. The natural question which has come to occupy the minds of contemporary policymakers and social thinkers is whether the impressive growth rates of the global economies can last and, if so, how.

Ramprasad Sengupta’s seminal contribution provides an exhaustive treatment of this issue, bringing together the vast expertise and experience the author has gained over several decades of committed research on the interface of energy, economics and environment. In the first four chapters of the book, Sengupta provides a detailed discussion on the linkages between ecology and economics and reminds us about the importance of acknowledging not only the biophysical limits and the limits of assimilative capacity of nature, but also the role played by the fundamental thermodynamic laws in understanding economic systems.