Niko Paech | |
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Born | Niko Paech (1960-12-09) 9 December 1960 (age 63) |
Occupation | Economist |
Awards | Kapp-Forschungspreis für Ökologische Ökonomie |
Niko Paech (born 9 December 1960[1]) is a German economist. Since 2018, he has worked as a supernumerary ("außerplanmäßiger") professor at the University of Siegen. From 2010 to 2018, he was substitute professor at the chair of production and environment (PUM) at the University of Oldenburg. His research focuses on the fields of environmental economics, ecological economics and sustainability.
His analysis in 2009 on the lack of resilience of interdependent global supply chains proved to be correct in 2020 with the beginning of the corona pandemic.[2]
Paech was born in Schüttorf, Germany.[1] He gained a diploma in economics in 1987 from the University of Osnabrück, where he continued to work until 1997, obtaining his PhD in 1993.
After working for a short period as a consultant in the organic food sector and as the Agenda 21 representative of the city Oldenburg, Paech took a position at the University of Oldenburg.
He was co-funder of CENTOS (Oldenburg Center for Sustainability Economics and Management) and is co-chairman of the Vereinigung für Ökologische Ökonomie (VÖÖ), a German ecological economics association,[3] and a member of ZENARIO (Center for sustainable space developing Oldenburg) and the network KoBE e.V. (Expertise center for Building and Energy). Paech is also a member of and scientific adviser for attac-Germany[4] and a founding member of the "Postfossil-Institut" (2011).[5]
In 2006, he was awarded the Kapp Research Award for Ecological Economics for his work on "Sustainable business models beyond innovation and growth – a company-oriented theory of transformation".[6] In 2014, he received the award "Mut zur Nachhaltigkeit" ("Standing up for Sustainability") from the magazine Zeit Wissen.[7] The jury recognised Paech's contribution as a leading light in the worldwide post-growth debate.[8][9] In an article published in the Guardian about the German post growth movement, he was characterized as "one of the more high-profile members of the movement".[10]
The post-growth economy Paech proposes is one that meets human needs independently of economic growth and which is characterized by degrowth. Post-growth economics intentionally distances itself from popular terms such as "sustainable", "green", "dematerialized" or "decarbonized", rejecting the idea that ecological sustainability can realistically be achieved through technological development alone within a system that continues to measure progress merely in terms of added economic value.[11] Paech argues that it is necessary to overcome growth imperatives and to bring about a new economic order by acknowledging the failure of efforts to decouple environmental destruction and the consumption of resources from economic added value, addressing the need to raise overall well-being in society by applying happiness economics, and recognising economic limitations such as global maximum oil output.[11][12]
Paech sketches 4 reasons for and 5 steps to implement his theory.
Reasons:
The Implementation of his approach is based upon five pillars: institutional innovations, material zero sum games,[19] regional economics, subsistence economy and sufficiency, "which conclusively lead to higher individual quality of life and promote the common good." He stresses that there are no sustainable products or sustainable technologies as such, only sustainable lifestyles.[20][21]
Markets, companies, innovations, money and goods will be used in post-growth economy. Within natural limits.[29]
Niko Paech's ideas and proposals have featured in German national newspapers such as the Süddeutsche,[30] Bild,[31] Zeit,[32] taz,[33][34] Le Monde diplomatique,[21] Tagesspiegel,[35] Badische Zeitung[36] and VDI nachrichten.[37] He has been interviewed on Deutschlandradio Kultur[38] 3sat,[39] Arte[40] and has been an in-studio guest on the German TV show Planet Wissen.[41] Internationally, his ideas have been discussed in the Austrian Südwind Magazin,[42] the magazine Format[43] and on the ORF,[44] as well as on the Swiss radio station Radio Stadtfilter[45] and in the Italian newspapers La Stampa[46] and Panorama.[47]
His analysis on the lack of resilience of interdependent global supply chains proved to be correct in 2020 with the beginning of the corona pandemic.[2]
His analysis of the lack of global wealth and stability proves to be right with further impacts of climate change on peoples wealth since on one hand industrial goods can not provide stable weather conditions and on the other extreme events destroy economical achievements.[48][49]
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