Abstract
This research examines the impact of foreign investment dependence on carbon dioxide emissions between 1980 and 1996. In a cross-national panel regression analysis of 66 less developed countries, we find that foreign capital penetration in 1980 has a significant positive effect on the growth of C0 2 emissions between 1980 and 1996. Domestic investment, however, has no systematic effect. We suggest several reasons for these findings. Foreign investment is more concentrated in those industries that require more energy. Second, transnational corporations may relocate highly polluting industries to countries with fewer environmental controls. Third, the movement of inputs and outputs resulting from the global dispersion of production over the past 30 years is likely to be more energy-expensive in countries with poorer infrastructure. Finally, power generation in the countries receiving foreign investment is considerably less efficient than within the countries of the core.
Highlights
Most of the work on global warming to date has been done by physical scientists
The primary finding of these analyses is that foreign capital penetration in 1980 has a significant positive effect on growth in total C0 2 emissions between 1980 and 1995 in less developed countries, net of the other independent variables
Variance Inflation Factors (VIF) values for all variables were within acceptable limits
Summary
Most of the work on global warming to date has been done by physical scientists. In gene1·al their focus has been on detailing the chemistry and physics involved, and demonstrating that human emission of compounds essential to the process have been growing (e.gC0 21 Methane, CFCs, CHFC's). Their work has proven that average global temperatures have been rising at rates predicted by their theoretical e.:>..'Pectation(s ee the publications of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, esp Houghton et al, 2001). Physical science can explain the thermodynamic issues of atmospheric heat entrapment, identify the chemical compotu1ds responsible, and even isolate the kinds of human activities responsible for creating those compotu1ds Experts in these questions cannot address the political, economic, and social forces that explain the choice of systems, machinery, and locations employing those compounds. The logic explaining these most ftu1damental choices can Grimes. http :/Iba! timore.indymedia.org/newsw ire/ display any/ 4 263
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