Environmental Damage Caused by World’s Richest Countries

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Jun 17, 2008, 10:36:50 AM6/17/08

to Jai Bharat

Cost of Environmental Damage Caused by World’s Richest Countries Exceeds Entire Third World Debt

Gastos por daños ambientales de países ricos superan deuda externa total del Tercer Mundo

A new study conducted by researchers from the University of California – Berkeley revealed that the environmental damage caused by the world’s richest countries in the third world amounts to over $1.8 trillion dollars, more than the third world debt.

“At least to some extent, the rich nations have developed at the expense of the poor and, in effect, there is a debt to the poor,” Prof Richard Norgaard, an ecological economist, who led the study told British newspaper The Guardian.

The study, published on Monday is actually the first systematic quantification of the ecologic damage caused by the richest countries to the poor. This confirms what several environmental organizations have repeatedly claimed. The richest countries have an ecologic, social, climate debt with the poor countries, and they should pay it.

The Guardian reports the experts used data from the World Bank and the UN's Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, to examine the so called “environmental externalities” or costs that are not included in the prices paid for goods but which cover ecological damage linked to their consumption.

They calculated the costs of consumption in low, medium and high income countries, within their borders and abroad, from 1961 to 2000.

According to the research the huge differences in the consumption cause a huge disparity in the responsibility of rich and poor countries for the environmental damage inflicted in the world.

The Guardian reports “the authors say the west's high living standards are maintained in part through the huge unrecognised ecological debts it has built up with developing countries”.

However, the study could have shed more light on the environmental damages caused by the industrialized world and its costs if it had taken into account activities it did not research.

The analysis focused on greenhouse gas emissions, the depletion of the ozone layer, agriculture, deforestation, overfishing and converting mangrove swamps into shrimp farms..

From the research it appears the experts did not take into account the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbon resources or mining, for example. Large corporations from developed countries that operate in these fields have caused serious environmental damages especially in Africa and Latin America. Such is the case of Shell in Nigeria, Repsol YPF in Argentina, and of several mining corporations in Central America and Peru.

Meanwhile, Dr Neil Adger at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in Norway, who did not take part in the research said “We know already that climate change is a huge injustice inflicted on the poor”. But added “This paper is actually the first systematic quantification to produce a map of that ecological debt”.

Environmental organization Friends of the Earth International participated in the 13th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change held in Bali, Indonesia. There, the organization confirmed that industrialized countries have an ecologic and climate debt with the poor countries of the world, and that they should pay.

Friends of the Earth demanded those nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in at least 40% by 2020, compared to the 1990 levels.

The organization also demanded the industrialized countries to fund works of adaptation to and mitigation of climate change in Southern countries, and to enable the transfer of clean technologies in those countries so that they can produce in a sustainable way.

Friends of the Earth warned the developed countries should pay the costs of the climate, environmental and social debt they have with the developing world.

We will listen to the song by Beth Trollan "In the morning of a day", promoted in the website http://www.inthemorningofaday.com/. The song was written to reinforce the need to act together to tackle climate change. The website has an international calendar of activities on the issue.