ENVIRONMENTAL KUZNETS CURVES - REAL PROGRESS OR PASSING THE BUCK - A CASE FOR CONSUMPTION-BASED APPROACHES

Recent research has examined the hypothesis of an environmental Kuznet s curve (EKC)-the notion that environmental impact increases in the ea rly stages of development followed by declines in the later stages. Th ese studies have focused on the relationship between per capita income and a variety of environmental indicators. Results imply that EKCs ma y exist for a number of cases. However, the measures of environmental impact used generally focus on production processes and reflect enviro nmental impacts that are local in nature and for which abatement is re latively inexpensive in terms of monetary costs and/or lifestyle chang es. Significantly, more consumption-based measures, such CO2 emissions and municipal waste, for which impacts are relatively easy to externa lize or costly to control, show no tendency to decline with increasing per capita income. By considering consumption and trade patterns, the author re-examines the concept of the EKC and proposes the use of alt ernative, consumption-based measures of environmental impact. The auth or speculates that what appear to be improvements in environmental qua lity may in reality be indicators of increased ability of consumers in wealthy nations to distance themselves from the environmental degrada tion associated with their consumption. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.