Free Essay On Environmental Policies: Efficiency And Equity

It is debatable whether or not global and national government policies on the environment truly satisfy the requirements of efficiency and equity. Equity denotes fairness and derives from the notion of social justice whereas efficiency connotes the pragmatic nature of an environmental policy in the economic sense- the cost-effectiveness of such policies.
The international community's environmental policy on climate change and ways of reducing carbon emissions by countries represents a quintessential illustration of how environmental policies may be efficient but not equitable or equitable while not efficient. Under this head, industrialized developed nations and less industrialized developing countries came up with a policy in the form of a convention at the Berlin Conference in Lima, Peru under the Kyoto Protocol.
According to Bortscheller (2010), this international environmental policy adopted by states is equitable but not effective with regards to the burden of responsibility among countries in attempts to reduce effects and causes of climate change. This is because the under this environmental policy and principle of sustainable development are sound, their application and enforcement against developed states has been flawed and impossible hence ineffective particularly with US and China. On the other hand, this policy could also be argued to be equitable in as far as it imposes responsibility for environmental degradation through carbon emissions equitably on states based on the percentage of emissions they make annually.
Furthermore, in the United States, for example, the Obama government administration, has been advocating clean energy and fuel policies as efforts to reduce the impacts of climate change and other environmental hazards. Though these policies are efficient in significantly lowering the amount of carbon emissions by its industries, it cannot be said to be equitable as they seem to operate to the disadvantage of small firms in the states. Moreover, such policies are likely to contribute to social, moral injustice and unfairness due to massive unemployment as industries cut down on their production costs to comply with them. As Dietz (2010) argues, such environmental policies may contribute to loss of income and wealth by the affected communities, hence inequitable and ineffective in their original intended implications.

References

Bortscheller, M. J. (2010). Equitable but ineffective: How the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and policies hobble the global fight against climate change. Sustainable Development Law & Policy Climate Law Reporter, 10(2), 49-53. Retrieved March 28, 2015, from http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&context=sdlp
Dietz, S. (2010). The equity-efficiency trade-off in environmental policy: Evidence from stated preferences. Land Economics Journal, 86(3), 423-443. Retrieved March 28, 2015, from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1338176&download=yes