Paul Ekins

Paul Ekins (born 1950) is a prominent British academic in the field of sustainable economics. He is a former member of the Green Party.

Political career
Ekins was a prominent member of the UK Green Party (now the Green Party of England and Wales) in the 1970s and 80s. He left in 1986 after controversy over reforms he and others were promoting to streamline Green Party structures. This group, known as 'Maingreen', was seen as a forerunner of the moves to reform the party’s internal structures by a later group known as Green 2000.

Career after politics
Ekins has been a prominent green academic in the field of sustainable economics. He has also worked as a consultant.

In 1996, he set up Forum for the Future with Sara Parkin and Jonathon Porritt. The Forum says: “When Paul Ekins set up the Sustainable Economy Unit as part of Forum for the Future back in 1996, he argued that ‘many of today’s environmental problems are really economic problems in disguise, and getting the economics right lies at the heart of any solutions agenda.’ He aimed ‘to show that radical moves towards environmental sustainability are compatible with prosperity’. This remains a central part of Forum’s mission.”

He worked as head of the Environment group at the Policy Studies Institute.

He is also a specialist adviser to the Environmental Audit Select Committee of the British House of Commons. He is a Member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. In 1994, Ekins received a UN Environment Programme Global 500 Award ”for outstanding environmental achievement”.

Academic career
Paul Ekins took a Ph.D. in economics at Birkbeck, University of London. He became Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Westminster, in October 2002. His academic work is focused on the conditions and policies for achieving an environmentally sustainable economy.

His contributions include work on the conceptualisation and measurement of environmental sustainability, the adjustment of the national accounts to take account of environmental impacts, environmental taxes and ecological tax reform, and environment and trade.

He has written or edited six books. His most recent work is Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability: the Prospects for Green Growth (Routledge, London, 2000).