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Course: Microeconomics > Unit 9
Lesson 2: Bonus articles: Pollution as a negative externality- The economics of pollution
- Command-and-control regulation
- What are market-oriented environmental tools?
- Types of market-oriented environmental tools
- The benefits and costs of US environmental laws
- International environmental issues
- The tradeoff between economic output and environmental protection
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International environmental issues
Este artigo trata do aquecimento global e suas possíveis consequências no clima e para os ecossistemas terrestres.
Key points
- Certain global environmental issues, such as global warming and biodiversity, spill over national borders and will need to be addressed with some form of international agreement.
- Biodiversity is the spectrum of animal and plant genetic material.
- International externalities are externalities that cross national borders and that cannot be resolved by a single nation acting alone.
An international perspective on environmental issues
Many countries around the world have become more aware of the benefits of environmental protection. Unfortunately, even if most nations took steps individually to address their environmental issues, it would still not solve certain environmental problems which spill over national borders.
Take global warming, for example—no one nation by itself can reduce carbon dioxide and other gas emissions enough to solve the problem. The problem is so big, nations must cooperate to effectively address it.
Another example is the challenge of preserving biodiversity—the spectrum of animal and plant genetic material. Although a single nation can protect biodiversity within its own borders, no nation acting alone can protect biodiversity around the world.
Global warming and biodiversity both are examples of international externalities—externalities that cross national borders and cannot be resolved by a single nation acting alone.
What should international environmental regulations look like?
Bringing the nations of the world together to address environmental issues requires a difficult set of negotiations between countries with different income levels and different sets of priorities. If nations such as China, India, Brazil, Mexico, and others are developing their economies by burning vast amounts of fossil fuels or by stripping their forest and wildlife habitats, then the world’s high-income countries acting alone will not be able to reduce greenhouse gases.
However, low-income countries, with some understandable exasperation, point out that high-income countries do not have much moral standing to lecture them on the necessities of putting environmental protection ahead of economic growth. After all, high-income countries historically have been—and are still today—the primary contributors to greenhouse warming through the burning of fossil fuels. It is hard to tell people who are living in a low-income country—where adequate diet, health care, and education are lacking—that they should sacrifice an improved quality of life for a cleaner environment.
If high-income countries want low-income countries to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases, then the high-income countries may need to pay some of the costs. Perhaps some of these payments will happen through the private market—for example, some tourists from rich countries will pay handsomely to vacation near the natural treasures of low-income countries. Or perhaps some of the transfer of resources will happen through making modern pollution-control technology available to poorer countries.
The practical details of what such an international system might look like and how it would operate across international borders are forbiddingly complex. It seems highly unlikely that some form of world government will impose a detailed system of environmental command-and-control regulation around the world. As a result, a decentralized and market-oriented approach may be the only practical way to address international issues such as global warming and biodiversity.
Summary
- Certain global environmental issues, such as global warming and biodiversity, spill over national borders and will need to be addressed with some form of international agreement.
- Biodiversity is the spectrum of animal and plant genetic material.
- International externalities are externalities that cross national borders and that cannot be resolved by a single nation acting alone.
Review questions
- What are the economic tradeoffs between low-income and high-income countries in international conferences on global environmental damage?
- What arguments do low-income countries make in international discussions of global environmental clean-up?
Critical-thinking questions
- Can extreme levels of pollution hurt the economic development of a high-income country? Why or why not?
- How can high-income countries benefit from covering much of the cost of reducing pollution created by low-income countries?
Want to join the conversation?
can someone explain the second Critical Thinking question?(3 votes)
the benefit would at least be less global pollution and therefore maybe less global climate change. it could be considered an investment in a cleaner future.(4 votes)
We know Global warming is happening and the effects are already occuring but through Engineering and Science can we reverse it's affects?
Also can we engineer and design things that can withstand damage from hurricanes, flooding, tornadoes etc.?
Also can we engineer ways to lower Carbon and pollution from our air and lower green house gasses?(1 vote)
High levels of pollution even hurt the economic development of the higher income countries because eventually the higher income country will become unable to use the scarce resources that are so commonly needed by all.(1 vote)