Environmentalunsustainabilityindevelopingcountriesis.docVIP

White Collar Invasion: developed country policies leading to environmental degradation in South Vikas Nath Inlaks Fellow, London School of Economics, 2001 v.nath@lse.ac.uk Interdependence among nations has been on the rise since the last century and is rapidly increasing in this era of globalization and liberalization of economies. The trans-country flows are in all areas including financial capital, human resources, tradable commodities, environmental resources and services, and intellectual property. This international interdependence has contributed to significantly improved standards of living in most countries. Yet, these improved standards of living have not come without a cost. Huge environmental debts have been incurred by nations to provide for improvements in their domestic livelihood conditions. These environmental debts are not necessarily, been paid back by the debtor countries. The debts are often passed on to other countries or left for the future generations to pay leading to inter-country and inter-generational environmental debts. Other environmental debts may be simply unserviceable as the capital to repay back has been lost forever and facing environmental oppression may be the only option open for some nations. This paper delves into the dimension of environmental debt-transfer to understand whether developed countries have led to environmental unsustainability in the developing countries. 1.2 Growing Economies, Increasing Gaps Inequitable development has been the characteristics of global growth and developmental processes. Between 1980-1994, the per-capita GDP growth averaged 1.5% in developed countries and was 0.34 in the developing countries. (Pritchett, 1997). The distribution of benefits has always been skewed in favor of those economically better-off whereas those deprived only corner a smaller share of the benefits. The argument is substantiated by the fact that Gini coefficient, which is a common measure of global inequality, has been