Streeten, Paul. 1993. "Institutions for Sustainable Development." Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 18 (4): 350-358.
Summary:
Streeten views sustainability as a multidimensional problem. He outlines six aspects of sustainable development:
- the maintenance of intact physical and human capital
- the maintenance physical environment conditions for the constituents of well being
- resilience
- the assurance that future generations will not be burdened with internal and external debts
- various administrative and political details
- the ability to turn over projects in developing countries to the management of their citizens
Principle threats to the environment of developing countries include:
Streeten maintains that "whereas poverty is the main cause of environmental degradation in poor countries, it is opulence in the rich countries" (p. 351). He continues with a discussion of demographic transitions, population growth, industrialization and urbanization. Because levels of development are different worldwide, Streeten claims it is "absurd" to impose uniform global environmental standards.
He further agues that the problem with the growth versus environment debate is that economic growth has been wrongly defined: "Growth is simply the intertemporal dimension of any strategy[it] is a side effect, not the aim, of a rational economic policy. It could be that sustainable development calls for more, not less growth. It certainly calls for differently composed growth" (p. 353). Accordingly, four options should be considered: abstain from producing as much to reduce pollution and resource use; devote resources that would have produced goods to produce products that combat pollution, what he calls "antibads;" increase the production of goods, notwithstanding the fact that this aggravates pollution, to a degree that compensates for the growth of pollution; and finally, produce different products, with different characteristics, for example, slower cars that emit less pollution. He readily endorses changing technology to reduce pollution.
In approaching the human and policy issues relevant to sustainable development, Streeten argues that "the poor are both the cause and the principal victims of environmental degradation" (p. 354). He continues by outlining several policy issues:
- late industrial starters
- international location of 'dirty' processes
- the return to the use of some natural products over synthetics
- concerns facing developing countries with respect to scarcity of natural resources
- the role of transnational companies in environmental policy
The next section deals primarily with the differences between local and global institutions for sustainable development. Streeten acknowledges that local problems are not the same as global problems, but that advanced communication technology and processes of globalization have created certain circumstances in which local decisions importantly impact global regulation, specifically, he argues that the prisoner's dilemma complex and free riders call for coordination and enforcement of regulatory policies.
In the final section, Streeten endorses the concept of a "global environmental protection agency" which would enforce global agreements and would have the power to limit national sovereignty.
Streeten's analysis is limited in that it endorses the line of thinking which assumes poverty is the main cause of environmental degradation. He does take issue with overconsumption, but does not make the connection between overconsumption and resource use and environmental degradation, so he concludes that the primary factor causing environmental degradation is poverty.
Keywords: developing countries, poverty, economic growth, globalization, Global Environmental Protection Agency