Transcript Energy and Rural Alaska

International Aspects of
Environmental Questions
ENVI 201
Version spring 2004
Steve Colt
[email protected]
Three Perceived Problems
• Growth, itself
• Pollution Havens
• Bad governance (environmental policy
and institutions)
2
Four Real Challenges
•
•
•
•
Poverty
Consumption by the rich, not the poor
Protecting the Global Commons
Effective Global Environmental
Governance (policy and institutions)
3
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.
4
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
5
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
6
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)
7
Globalization is Not New
8
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
10
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)
13
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 )
19
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?
Compliance with
standards in
Indonesia
manufacturing
(green / blue / red
/ black scale)
Source: Wheeler and Afsah 1996
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Adoption of Clean Technology
in Rich Countries, Open LDCs, and Closed LDCs
Source: World Bank, “Greening of Industry”
22
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
26
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”
Investments
-- Peter Lynch, Fidelity
• 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
36
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
37
Closing Thoughts
38
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 HumanDominated 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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References
Globalization, Growth and Poverty: Building an
Inclusive World Economy
World Bank Policy Research Reports (2001)
http://econ.worldbank.org/prr/subpage.php?sp=2477
Environment and Trade: A Handbook
UN 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 University
http://www.gets.org/
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References
Going 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 Industry
World Bank Development Research Group (2000)
http://www.worldbank.org/research/greening/
World Wildlife Fund (certification and ecolabeling programs)
http://www.wwf.org
Global Commons Institute
http://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
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