Overview

The Environment and Development Program (MADE) started as a need to provide a continuity to the activities on environmental issues that the Bariloche Foundation had developed since the beginning, integrating the socioeconomic aspects related to decisions affecting the environment – understood in the broad sense of the term – and emphasizing aspects related to economic and social development processes. Additionally, it was considered important to have a program that could provide an interactive link with the other Programs (Quality of Life, Energy and Philosophy), in a field such as the environment, which is transversal to all disciplines. The MADE was created in 1994 and, although it has an interdisciplinary initiative, integrating specialists from several fields, the scientific and technical approach of the topics covered particularly emphasizes a view from the perspective of society, using the tools of Economics applied to the understanding of the problems, challenges and opportunities for the human use of the environment, and understanding that one of the main challenges in the process of making decisions affecting the environment is the possibility of identifying and trying to assess accurately the potential benefits and damage derived from the actions undertaken, their potential effects on the actors involved and the possible future consequences. The MADE has always developed research, training and technical assistance activities, and has presented its work in congresses and specialized journals, has participated in working teams belonging to international bodies, and has provided technical assistance for governmental and non-governmental bodies at the national, provincial, municipal and international levels, mainly in Latin America and the Caribbean.

One of the most important projects of the Program is the development of activities related to the economic aspects of global climate change. The main research lines in this context have to do with the socioeconomic consequences deriving from the heterogeneous nature of the regional distribution of potential impacts of climate change; the identification of benefits and costs of policies related to both, greenhouse gas emission mitigation and adaptation to the vulnerability to climate change at the national, regional and global levels; and the need to identify the relevant factors that could help adopt an agenda at the national and regional level, aiming at interpreting the challenges and opportunities of the international negotiation process for an international regulation.

In this regard, the MADE, on several occasions jointly with the Energy Program (IDEE/FB), has participated in the design of many documents for the Argentine Government, among which are the First and Second National Communications to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (particularly in relation to the Coordination of the Greenhouse Gas Inventories), for several United Nation bodies (mainly the Environment Programme – UNEP –, and the Development Programme – UNDP), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and also for several national and international public and private bodies.

One of the first important products of this Program was the design of the Handbook of Natural Patrimony Accounts, which covers theoretical and practical aspects of the problem and suggests an implementation methodology including examples, and a guide for the design of environmental diagnoses. This Handbook was published as a book titled “Manual de Cuentas Patrimoniales” by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

Other studies comprise direct and indirect impacts on the environment of photovoltaic and wind systems, moto-generator groups and fuel cells. All this research has been presented in several congresses and journals.

Likewise, research and documents related to several aspects of this topic have been published. Some such work comprises the relationship between poverty and the environment in Argentina, the problem of solid waste disposal within the context of development and urbanization, the use of agro-chemical products in the Argentine agricultural sector and its impact on human and animal health, etc.

The work done by the Environment and Development Program comprises more than sixty publications, member participation in several international forums, expert groups and bodies subsidized by the UNFCCC, its belonging to several networks with other academic institutions (such as the Research Independent, Non Governmental Organisations –RINGO- in the context of the UNFCCC, the Climate Change Knowledge Network –CCKN-, among others), teaching courses, lessons, conferences and several subjects in the context of different post-graduate courses at the national and international levels, and human capital training by means of the direction of research work, scholarships and theses by national and foreign students.