Environmental governance, globalisation and economic performance

Abstract

Increasing globalisation of economic activity and accompanying economic growth have been factors in the worldwide loss of natural environments and biodiversity loss, and these losses have accelerated since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, Emissions of many types of pollutants and wastes from human activity are rising globally and are exceeding the capacity of natural environments to absorb and neutralize them. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the quality and size of some natural sinks for neutralizing them (such as forests) are declining. Consequently, these wastes are accumulating in many environments and pose a growing threat to human welfare and to sustainable economic development. There are, for instance, global concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, about the release of ozone-depleting substances and about the worldwide loss of existing biodiversity. Many new transboundary and local environmental issues have also emerged as a result of global economic growth. After considering such matters, arguments for global governance and the international harmonization of rules for regulating environmental use are examined. Reasons why the global spread of the Western evolved economic system reduces moral responsibility for environmental damage and increases the need for greater and more effective global and international environmental governance are outlined. Subsequently, several important global and international environmental problems are identified and shortcomings in their governance are highlighted. Further analysis is then completed to discover reasons why as economic globalisation increases, there are continuing failures in market and political systems to provide adequate governance of global and international environmental problems.