Sostenibilidad medio-ambiental: Suctituibilitat, evaluación de proyectos y políticas públicas

The project presented here aims at studing one of the main topics of discussion in the field of developmemnt and environmental economics, namely, the quality of life and its forward porjection to new generations. In this line we want to focus attention on three main areas within the sustainability literature. The first ome is the study intergenerational equity. The idea here is the transmission to future generations of a homogeneous stock (weak sustainability) or a differentiated one (strong sustainability) of capital in a broad sense but including as well what istermd natural capital. The second one pursues the study of the operational conditions of sustainability. It is therefore appropiate to include restrictions that limit the comsumption or use of non-reproducible resources or the depreciation of capital. The use of shadow-prices is clearly relevant to an analysis that, in mathematical terms, uses the concept of separability as a key element. In the third and final place, we want to appraise the role of public policies as a tool for promoting environmental sustainability. Specifically, a set of effective public policies that would encourage a more rational use of energy resources could be a valuable tool for promoting less polluting activities that would yield a better environmental quality. The use of ecotaxes is an example of such a policy. Its implementation, however, should be tuned in within a broader and more rational spectrum of fiscal policies.