Berlin 2015 – scientific programme

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SOE: Fachverband Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme

SOE 12: Physics of Sustainability and Human-Nature Interactions (Symposium SYPS)

SOE 12.3: Invited Talk

Wednesday, March 18, 2015, 10:30–11:00, H 0105

What are the resources required to fulfil human needs? — •Julia Steinberger — Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds, UK

All human societies require environmental resources, in the form of energy and materials, to survive and flourish. However, the exact level of resource requirements may be difficult to estimate, since it can depend on many factors. These factors include: local biophysical conditions, such as climate or available crops for food; technological options and efficiencies for delivering key services; but also socio-economic parameters, including consumption levels and inequality in distribution. This talk will present recent advances in the international study of energy requirements for human needs. These results demonstrate that high levels of human wellbeing are attainable at moderate as well as very high energy use, and that the average level of energy use required to achieve high human wellbeing is declining over time. Moreover, it can be shown that energy itself does not play a dominant role in explaining the considerable advances in human wellbeing over the past half century. An agenda for analysing the resource requirements to fulfil universal basic human needs will then be presented. This agenda must take into account socio-economic as well as technological choices, since fulfilling human needs at low levels of resource use most likely requires a re-organisation and re-orientation of many socio-economic activities.