OECD Environmental Outlook: Global results
What difference will it make if OECD countries and other significant players join forces? To which kind of issues is this essential? What can be achieved, for example, by simultaneous liberalisation of trade in agricultural products, as well as worldwide climate policy? Much depends on timeliness and ambition level, exact agreements and concrete implementation.
Examples of global results
Undoubtedly, different perspectives exist on which principles are primarily applicable to such a package and on its format and effectiveness. The example of combining trade liberalisation and climate change policy is already characteristic of one specific perspective, namely the logic of globalisation -- in terms of economic and environmental policies. With these limitations in mind – a limited set of issues; contingency upon details; and the existence of very different perspectives – the results of the analyses can be read as follows.
- Climate change
- Air pollution
- Biodiversity
- Nitrogen load on fresh water
- Impact of these measures on GDP growth
These examples illustrate that the combination of economic and environmental globalisation, although logical in itself, will require additional policies. Agricultural liberalisation is an attractive component of this combination. But agricultural liberalisation in particular, requires flanking policy in order to realise expansion of production in BRIC and the rest of the world. This policy should be aimed at mitigating the cost to biodiversity – by a fast expansion of agricultural areas or by increased use of nutrients and pesticides. Water use in agriculture is another example of this.
