international aspects of environmental questions

International Aspects of Environmental Questions

ENVI 201Version spring 2004

Steve Coltafsgc@uaa.alaska.edu

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Three Perceived Problems

• Growth, itself• Pollution Havens• Bad governance (environmental

policy and institutions)

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Four Real Challenges

• Poverty• Consumption by the rich, not the

poor• Protecting the Global Commons• Effective Global Environmental

Governance (policy and institutions)

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Story 1: Thank Japan for Clean Air

• 1970 Clean Air Act mandated big drop in auto emissions

• Detroit Big 3 said “can’t do it” – especially for California

• Honda was ready with cars that met the standards, CA mandated them

• CA was dominant consumer so it dictated standard practice to rest of US.

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Story 2: Turtles and Trade

• Asian shrimp boats catching endangered sea turtles

• WTO (1998): US can’t discriminate against imports based on how shrimp are caught

• US continued to press for Turtle Excluding Devices (TEDs)

• Legal wrangling continues today

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The Twin Environmental Crises

• Poverty– 1.2 Billion people live on less than

$1/day

• Human-Dominated Ecosystems– 42% of Earth’s annual production of

plant material is used by people(Pimm 2001)

• Both Numbers Matter

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Poverty and Environment

• 1.2 billion people live on less than $1/day

• In Ghana:– 60% of urban people have no sewers– 70% of energy from open wood burning– 40% of people drink contaminated

water• Worldwide, waterborne diseases

annually cause 11 million childhood deaths

• 700 million people breathe smoke from open indoor fires (Todaro 2000)

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Globalization is Not New

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Three Perceived Problems• 1) Growth wrecks the planet

Source: World Bank, “Greening Industry”

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Three Perceived Problems

• 2) Pollution Havens: Globalization causes competition for industry, causing (forcing?) some (all?) countries to live with dirty industry

• 3) Bad Governance: Secret decisionmaking by the“unelected WTO” and corporations ignores environmental effects

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Growth has Three Effects

• How Much is Produced?– World CO2 emissions continue to rise

with world economy

• What is Produced?– Massages vs. Steel

• How are things produced?– Carbon Monoxide down due to

catalytic converters

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Growth Example: China

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Growth Example: China• Economic output doubling every

decade, concentrated in urban areas– (how much / scale)

• People switching from bicycles to cars and from rice to meat– (what / composition)

• Slow switch from coal to natural gas, controls on particulates– (how / technique)

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Switching from Coal to Gas has other Implications…

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Growth in China: Effects

Source: World Bank, Greening Industry

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World Growth: How Much

Source: World Bank, Globalization Growth and Poverty

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World Growth: What?

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World Growth: How?

Source: World Bank, Greening Industry

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World Growth: Good Newsl

• Cleaner production is reducing air pollution (Antweiler Copeland Taylor AER sep 2001)

• Little direct evidence for strong “Pollution Haven” effects (but debate continues )

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Trade: Exporting Pollution?

• “Freer” trade certainly allows rich countries to export pollution more easily than they perhaps could have.

• But, corporations tend to build the same plant in China as they would in Indiana……Pollution control is more about learning new tricks than it is about brute effort.

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Exporting Pollution or Technology?

Source: Wheeler and Afsah 1996

Compliance with standards in Indonesia manufacturing

(green / blue / red / black scale)

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Adoption of Clean Technologyin Rich Countries, Open LDCs, and Closed LDCs

Source: World Bank, “Greening of Industry”

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Trade Policy and Environmental Policy

• Should Countries be able to exclude products based on how they are produced?

• WTO saying “maybe” for Shrimp that harm turtles

• Which products???• Generally, When should one

country intervene in affairs of another?

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Global Action for Global Spillovers

• Particulates from China drift to Alaska in four days (ADN 12/7/98)

• US Demand for Shrimp kills Sea Turtles in Malaysia

• Russian Fleet takes half the Pollock in the Bering Sea

• Carbon Dioxide warms the Arctic

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The Global Commons

• Owned by everyone• Owned by No One• Crucial part of our Human-

Dominated Ecosystem• Threatened by All• Who will safeguard the global

commons?

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Four Real Challenges

• Poverty• Sustainable Consumption by the

Rich• Protecting the Global Commons• Effective Global Environmental

Governance

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Responses: Treaties

• Montreal Protocol (1987), amended throughout 1990s– Banned production of CFCs, most

other ozone-depleting chemicals in developed countries by 1996, by 2010 in LDCs

– Ozone layer still declining, but expected to stabilize and return to pre-1970 state by 2030

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Responses: Treaties

• Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (1973)– “Red Book” contains listings of

species for which trade is restricted or prohibited

– 162 signatories as of 2003

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Treaties….

• Convention on Biological Diversity (1992-Rio Earth Summit)– Signed by 168 countries

• Not signed by:– Iraq, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Sierra

Leone, a few others

• Signed but not ratified by:– United States

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Responses: Treaties

• Kyoto Protocol (1997)– Developed countries negotiated an

average 5% reduction of greenhouse gases below 1990 levels.

– U.S. did not ratify the treaty

• All Treaties must first be negotiated, then (in most countries) ratified by the legislative branch

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Responses: Invest where Payoff is high for planet

• UN Global Environment Facility (GEF) and Clean Development Mechanism– Protect the planet wherever it’s

cheapest to do so, through prevention– 36 Rich countries funding $3 billion of

GEF projects in poor countries (1998)– www.gefweb.org

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Answers: End Perverse Subsides

• UNEP estimates perverse subsidies – at $500 billion – $1.5 trillion per yr

• Fisheries, forestry, agriculture– Promotes “too many boats chasing

too few fish,” “mining the rainforest”– Puts huge pressure on the planet

• WTO allows exceptions for “green” subsidies

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Answers: Health-Led Development

• Conventional wisdom: wealth causes health

• New wisdom: Health causes wealth– (Bloom, Science 18 Feb 2000)

• Productivity is the key link – it’s hard to work when you’re sick

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Answers: Informed Investors and Consumers

• “Know what you own” -- Peter Lynch, Fidelity Investments

• AK Permanent Fund top 10 stocks???– Microsoft, GE, Citigroup, Pfizer,

American Int’l, Johnson&Johnson, ExxonMobil, Intel, Walmart, IBM

• Shade-grown coffee – it sells• Home Depot now buys only

certified lumber

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Answers:Harmonization of Policies

• 25 Environmental Treaties in 1960• 250 today

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Answers: Tradable Greenhouse Gas

Permits• CO2 is not the only problem:– Methane is 25 times more potent

• Choose a target level of GHG emissions for entire planet

• Distribute permits to all (how?)• Free trade in GHG permits

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Tradable Permits, cont.

• Follows Pay-to-Play (Polluter Pays) Principle

• Cheapest reductions (leaky gas pipelines) will occur first

• Stimulates technical innovation• Start with equal numbers of

permits per person? (Global Commons Institute)– Carbon is already being traded

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Closing Thoughts

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Globalization vs Industrialization• Industrialization was an unstoppable

process – started in 1800• The benefits were (are still)

unevenly distributed• It took at least 50 years for the

benefits to reach everyone, especially women

• Let’s focus on making the lag time shorter for globalization

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Take-Home Messages• Poverty and stress on our Human-

Dominated Ecosystem (climate, oceans, biodiversity) are the real global environmental problems – regional pollution will largely take care of itself

• Growth of poorest countries attacks poverty and helps environment without creating pollution havens

• The Global Commons requires new forms of global management, such as tradable permits.

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ReferencesGlobalization, Growth and Poverty: Building an

Inclusive World EconomyWorld Bank Policy Research Reports (2001)http://econ.worldbank.org/prr/subpage.php?sp=2477

Environment and Trade: A HandbookUN Environment Program, et al. (2000)http://iisd.ca/trade/handbook.

Vanishing Borders: Protecting the Planet in the Age of Globalization.Hilary French, Worldwatch Institute. (2000)http://www.worldwatch.org/

Global Environment and Trade Study (GETS)Tufts Universityhttp://www.gets.org/

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ReferencesGoing Public On Polluters In Indonesia: Bapedal’s PROPER PROKASIH PROGRAM David Wheeler and Shakeb Afsah*

World Bank Policy Research Dept (1996)http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/work_paper/proper/

Greening IndustryWorld Bank Development Research Group (2000)http://www.worldbank.org/research/greening/

World Wildlife Fund (certification and ecolabeling programs)http://www.wwf.org

Global Commons Institutehttp://www.gci.org.uk/main.html

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Teaching and Learning Resources

United Nations Global Environmental Facility (GEF)http://www.gefweb.org/index.html