ENVIRONMENTAL COST OF ECONOMIC GROWTH

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (03) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sathya Narayana Sharma K ◽  
◽  
Bipin Banerjee D M ◽  
Saranya C R ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Environmental Cost

The Local Environmental State in China: A Study of County-Level Cities in Suzhou

2011 ◽  
Vol 205 ◽  
pp. 115-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-wai Li ◽  
Bo Miao ◽  
Graeme Lang
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Environmental Cost ◽  
Local Administration ◽  
County Level ◽  
Local Officials ◽  
National Model ◽  
Environmental Good ◽  
Local Leaders

AbstractLocal administration in China remains a contested territory of environmental governance. Economic growth often comes with high environmental cost; the central government's environmental regulations are implemented unevenly. This article examines the experience of policy uptake and adoption of the National Model City of Environmental Protection programme in the county-level cities of the Suzhou Municipality. It analyses the rationales for these cities' adoption of the policy, and implications for the emergence of the “environmental state” in local China. It suggests that while economic development remains an important priority of local officials, this preference is not immutable and is now complemented in some areas by substantial local commitments to environmental good practice, often under the influence of local leaders as well as provincial authorities.

scholarly journals The implications of the declining energy return on investment of oil production

2014 ◽  
Vol 372 (2006) ◽  
pp. 20130126 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Oil Sands ◽  
Oil Production ◽  
Environmental Cost ◽  
Energy Investment ◽  
Energy Return On Investment ◽  
Unconventional Oil ◽  
Highly Nonlinear ◽  
Conventional Oil

Declining production from conventional oil resources has initiated a global transition to unconventional oil, such as tar sands. Unconventional oil is generally harder to extract than conventional oil and is expected to have a (much) lower energy return on (energy) investment (EROI). Recently, there has been a surge in publications estimating the EROI of a number of different sources of oil, and others relating EROI to long-term economic growth, profitability and oil prices. The following points seem clear from a review of the literature: (i) the EROI of global oil production is roughly 17 and declining, while that for the USA is 11 and declining; (ii) the EROI of ultra-deep-water oil and oil sands is below 10; (iii) the relation between the EROI and the price of oil is inverse and exponential; (iv) as EROI declines below 10, a point is reached when the relation between EROI and price becomes highly nonlinear; and (v) the minimum oil price needed to increase the oil supply in the near term is at levels consistent with levels that have induced past economic recessions. From these points, I conclude that, as the EROI of the average barrel of oil declines, long-term economic growth will become harder to achieve and come at an increasingly higher financial, energetic and environmental cost.

scholarly journals The Mechanism of Driving Green Growth and Decreasing Energy Security Risks by Innovation in China

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4733
Author(s):  
Feng Wang ◽  
Ruiqi Wang
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Energy Security ◽  
Threshold Effect ◽  
Environmental Cost ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Security Risk ◽  
Green Growth ◽  
Security Risks ◽  
Endogenous Growth Model

The role of innovation for economic growth has been proved by studies. However, whether innovation can decrease environmental cost and energy security risks remains to be studied. To explore the theoretical mechanism of driving green economic growth by innovation, we constructed a four-sector endogenous growth model, including the final-goods sector, the intermediate-goods sector, the Research and Development (R&D) sector, and the energy sector. Then we measured the innovation-driven effect of green growth and calculated the green added value of 40 industries in China during 2005–2016. Based on the calculations, we used a threshold regression model to test the mechanism of driving green growth and decreasing energy security risks by innovation. The results showed that: (1) the innovation-driven effect on green growth increased from 0.2729 in 2005 to 0.3446 in 2016. (2) The proportion of green added value in the traditionally added value increased from 79.54% in 2005 to 92.25% in 2016. (3) Innovation had a threshold effect on green growth: the role of innovation in driving green growth weakened in the long term, but not in the short term (4) Innovation also had a threshold effect on energy security risk: after the innovation-driven effect crossed the threshold, innovation decreased energy security risk more significantly.

scholarly journals Port Environmental Quality or Economic Growth? Their Relevance and Government Preference in Developing Countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Tingliu Xu ◽  
Yingjie Xiao ◽  
Chatchai Khiewngamdee ◽  
Qin Lin
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Environmental Cost ◽  
Balanced Development ◽  
Dynamic Stochastic ◽  
The Government

In the past few years, the marine ecosystem has been a cheap resource in developing countries in the process of pursuing short-term vested interests. Therefore, high economic development of the developing countries is at a huge environmental cost. Nowadays, environmental protection is becoming a global concern. In this background, the government of the developing countries begins to formulate reasonable marine economic and environmental policies to find a balance between rapid economic development and marine environmental protection. In this contribution, a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model (DSGE) is constructed with the environmental constraints, and Bayesian estimation is used to calibrate the main parameters. Next, the model is employed to analyze the effects of government and consumer environmental preferences on macroeconomic variables, environmental quality, and consumer and government utility. Results show that the government’s preference for environmental quality is positively related to port environmental quality and negatively related to output, capital stock, and consumption. An enhancement of the environmental quality preference of the target audience can realize balanced development of economic growth and port environmental quality. The findings are conducive to coordinating the relationship between economic development and environmental protection and achieving sustainable development of the port.

Environmental cost of natural resources utilization and economic growth: Can China shift some burden through globalization for sustainable development?

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 1678-1688 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Umar ◽  
Xiangfeng Ji ◽  
Dervis Kirikkaleli ◽  
Muhammad Shahbaz ◽  
Xuemei Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Environmental Cost

scholarly journals Analysis on the Sources of China’s Economic Growth From the Perspective of Cleaner Production

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 215824402199937
Author(s):  
Na Zhou ◽  
Jinkai Zhao ◽  
Kai Zhao ◽  
Dong Li
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Total Factor Productivity ◽  
Physical Capital ◽  
Cleaner Production ◽  
Environmental Cost ◽  
Factor Productivity ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Natural Factors ◽  
Labor Quality

Since the reform and opening up to the outside world, China’s economy has created a remarkable growth miracle. However, as China enters the new normal economy, the world is full of doubts about its potential for economic growth. The article proper concerns an analysis on some factors affecting China’s economic growth, such as physical capital, labor quality, labor quantity, energy consumption, and environmental cost. Also embraced in this article is the measurement of the contribution of each factor to total factor productivity. The research is conducted on the basis of the provincial panel data of China over 2002–2016, from the perspective of cleaner production. The results reveal that (a) China’s economic growth had significant positive correlations with factor inputs, including traditional input elements (physical capital, labor quantity, labor quality) and natural elements (energy consumption and environmental cost); (b) the direct and indirect effects of physical capital, labor quality, and energy consumption on economic growth were significantly positive, while those of environmental cost were significantly negative; and (c) the contributions of the factors to the total factor productivity were ranked respectively as follows: physical capital (48.63%), energy consumption (16.81%), labor quality (14.85%), environmental cost (10.88%), and labor quantity (8.83%). China’s economic growth belonged to “perspiration.” In addition to the traditional input factors, natural factors also played an important role in boosting China’s economic development. It is urgent how to highlight the role of labor quality, while downplaying the contribution of natural factors, and then shift to cleaner production in China.

De-Growth and Sustainable Development: Rethinking Human Rights Law and Poverty Alleviation

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 647-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wouter Vandenhole
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Poverty Alleviation ◽  
Ecological Economics ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Development Cooperation ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Environmental Cost ◽  
Human Rights Law

Abstract In strong definitions, sustainable development has been argued to imply the prevalence of the environmental dimension over the economic one. The prioritization of the environmental (planet) and (arguably also the) social (people) pillar over the economic (profit) one may require a rather radical departure from assumptions of economic growth, including zero-growth or even de-growth, as argued in post-growth or ecological economics. This article asks the “what if” question. What if unorthodox, ecological economics got it right that post-growth or growth agnosticism is the new economic norm? What are the implications for human rights law and for the field of human rights and development? How could poverty alleviation look like in a growth agnostic scenario? The objective of this article is to draw out in an exploratory way some of the implications of strong definitions of sustainable development for human rights law and its relevance for development. At first, this intellectual exercise may look irrelevant or even cynical in the context of Africa, where more than 40% of the population, more than 300 million people, live in poverty. However, I see two major reasons for also debating in an African context the implications of growth agnosticism for human rights law. First, economic growth does not necessarily lead to economic development, let alone human development, and has typically come at a huge environmental cost. Alternative approaches that focus more directly on human well-being and ecological sustainability may help avoid a simple mimicking of the historical development of the global North. Second, ecological economics shifts the attention from growth to redistribution. The latter is a key challenge within Africa and within African countries, as well as from a global perspective. I examine how to factor in the consequences of post-growth or doughnut economics in the conceptual analysis of socio-economic human rights, and in the role of human rights law in development (cooperation), globally and nationally. In particular, I will try and set a research agenda on two issues that require further examination: the redefinition of obligations of international assistance and cooperation in human rights law and the reconceptualization of equality towards redistributive equality in human rights-based development cooperation interventions.

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