The 16th Conference of the European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE 2026), held from 30 June to 3 July 2026 at Ghent University, Belgium, connected over 500 ecological economists and sustainability scholars from across Europe for four days of transdisciplinary debate on sustainable and inclusive well-being.

With more than 400 presentations across 13 parallel tracks, topics ranged from rethinking prosperity beyond GDP and ecological boundaries, to socio-ecological transformation, the future of work, and institutional innovation.

CELSI Senior Researcher Monika Martišková and Researcher Jakub Barszcz both attended and presented their paper "Energy Transition and Employment Outcomes: Comparing Nuclear Lock-In with Deep Decarbonisation Pathways".

Using a multi-regional input-output model, the paper compares the labour market implications of continued nuclear energy policy with a scenario based on 100% renewable energy.

📌 The DEEPLAB project focuses on the economic consequences of decarbonisation and its labour market impacts, particularly in hard-to-abate sectors and their value chains in Slovakia.

It is supported by the European Union – NextGenerationEU through the Recovery and Resilience Plan of the Slovak Republic.

🔗 Learn more about the DEEPLAB project and its findings: https://deeplab.celsi.sk/en/results/

The conference offered a lively methodological debate and inspiring discussions on the potential of ecological economics as a transdisciplinary field.

It left a very strong and lasting impact — and we thank the organisers at Ghent University, the European Society for Ecological Economics, and the local organising team led by Brent Bleys and Bart Defloor for such a stimulating and well-organised event.

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