Introduction: evolutionary methodologies for analyzing environmental innovations and the implications for environmental policy

It is commonly recognized that environmental innovations provide an important key to sustainability. However, the two dominant approaches within environmental economics – neoclassical and ecological economics – have found it difficult to develop a systematic research program on environmental innovation. From the 1980s evolutionary economics emerged as a framework for analysing analyzing and understanding economic change and industrial dynamics. Evolutionary economic theory provides a dynamic framework, where differential patterns of survival in populations produce aggregate changes in an economy. From the mid-1990s onwards, evolutionary economics emerged as a promising alternative for the economic analysis of environmental innovations. More recently, scholars have started to develop formal evolutionary models in environmental studies. These efforts reflect a further deepening of the evolutionary program in the area of environmental studies, which opens up possibilities for applications in environmental policy-making.