Sustainable Management of Natural Resources and Ecological Economics - Hub for Global Sustainability

Objectives

In recent centuries, there has been a radical global shift in the relationship between the economic system and the natural environment because of the massive use of non-renewable natural resources, the overexploitation of renewable resources, and the alteration of ecosystems. Among other effects, our economic activities have increased atmospheric CO₂ concentration levels by neatly 50%, accelerating climate change and jeopardizing the availability of the planet’s resources.

For this reason, taking on the challenge of achieving a good life for all within planetary boundaries, we study the more sustainable management of natural resources (both in terms of resource exploration and preservation and the impacts of extractions) and adopt the perspective of ecological economics. This field analyses the relationship between the economy and nature, the conflicts they generate, and the policies that respond to them.

Areas of expertise

Greater efficiency in the use of natural resources such as primary energy, mineral raw materials, and water; reduction in total material and energy use; renewable energies and challenges in the supply of critical materials; water management and aquatic ecosystem preservation; forest resource management and conservation of environmental services; ecological macroeconomic models; models for the exploitation of natural resources; geological storage of gases; recycling and more circular use of materials; design of more sustainable products; economic instruments for environmental policy; environmental conflicts; sustainability indicators; intra and intergenerational equity; consumption models aimed at meeting human needs more sustainably.

Research Lines

Exploration, extraction, resource management, and waste treatment and reuse.

Definition of subsurface for resource or waste storage.
Ecology of aquatic systems and their biodiversity.
Study of pollution and water decontamination techniques, and wastewater reuse.
Exploration and modelling of mineral, geothermal, hydrocarbon, and natural hydrogen resources.
Exploration and protection of water resources.
Extractive metallurgy and metal recovery.
New construction materials from waste and by-products.
Biofuel production.
Relationships between plants and soils, fertility, the carbon and nutrient cycle, with applications in ecosystem restoration and forest bioeconomy.
Waste valorization (agri-food, plant, and mining, among others).

Economic, social and political aspects of environmental sustainability

Collective behaviours and exploitation of common resources.
Public procurement with environmental criteria.
Cognitive and psychological determinants of environmental behaviour and more sustainable consumption models.
Political ecology of extractivism and eco-social transitions.
Energy economics and climate change.
Ecological economics and environmental policies.
Law as a tool for sustainability.
Management of renewable and non-renewable natural resources with optimization models and dynamic games.
Mechanisms through which companies can adopt better environmental behaviours.
Macroeconomic models and indicators and sustainability.
Environmental problems and policies, and economic and social inequalities.
Informal work and waste recycling.

Coordination

Jord

i Roca is a professor at the Department of Economics of the University, specialized for decades in ecological economics, with interests in various fields (energy economics and climate change, economic instruments for environmental policy, economic indicators, and sustainability, relationships between economic activity and environmental pressures, among others). He has contributed to numerous publications, both academic and outreach, including co-authorship of the book Ecological Economics and Environmental Policy (FCE, Mexico) and articles in Ecological Economics, Environmental and Resource Economics, Energy Economics, WIREs Climate Change, Journal of Industrial Ecology, among others. He has also coordinated and participated in various works for public administrations. He is the director of the Critical Economics Journal.

Contact jordiroca@ub.edu

Joaquín A. Proenza is a professor of mineral deposits at the University, as well as of official master’s programmes on exploration, evaluation and extraction of mineral resources under European environmental and sustainability standards at the University of Barcelona, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Granada, and the International University of Andalucia. His research focuses on critical mineral raw materials for energy transition, aiming to diversify and improve the efficiency of their supply sources by studying both conventional and unconventional mineral deposits, to offer solutions to challenges of global mineral resource security.

Contact japroenza@ub.edu