12th Congress of the International Society for Ecological Economics

16 Jun 2012 - 19 Jun 2012 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The International Society for Ecological Economics' conference, ‘Contributions and Challenges for a Green Economy', preceded the Rio+20 Earth Summit. SANDEE researches Udith Jayasinghe-Mudalige and Saudamini Das presented results from their projects on managing solid waste and adaptation to heat waves at the conference. The spirit of the Congress was in-line with the much larger Rio+20 Summit and focused on how to move forward towards a more sustainable world and the institutions that would be required for this. The ISEE conference was attended by researchers from over 70 countries. Lord Nicholas Stern and Nitin Desai were prominent amongst presenters. Ecological economists focus more on the limits of the biosphere and its implications for the current and future inhabitants of the planet. Per Udith Jayasinghe, some interesting highlights were "the panel on the Gross National Happiness Index, chaired by the Prime Minister of Bhutan, and the plenary on Environmentalism of the Poor".