Stuart S. Nagel

Environmental policy in developing nations is a subject that has not been addressed adequately. Development in these countries has mainly proceeded on an antiquated path based upon the Western development model: if you build it, they will come—and the environmental problems created along the way will be fixed when economic security has been achieved. This path has been perpetuated by the policies of international agencies such as the International Monetary Fund, whose loans to developing countries are conditional and often contingent upon the adoption of Western practices. Further, one of many commonalities shared by developing countries is that they are all struggling to simultaneously achieve political, economic, and environmental security. In light of this, it is noteworthy that there are only a handful of books that address environmental issues in developing nations, most of them focused on specific problems such as urban sanitation, the impact of international trade agreements, and the use of environmental impact statements. Environmental policy in general, however, remains a largely untreated topic.

Stuart Nagel, the editor of Environmental Policy and Developing Nations, notes that books on environmental policy generally treat the subject as though it is a topic limited to developed nations. As much as environmental policy is tied to long-term economic stability in developed nations, it is especially important to both short- and long-term economic stability in developing nations. Citing advances in technology, Nagel argues that “[i]t is no longer a given that environmental degradation must accompany economic and technical advances.” To demonstrate this, he has assembled a collection of case studies by a variety of environmental policy experts whose work focuses on environmental policy in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. The final chapters examine the global implications of environmental policy in developing nations. Collectively, Nagel and the other authors have set out to demonstrate that sustainable development practices, implemented through well-defined and contextually appropriate environmental policies, offer the most promise for both short- and long-term political, economic, and environmental security in developing nations and worldwide.

Nagel leads off with a look at how technology-based strategies can be effective in developing countries when they generate “super-optimal” (or “win-win”) solutions. The case studies cover a broad range of policy issues, such as: desertification in West Africa; the use of natural resources management (NRM) policies in sub-Saharan Africa; the struggle for China’s national government to maintain economic growth and modernization in the face of widespread pollution; the challenge of economic revival amidst extreme pollution problems in Eastern Europe; and balancing the needs of the environment with the needs of the tourist industry in Latin America. The desertification case study demonstrates the fact that international agencies are often unable to adequately understand and address—and, therefore, solve—localized problems like those in the Sahel Region of West Africa. The NRM case study demonstrates that the political climate of many African (and non-African) developing countries is not conducive to the successful implementation of generalized policies like NRM. The Eastern European case studies demonstrate that environmental problems like air and water pollution (both domestic and exported) must compete with newly emerging Western consumption habits.

The environmental policy problems in each of the case studies have either a cause or an effect relationship (or both) with global environmental problems. One of the key factors in curbing global warming is the diffusion of cleaner technologies to developing countries. Nevertheless—as the author of Chapter 12, Allen Blackman, points out—diffusion of technology does not automatically guarantee adoption by the developing country. Blackman discusses the feasibility of technology diffusion as a method for improving “climate friendly technologies” (CFTs) in developing countries, which are “expected to supersede industrialized countries as the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in the next thirty years.” He concludes that: 1) “[t]o be successful, new technologies must be ‘appropriate’ to developing countries;” 2) dissemination of information regarding new technologies is essential; 3) diffusion of CFTs and energy efficient technologies requires regulation and reduced subsidies; 4) improved financial intermediation is necessary; 5) human capital and energy infrastructure investments are essential to help speed diffusion; and 6) intellectual property restrictions serve to discourage diffusion. Thus, as Vandana Asthana and A.C. Shukla note in Chapter 11, “[n]o amount of technological and scientific [effort] can enact environmental protection unless it is not only technically feasible but, also, economically viable.”

The optimistic view of sustainable development touted in Nagel’s book is in stark contrast to the view presented in Citizens at Risk: From Urban Sanitation to Sustainable Cities. The authors of this book describe sustainable development as a long-term, global view that tends to neglect the short-term problems that are felt most in poor urban areas. They focus on environmental justice issues they have observed in three urban areas: Accra (Ghana), Jakarta (Indonesia), and São Paulo (Brazil). They argue that local, immediate environmental problems that pose health threats are felt most in poor urban areas and represent the “brown agenda”; whereas global, delayed environmental problems that threaten life systems are generated by people in affluent cities and represent the “green agenda.” They argue further that the “brown agenda” should be as much of a priority for global environmental policy as the “green agenda” because urban cities ultimately have an enormous effect upon the global environment. Thus, environmental justice should be on both the brown and the green agenda, as it promotes representation of underrepresented minorities—the former being the economically underrepresented, the latter being future generations who do not yet have a voice. Despite their initial tone of disdain for sustainable development, these authors ultimately make a strong case for it when they argue that with development comes affluence; and with affluence come sustainability issues. Therefore, one might argue that sustainable development should, ideally, cancel out the sustainability issues that come with development.… (altro)