Introduction: Launching the Era of Global Environmental Governance from Asia
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1.
Economic Globalization and Environmental Deterioration
Rows of high-rise buildings Hne broad avenues, motorbikes and automobiles dash through the cities while honking their horns furiously, traffic congestion stalls hordes of vehicles, and people choke on clouds of exhaust gases. And amid all of this, the vibrant throngs of people. On the surface at least, Asia brims with vitality and is sizzling with activity. Asian economies suffered a recession triggered by the 1997 currency and financial crisis, yet recovered faster than experts anticipated. But strangely enough this led to revision of the Washington consensus, which was the underlying doctrine for North-South international economic cooperation in the post-Cold War world. The Washington consensus comprised policy recommendations agreed upon by the US government and international institutions at an international conference held in 1989 at the Institute of International Economics in Washington. Its 10 policy areas included fiscal discipline, liberalizing interest rates, competitive exchange rates, trade liberalization, liberalization of foreign direct investment, privatization, deregulation, and guaranteeing property rights. In the 1990s globalization driven by multinational corporations proceeded in Asia as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank encouraged development under the Washington consensus. Meanwhile, poverty worsened and gaps between regions and nations widened as environmental damage proceeded and ecosystems declined. We described these events in the first two volumes of this series, whose Asia by Theme sections discussed accelerated industrialization and explosive urbanization, growing motorization, pollution and health damage, the conservation and use of biodiversity, mining development and pollution, the transfers of wastes around the globe, energy policy, and marine pollution and conservation. We also argued that local governments play an important role in environmental conservation. There is no longer any doubt that globalization can endanger the environment and increase poverty. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) clearly points out the negative aspects of globalization, such as widening income
2
Introduction
disparities, social destabilization, and environmental damage, and to control them it proposes institutionalizing mechanisms built around human rights and consideration for people.^ Faced with this reality, the World Bank and IMF had no choice but to effectively revise the Washington consensus, and they are shifting the emphasis of their strategy from the quest for economic growth to initiatives aimed at accentuating poverty reduction, reviving the positive role of governments, and forming partnerships with civil society.
2.
Relativizing the Vicious Circle of Environmental Damage and Poverty
In this new strategy one ghmpses a perception that sees an interlocking relationship between poverty and the environment, in which reducing poverty allows us to achieve environmental conservation at the same time. U
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