I believe we live in an ever pressing time in history where the environment is a key policy area which must be carefully developed. We have had several administrations that have caused awareness and have laid the foundation to further pursue environmental equity and efficiency, and safeguard global issues. What I find intriguing within environmental policy is the notion of the global approach and equitable reforms. I find it hard to believe that nation’s that do not have the resources that more developed nations will contribute to securing policy measures that support other nations. Basically because their concerns may not be of the same, nation a maybe directing its resources towards a policy area they feel is important, while nation B is trying to regulate air emissions. Both nations may need to regulate air emissions, but not necessarily share the same goals or responsibility. And of responsibility, how can nations reach accord and agreement on something like air quality, how they for certain tell who is responsible for what, even with advanced technology, there is still room for question within it? In this regard is where I feel it is definitely easy to see that environmental policy has a dynamic that makes a concept not as feasible as other policy concepts, it does not lend itself to easy comparative study, and or measure. Although we can develop theories through comparative measure, the environmental landscape and quality within each nation is different and unique with other issues of impact upon them, that create a complex issue, although it may be the same issue, be uniquely examined and solved.
Don't get me wrong, if we can reach compacts and treaties with other nations and create a feasible global landscape of policy that protects the environment I am all for it. In fact I really liked what Adolino & Blake state, "This phenomenon...known as globalization of the environment...This awareness has resulted in the development of a substantial number of international agreements," (Adolino & Blake, 2010, pp. 372). I believe we point to a general systemic agenda overall for the protection of resources worldwide, but it will take the efforts of the more developed countries to aid the total effort because less developed nations have more pressing issues on their plate, not that the environment is not of major importance, but some nations are on the more essential levels of necessities. Thus, fiscal resources and policy development may in fact continue on an incremental path, also due to the fact that technology development is needed in a lot of phases of environmental policy, and be positioned by the influence of the developed nations across the global stage.
References:
Adolino, Jessica R. & Blake, Charles H. (2010). Comparing Public Policies: Issues and Choices in Industrialized Countries. Washington D.C.: CQ Press
Fabian,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the contribution! I actually just posted a response to Sophia’s blog that echoes what you said about verification. Basically, how do we know how much CO2 a nation/nation’s industry/firm is producing? It’s difficult even for us in the Western world to institute a regime that accurately measures and verifies CO2 production. We can think of something like an environmental Sarbanes-Oxley that might help us gather that information, but how can we expect developing nations that can’t effectively collect taxes (the bedrock of an effective government) to be effective at monitoring CO2 production without continued help/resources from developed countries? And with a major incentive to misrepresent production measures, how can we effectively verify that a country is in compliance with international standards without an expensive and extensive apparatus to do so?
I also agree with your sentiment that developing countries have more salient (at least to them) issues on their plates. Convincing a country that has just started to industrialize and is starting to provide a rising standard of living for its citizens to ease off on that industrialization after they’ve seen the developed countries pollute for centuries is not an easy thing to do. It’s essential that developed countries take the lead on this, but as A&B make clear, many of them are pulling away from strong regulatory measures. Although I agree that CO2 production should be cut worldwide, I feel that doing so is difficult to achieve without considering the types of problems that you raise in your post.