...Networking Group This publication is available online at http://www.trade-environment.org http://www.iisd.org http://www.ictsd.org http://www.ring-alliance.org Cover photos from iStockphoto. Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, not-for-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. Printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper. Trade and Environment: A Resource Book The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD, http://www.iisd.org) contributes to sustainable development by advancing policy recommendations on international trade and investment, economic policy, climate change, measurement and assessment, and natural resources management. Through the Internet, we report on international negotiations and share knowledge gained through collaborative projects with global partners, resulting in more rigorous research, capacity building in developing countries and better dialogue between North and South. IISD’s vision is better living for all—sustainably; its mission is to champion innovation, enabling societies to live sustainably. IISD is registered as a charitable organization in Canada and has...
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...ECONOMIC GROWTH ON THE ENVIRONMENT:Focus on International Trade i. Economic growth and the environment ii. Environmental Kuznets curve: a. Kuznets Curve:Income inequality and growth b. Income inequality , growth and the environment iii. Population growth: how increasing population could affect the environment iv. Economic impacts of environmental policies: c. Economic growth: investment and innovation d. Effect on competitiveness v. International Trade and the environment vi. Effects of Trade on the environment vii. Trade due to differences in Environmental Policies: e. Pollution Haven case viii. Trade not due to differences in Environmental policies: f. Comparative advantage and environment: how factor endowments can influence environment ix. Conclusion x. References xi. Abstract i.Economic growth and the environment In the first half of the twentieth century there was and incredible explosion of international trade: indeed international trade almost triplicate its size.( According to data from www.worldbank.org) A lot of changes contributed to this expansion, first of all technological changes that allowed to reduce distances between countries, the most significant example was the information and communication technologies that grew...
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...1. Introduction At the very basic level, Environment, trade, and investment are fundamentally linked as the environment provides various basic inputs of economic activity – forests, fisheries, metals, minerals and also the energy used to process those materials. Trade and I investment, are thus affected by environmental concerns, because producers and investors have to comply with environmental regulations and markets have to address the consumer demand for greener goods. Apart from these physical and economic connections, there are certain legal institutions which govern trade, investment and the environment. Institutions like the World Trade Organization (WTO) and also regional & bilateral trade agreements include trade and investment rules. Multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), regional agreements, and also the national and sub-national regulations encompass the environmental law. Fundamental goals of WTO are sustainable development and protection and preservation of the environment. These are included in the “Marrakesh Agreement”, which established the WTO, and also complement the WTO’s objective to reduce the trade barriers and eliminate discriminatory treatment in international trade relations. Though, there is no specific agreement which deals with the environment, as per WTO rules members can adopt trade-related measures aimed at protecting the environment, following a number of conditions to avoid the misuse of such measures. The WTO contributes in protection...
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...Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, having met at Stockholm from 5 to 16 June 1972,having considered the need for a common outlook and for common principles to inspire and guide the peoples of the world in the preservation and enhancement of the human environment, Proclaims that: 1. Man is both creature and moulder of his environment, which gives him physical sustenance and affords him the opportunity for intellectual, moral, social and spiritual growth. In the long and tortuous evolution of the human race on this planet a stage has been reached when, through the rapid acceleration of science and technology, man has acquired the power to transform his environment in countless ways and on an unprecedented scale. Both aspects of man's environment, the natural and the man-made, are essential to his well-being and to the enjoyment of basic human rights the right to life itself. 2. The protection and improvement of the human environment is a major issue which affects the well-being of peoples and economic development throughout the world; it is the urgent desire of the peoples of the whole world and the duty of all Governments. 3. Man has constantly to sum up experience and go on discovering, inventing, creating and advancing. In our time, man's capability to transform his surroundings, if used wisely, can bring to all peoples the benefits of development and the opportunity to...
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...Environmental policies in developing countries Exploitation of the environment is one of the crucial topics in the field of business ethics. In today’s globalized world, many multinational enterprises operate in developing countries, where the protection of the environment is not deeply rooted in the legal system or the countries themselves may even intentionally lower the requirements for the protection in order to attract more foreign direct investments. Therefore, company’s presence in developing countries may pose significant challenges in terms of the environmental protection. In the past, we have witnessed many cases of companies’ failures to meet their environmental responsibilities in developing countries, which resulted to contamination of the air, water or ground – the disaster Bhopal or Shell’s activity in Nigeria being just the most famous of them. However, in the beginning of the 21st the overall awareness of environmental issues raises and companies should show a more proactive approach towards the problem, since not taking the environment into account may pose various risks. It is not only a threat of litigation but also reputational risks, which may in the end of the day affect the bottom line significantly (as we have already seen in the case of consumer boycott of Nike products because of the labor conditions in factories or boycotts of BP gas stations after the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico). Therefore, an environmental policy is nowadays a must, especially...
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...Impact of WTO on Globalization Trade Policy Introduction World Trade Organization (WTO), found in 1995 and headquarters is in Geneva, has its clearly main purposes since its beginning that to promote economic and trade development all over the world. Up to the end of 2008, there are more than 135 members in the organization. In particularly, with the expansion of globalization trade, international business is more often than any time in the history. As one of the most crucial carrier of economic globalization, WTO establishes a set of international trade rules focusing on the liberalization, which play a strong role of encouraging and guiding in the process of economic globalization (Pauwelyn, 2005). This essay will mainly discuss WTO’s influence on the rules of globalization trade in combination with the current reform of trade policy. It will explain the topic from the following four aspects in detail: first, the basic rules WTO set up for the international trade, then, rules on e-commerce, the new rising global business, third, the preferential rules made by WTO for developing countries, and at last, it will discuss the impacts of WTO’s regulations on environmental issues when doing global trade. Basic Rules WTO set up for the Global Trade WTO's main objective is to provide adequate competitive opportunities for the trade among the members, which needs recognized common rules and principles for members to abide. There are two basic principles, namely the MFN principle (referred...
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...challenges which a green economy transformation is intended to address, and the scale of the actions being taken by many countries to build green economies, does however bring renewed focus to these risks. At the same time, the new greening of markets associated with a green economy may provide opportunities for many developing countries to find global markets for goods and services with low environmental impacts. This will, however, test the supply capacities of developing countries as reflected, for example, in domestic trade infrastructure. The green economy offers an opportunity to improve both global trade governance and the domestic trade environment to ensure that trade contributes positively to a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication. 4) Unilateral policy measures: Many countries seem committed to the use of trade measures to persuade other countries to change their domestic environmental practices, despite the fact that many measures may be contrary to GATT-WTO rules (see Table 1 and discussion). 5) International environmental, climate change agreements/conventions: The outcome of negotiations on climate change will have an influence on trade, e.g., by affecting the consumption of various natural resources which are traded and shifting demand for various low-carbon technologies (see Table 1). Some countries have expressed concerns that a green economy transition could cause their export industries to 1 experience declining demand...
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...policymakers around the world. For many policymakers it's a new magical word that can play a very significant role in the development of a country. Green growth is viewed as a key to sustainable growth. It has been recognized that there is an urgent need of transition towards green growth to achieve sustainable development and prosperity. As per Asian Development Bank "... green growth is an imperative not a luxury, for developing Asia". It is still not clear whether 'green growth' is a new transitional shift or just another gimmick to cover up inconsistencies between economic and environmental objectives of governments. There is no universally accepted definition of green growth. But normally it is being treated as a synonym to sustainable development. "Green growth is fostering economic growth and development, while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide resources and environmental services on which our well-being relies"-OCED. So green growth basically emphasizes on the efficient use of natural resources that minimizes pollution and environmental impacts at the same time it also plays role of environmental management and natural capital in preventing physical disasters. Main focus of green growth is low carbon growth that promotes growth with the help of creation of new environment friendly products. Green growth is matter of both economic policy and sustainable development. Politicians normally think that today's voters are more concerned with basic problems like inflation...
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...‘GM food advances the goal of sustainable development.’ To what extent do you think this is true? The Earth is facing severe environmental degradation. Years of resource exploitation and pollution have caused environmental problems and their effects are being felt globally. It has been estimated that if the world’s population reaches between10-11 billion then 5 more Planet Earths would be needed to maintain the present level of ecological decline. The environmental use in some countries is already unsustainable. Technology has allowed the world to cope with agriculture and an increasing population, however the FAO expects a long term decrease in food production in rich countries (Alexandratos 1988). 800 million people are affected today by hunger and malnutrition(Food Future 2000). The FAO claims that 650 million of these people will still be in the same situation by 2010. The world produces enough food, often it is the distribution process that causes problems. However this food may be produced in a non sustainable way. Pesticides, use of non farming land and the demand for cash crops over self sufficiency are not necessarily in the environments best interest. Factors such as poverty, wealth and inequality place burdens on the environment and possible sustainability. Genetically modified foods could be a key factor in advancing the goal of sustainable development. Biotechnology is the use of biological science to alter living organisms for the benefit of mankind. Every...
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...conjunction, the WTO is not only about opening of new markets, it also supports maintenance of trade barriers- for instance where consumer rights are threatened or to prevent harm to the consumers. At the core of WTO are the agreements that have been negotiated and sealed by the majority of the world’s trading states. These agreements present the legal guidelines for international trade. They are in essence contracts that bind governments to maintain their trading rules within the set limits (Wto.org,. 2014).. While they are signed and negotiated by states, the aim remains to help the providers of goods and services, exporters, as well as importers carry out their businesses, at the same time allowing the states to achieve their social and environmental goals. The preponderant purpose of the organization is to facilitate trade flow as freely as it is possible as long as no harmful effect is experienced. This is imperative for economic development and welfare of the member...
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..... and implementation V. Prevention and control of Pollution ................................................................. and environmental degradation VI.Proactive approach to regional .......................................................................... and global environmental issues VII. Conclusion ........................................................................................................ VIII. Reference ........................................................................................................ Introduction The rapid development of economy, high depleted, high pollution mode of economic growth,to make the country's environment problem increasingly prominent. However, many of the countries in the implementation of green strategy to make the country's economic sustainable development. this report through discussed to Green strategies based on environmental policy in Malaysia how can improve environmental quality. And from the education and awareness, the effective management of natural resources and environment,comprehensive development planning and implementation, prevention and control of environment pollution and degradation, and global environment issues have been summarized. I). Environmental education and awareness in...
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...IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE POLICIES ON THE GROWTH OF THE INDIAN ECONOMY Submitted by: Kriti Bhardwaj Date: 1st December, 2010 1 ABSTRACT The most contentious global debate today is the obligations of the developed and the developing countries to take steps to reduce their carbon footprint. Though climate change is a danger for all countries-developed and developing alike, the quantum of responsibility for mitigating climate change is a debatable issue. There is a perceived divide between the obligations of the two worlds in which our planet is divided. The source of virtually all past emissions i.e. the developed world has a greater responsibility to take steps to reduce their carbon emissions substantially and help in stabilizing the environment which they disturbed to a large extent. This is the reason why they are subjected to binding targets of reducing their emissions by a set amount in all international agreements. However, the developing world is gearing towards development at a very fast pace and all development and industrialization pre-supposes the need of higher emissions. Due to this, the emission levels of this part of the world are bound to increase even more rapidly. Mitigating climate change in developing countries poses a fundamental challenge. For developing nations as a whole, reduction...
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...Since 1980s, the environmental matter as trade barriers between the North and the South countries has feature prominently in the world international forums Developing countries that struggles to improve their economies and attract more investors to enhance their economies is term as pollution haven. The word pollution haven as proposed by Zarsky (1997, 1999) is a claimed that the South have reduced and relaxed their environmental regulation to attract foreign investors. The southern countries which are endowed with lots of natural resources has long been staying under poverty and the only way to be out of this situation is opening up their economies and speed up industrialization development through the foreign investors. On the other hand, the North countries business feared that if the developing countries lower cost of operation through labour intensive and resources then they stand a chance to lose value or capture the market. The developed countries argued that they have more severe and effective regulations on environmental (Duchin et al., 1995, Xu, 2000) compare to the developing countres, but the World Trade Organization has protected the exported products from developing countries. The North claims that this is unfair business and they requested global environmental standard to form level playing field (Chudnovsky and Lopez 1999; Xu 2000). This claim however was seen as another form of trade barriers by the developing countres. The environmental problems such as...
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...urbanization and the rise in the community living standards have all greatly accelerated solid waste generation rate in developing countries at the municipal level (Minghua et al, 2009). According to ISWA and UNEP, (2002) “with … limited resources, only basic technologies for treatment and disposal, and deficient enforcement of relevant regulations, serious problems remain for municipal solid waste management of developing countries” (cited in Chen at el, 2010:716). To the United Nations (UN), rapid urban growth throughout the developing world has seriously outstripped the capacity of most cities to provide adequate services to their citizens. The institutional capacity of developing countries at the municipal level is lagging in relation to waste generation trends. As a result, cities of developing countries are environmentally polluted and public health is under threat from widespread waste...
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...growth has also been accompanied by increased damages to the socio-economic systems. The notion of sustainable growth is a topic high on the international policy agenda, especially given the rise of China, India and other developing countries whose use of the world’s resources increases significantly each year. The major problem for developing countries focus on sustainability is the cost of slowing down development process and loses the opportunity of becoming convergence with the mainstream economy. It is still being discussed whether or not the tradeoff between sustainability and development is a cost worth making. Economic sustainability is dependent on the following conditions; 1) the rate of decline of non-renewable resources, 2) the excess rate of harvest of renewable resources, 3) the assimilative capacity of nature to absorb waste and, 4) pollution reducing technology and capital1. According to Stern’s review paper, the benefits of strong, early action on climate change can outweigh the costs in the development process as the “next 10 or 20 years can have a profound effect on the climate in the second half of this century and in the next.”2 Greenhouse gas emissions from developing countries will likely surpass those from developed countries within the first half of this century, highlighting the need for developing countries to reduce the risk of climate change. Within Stern’s review, he has pointed out and described the benefits of three...
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