Global environmental economics : equity and the limits to markets

Both the environmental activist and the average citizen know that the world facesa host of global environmental problems: the depletion of the ozone layer, global warming, depletion of the fish and contamination of the oceans, loss of forests and soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, desertification, industrial pollution, and deteriorating quality of water, to name the most important problems. The UN Conference on the Environment and Development of 1992 (UNCED) marks an important watershed in the official recognition of these global environmental problems, and the need to re-think our way of life along the lines of "sustainable development." Indeed, UNCED produced the most highly quoted definition of sustainable development that would preserve the quality of life for future gen erations; the definition emphasized the necessity of meeting "the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Sustainable development thus established a link to equity, both across the globe and across future generations. In the very definition of sustainable development promulgated at UNCED, it was recognized that the global envi ronmental problems cannot be tackled unless the equity dimension is given some priority.