Where is the conference taking place?

The conference is scheduled to be held in Castellón, ESP.

XII AERNA Conference and XIV Meeting on International Economics

Name: XII AERNA Conference and XIV Meeting on International Economics
Start: 2026-09-03T00:00:00Z
End: 2026-09-04T00:00:00Z
Location: Castellón

Sep 3–4, 2026Castellón, SpainIn-person

Starts in 26 daysRegistration open

The XII AERNA Conference and XIV Meeting on International Economics is a significant gathering for professionals and academics focused on economic research and international relations. Hosted in Castellón, ESP, this event provides a platform for discussing contemporary economic challenges and fostering collaborative research. It brings together diverse perspectives on global economic trends and their implications.

Committees & topics

Topics
Environmental Economics: Pricing Externalities and Ecosystem Services · Natural Resource Economics: Allocation, Scarcity, and the Resource Curse · Sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals · Climate Change: From Paris to Implementation · Energy Transitions: Decarbonizing the Global Energy System · Circular Economy: Closing Material Loops · The Water-Energy-Food Nexus · Public Policy for Environmental and Economic Governance

Why it matters

This conference is crucial for advancing understanding in international economics, a field that directly influences global stability and prosperity. By convening experts, it facilitates the exchange of ideas on complex issues such as trade policies, financial markets, and economic development strategies. The discussions held here can inform policy-making and shape future research agendas, contributing to more resilient and equitable global economic systems.

The event's focus on both AERNA and international economics highlights a dual commitment to specialized economic analysis and broader global economic discourse. This combination ensures that participants engage with both theoretical advancements and practical applications, making the conference a vital forum for those seeking to understand and influence the trajectory of the world economy.

How to prepare

To maximize engagement with the conference, participants should consider how their research aligns with the broader themes of international economics. Preparing presentations or discussion points that address current global economic challenges, such as trade imbalances, financial crises, or the economic impacts of climate change, will be particularly relevant. Understanding the nuances of these topics, perhaps through a review of dynamic analysis in economic modeling, can enhance contributions.

Attendees should also be prepared to engage in interdisciplinary discussions. The field of international economics often intersects with political science, sociology, and environmental studies. Therefore, considering the hidden stakeholders in international economic policies and their potential impacts can lead to more comprehensive and impactful contributions. Developing engagement strategies for networking and collaborative research will also be beneficial.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 1 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Spain

As the host nation, ESP plays a central role in facilitating dialogue and showcasing its contributions to economic research and international cooperation.

Role in topic

ESP provides the geographical and institutional setting for this significant economic conference, underscoring its commitment to fostering international academic exchange and economic discourse within Europe.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Environmental Economics: Pricing Externalities and Ecosystem Services

Environmental economics emerged as a distinct subfield in the mid-20th century, building on Arthur Pigou's work on externalities and Ronald Coase's 1960 analysis of property rights. The discipline gained policy traction in the 1970s as industrialized economies confronted air and water pollution, leading to instruments such as the U.S. Clean Air Act and, later, the European Union Emissions Trading System launched in 2005. Its central insight is that markets routinely fail to price environmental damages, requiring corrective taxes, tradable permits, or regulation. The contemporary agenda has broadened from local pollutants to global commons problems, valuation of ecosystem services (formalized by initiatives like TEEB and the UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting), and the integration of natural capital into national accounts. The 2021 Dasgupta Review, commissioned by HM Treasury, reframed biodiversity loss as an economic asset management failure. Debates today center on the social cost of carbon, border carbon adjustments (notably the EU's CBAM entering its definitive phase in 2026), and how to reconcile growth with planetary boundaries.

Key players

Natural Resource Economics: Allocation, Scarcity, and the Resource Curse

Natural resource economics analyzes the optimal extraction and management of exhaustible and renewable resources. Its theoretical foundations trace to Harold Hotelling's 1931 rule on the price path of nonrenewables and to fisheries models by H. Scott Gordon (1954) and Colin Clark. The 1973 oil shock catalyzed policy interest, exposing the vulnerability of resource-dependent economies and prompting work on rent capture, sovereign wealth funds (pioneered by Norway's Government Pension Fund Global in 1990), and the "resource curse" hypothesis advanced by Sachs and Warner in the 1990s. Current disputes revolve around critical minerals for the energy transition—lithium, cobalt, nickel, rare earths—where supply concentration raises geopolitical and environmental concerns. The IEA's 2021 report on the role of critical minerals reframed extractive policy as a security issue. Fisheries face collapse in roughly one-third of global stocks (FAO SOFIA 2024), while tropical deforestation continues despite the 2021 Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forests. Governments are experimenting with extractive transparency (EITI), export restrictions, and resource nationalism, particularly in Latin America's lithium triangle.

Key players

Sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals

The concept of sustainability entered mainstream policy through the 1987 Brundtland Report, which defined sustainable development as meeting present needs without compromising future generations. The 1992 Rio Earth Summit institutionalized the agenda through Agenda 21 and the three Rio Conventions on climate, biodiversity, and desertification. The 2015 adoption of the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals provided a universal framework, complemented by the Paris Agreement signed the same year. Progress has been uneven. The UN's 2024 SDG Report found that only about 17 percent of targets are on track, with reversals on poverty and hunger following COVID-19, conflict in Ukraine and Gaza, and tightening fiscal space. Debates now focus on the post-2030 framework, the operationalization of the planetary boundaries concept developed by the Stockholm Resilience Centre, and whether "green growth" is sufficient or whether degrowth and post-growth paradigms deserve policy weight. Financing remains the binding constraint, with an estimated annual SDG financing gap exceeding USD 4 trillion.

Key players

Climate Change: From Paris to Implementation

The international climate regime began with the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, evolved through the 1997 Kyoto Protocol's differentiated targets, and was reset by the 2015 Paris Agreement, which replaced top-down quotas with nationally determined contributions aimed at limiting warming to well below 2°C, pursuing 1.5°C. The IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report (2021-2023) concluded that human influence on warming is "unequivocal" and that current NDCs put the world on a roughly 2.5-2.9°C trajectory. COP27 (Sharm el-Sheikh, 2022) established a Loss and Damage Fund, operationalized at COP28 (Dubai, 2023), which also delivered the first Global Stocktake calling for "transitioning away from fossil fuels." COP29 in Baku (2024) set a New Collective Quantified Goal of USD 300 billion per year by 2035 for climate finance to developing countries—criticized as inadequate against estimated needs above USD 1 trillion. Outstanding disputes concern fossil fuel phaseout language, Article 6 carbon market rules, adaptation finance, and the legal status of small island states facing existential sea-level rise, on which the ICJ issued an advisory opinion in 2025.

Key players

Energy Transitions: Decarbonizing the Global Energy System

Global energy transitions have historically taken half a century or more, but the climate timeline demands far faster change. The International Energy Agency's 2021 Net Zero by 2050 roadmap concluded that no new oil, gas, or coal projects beyond those already approved were compatible with 1.5°C. Renewables now account for roughly 30 percent of global electricity, with solar PV the fastest-growing source; the COP28 outcome committed parties to tripling renewable capacity and doubling energy efficiency by 2030. The transition is uneven and contested. Europe accelerated decarbonization after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine through REPowerEU, while the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (2022) deployed roughly USD 370 billion in clean energy incentives. China dominates clean-tech manufacturing, prompting EU and U.S. tariff responses and concerns about a green trade war. Developing countries face financing costs two to three times higher than advanced economies for identical projects (IEA 2023), while coal-dependent emerging economies negotiate Just Energy Transition Partnerships. Methane, hydrogen, nuclear revival, and grid expansion are key second-front debates.

Key players

Circular Economy: Closing Material Loops

The circular economy concept, popularized by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation from 2010 onward, draws on industrial ecology and cradle-to-cradle design to challenge the linear take-make-dispose model. Global material extraction has tripled since 1970 and is projected by UNEP's International Resource Panel to nearly double again by 2060 absent policy change. The Circularity Gap Report 2024 found that only 7.2 percent of materials entering the global economy are cycled back—down from 9.1 percent in 2018. The European Union has moved furthest, with its 2020 Circular Economy Action Plan, Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (2024), and the Right to Repair Directive (2024). China embedded circular economy law as early as 2008 and is the world's largest recycler of many materials. Key debates concern extended producer responsibility schemes, plastics—where a UN treaty is under negotiation following UNEA Resolution 5/14 (2022)—e-waste flows from North to South, and the tension between circularity and the material-intensive build-out required for the energy transition.

Key players

The Water-Energy-Food Nexus

The water-energy-food nexus framework, crystallized at the 2011 Bonn Conference, recognizes that these three systems are deeply interdependent: agriculture consumes roughly 70 percent of global freshwater withdrawals, energy production accounts for about 10 percent, and food systems generate roughly a third of greenhouse gas emissions (IPCC, FAO). Decisions in one sector—biofuel mandates, hydropower dams, irrigation expansion—create cascading effects in the others. Climate change intensifies these linkages by altering precipitation, crop yields, and cooling water availability for thermal power. The nexus has moved from analytical concept to policy practice through the 2023 UN Water Conference (the first in nearly half a century), the FAO's strategic framework, and transboundary basin disputes such as the Nile (Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam), the Mekong, the Indus, and the Tigris-Euphrates. The 2022 Russia-Ukraine war exposed the fragility of fertilizer, grain, and energy markets simultaneously, while droughts in 2022-2024 disrupted hydropower in southern Africa, Latin America, and Europe. Integrated governance remains rare; most states still manage the three sectors in institutional silos.

Key players

Public Policy for Environmental and Economic Governance

Public policy at the environment-economy interface has evolved from command-and-control regulation in the 1970s toward a more diverse toolkit including market-based instruments, information disclosure, nudges, and industrial policy. The post-2020 landscape is defined by a return of active state intervention: the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS Act (2022), the EU Green Deal Industrial Plan (2023), and China's longstanding strategic-sector planning have collectively redrawn the boundaries of legitimate state action on climate and competitiveness. This revival of industrial policy raises new governance challenges: WTO-consistency of green subsidies, carbon border adjustments such as the EU CBAM, fiscal sustainability of transition spending, and distributional impacts highlighted by the 2018 French gilets jaunes protests against fuel taxes. The OECD, IMF, and World Bank have converged on advocating carbon pricing complemented by targeted transfers, but political economy constraints—lobby capture, federalism, short electoral cycles—often determine outcomes more than economic logic. Behavioral and experimental approaches, building on the work of Elinor Ostrom on commons governance, increasingly inform design.

Key players

Resources

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Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Dynamic Analysis

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Policy Brief Writing

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Conflict Resolution

Spain September 2026

By committee

Frequently asked questions

XII AERNA Conference and XIV Meeting on International Economics

Sep 3–4, 2026Castellón, SpainIn-person

Starts in 26 daysRegistration open

Committees & topics

Topics
Environmental Economics: Pricing Externalities and Ecosystem Services · Natural Resource Economics: Allocation, Scarcity, and the Resource Curse · Sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals · Climate Change: From Paris to Implementation · Energy Transitions: Decarbonizing the Global Energy System · Circular Economy: Closing Material Loops · The Water-Energy-Food Nexus · Public Policy for Environmental and Economic Governance

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 1 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Spain

As the host nation, ESP plays a central role in facilitating dialogue and showcasing its contributions to economic research and international cooperation.

Role in topic