National financial policies, global environmental damage and missing international institutions

Abstract

This paper categorises environmental damage as local, national, transfrontier and international in nature. It argues that since the developed countries’ environmental protection policies aimed at reducing the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will be offset by the expansion of industrialisation in the less developed countries, the key to protecting the global environment is technological advancement by which the world community can raise the efficiency of the current energy usage and/or develop feasible alternative sources of energy so that the consumption of fossil fuel can be minimised. Furthermore, this paper argues that national institutions promote mainly R&D and technological changes in areas which will ensure national supremacy over other nations, in the areas of either trade and/or military and prestige rivalries and hence international treaties for protection of the global environment attempted thus far will continue to be incapable of significantly protecting the planet from global environmental damage, unless and until an authorised international institution for the global environment is established.