The Natural Wealth of Nations: Harnessing the Market and the Environment (Harnessing the Market for the Environment) (Worldwatch Environmental Alert Series) - Softcover

Roodman, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1853835927 ISBN 13: 9781853835926

Publisher: Routledge, 1999

Synopsis

Every year, the world's governments spend over US $700 billion subsidizing activities that harm the environment. The Natural Wealth of Nations shows how cutting these wasteful subsidies can actually boost the economy, save tax and help the environment. By raising taxes on harmful activities like air pollution whilst cutting taxes on payrolls and profits, pollution is discouraged and both work and investment boosted. In a comprehensive global survey, The Natural Wealth of Nations provides examples from Sweden to Spain to Malalysia of the growing number of countries that are successfully using these market-based approaches to clean up their environments. This is an accessible, practical book offering concrete proposals for cleaning up the world?s environment and overcoming ecological ignorance.

About this title

About the Author

David Malin Roodmanwas a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development where he worked from 2002-2013 with a focus on microfinance, debt relief, and aid effectiveness. He is the author of Due Diligence and the Microfinance Open Book Blog.

From Booklist

Roodman is a senior researcher for the Worldwatch Institute, the environmental organization that annually issues the State of the World "report on progress toward a sustainable society." Worldwatch also sponsors the Environmental Alert series, of which this is the ninth title. Whereas conservatives often complain about excessive government regulation to protect the environment, Roodman looks at the other side of the coin. He argues that government subsidies in the form of giveaways of public land and resources, cash handouts and tax breaks, and infrastructure improvements encourage activities such as driving, mining, and logging that are harmful to the environment. He offers specific and detailed proposals that rely on "market forces" rather than on regulation to help combat pollution and other environmentally harmful activities. Roodman calls for polluters to be taxed and for incentives to be provided for nonpolluters, and he gives examples from other countries and various states where those ideas have been successful. David Rouse

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1853835927
• ISBN 13: 9781853835926
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304