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Economic Growth and The Environment In Malaysia

The debate on economic growth and the environment has continued to draw considerable passion. Economists tend to be dominated by the Kuznets inverted "U" shaped curve expositions that contend that environmental conditions tend to deteriorate until a certain per capita threshold income is...

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Main Authors: Rasiah, Rajah, Shazali, Abu Mansor, Abas, Said
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS) 2002
Subjects:
HC Economic History and Conditions
Online Access:http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/2144/1/Economic.pdf
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/2144/
http://www.myjurnal.my/
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spelling my.unimas.ir.21442022-01-19T03:24:14Z http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/2144/ Economic Growth and The Environment In Malaysia Rasiah, Rajah Shazali, Abu Mansor Abas, Said HC Economic History and Conditions The debate on economic growth and the environment has continued to draw considerable passion. Economists tend to be dominated by the Kuznets inverted "U" shaped curve expositions that contend that environmental conditions tend to deteriorate until a certain per capita threshold income is reached after which they will improve (see World Bank. 1992; Panayotou, 1993; Antle and Heidebrink, 1995; Seldon and Song, 1994). However, sustainable development arguments originating from green groups in the North claim that the South economies should avoid the growth path of the North so as to avoid environmental catastrophe, premised on the argument that environment costs are difficult to estimate and prices cannot be apportioned to living matter. This position is pervasively pushed at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) where some insist that trade should be linked to environmental standards. To gamer sUpJX>rt from the South, there has been a push to expand development assistance to assist them to strengthen environment-friendly production capabilities. Critics argue that this effort is a double whammy for developing economies, at one level restricting the independence of South's development JX>licies, and at another level merely opening demand for the North's environment-friendly technologies. It is extremely difficult to ignore the contention that environmental costs cannot be assessed against income levels as it will not be in sync with normative definitions of development. However, given that economic activities typically generate emissions, it is not sufficient to just remove them all together. While taking cognisance of the need to prevent the proliferation of environmentally hazardous emissions, it might still be worth re-examining the Kuznets curve. Indeed it is interesting to see if latecomers shorten the time period, threshold per capita incomes and pollution intensities given rising awareness and the growth of environment-friendly technologies. However, while these are interesting exercises, this paper looks at Malaysia to see if the Kuznets curve trends are being replicated. This paper attempts to contribute to this literature by examining economic growth and the evolution of environmental governance in Malaysia. The next section introduces the analytical framework. The following section discusses economic transition in Malaysia, followed by its corollary on the environment The subsequent section deals with its impact on the environment, including governance. Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS) 2002 Article NonPeerReviewed text en http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/2144/1/Economic.pdf Rasiah, Rajah and Shazali, Abu Mansor and Abas, Said (2002) Economic Growth and The Environment In Malaysia. International Journal of Business and Society, Vol. 3 No.2, 2002 : 69-86. http://www.myjurnal.my/
institution Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
building Centre for Academic Information Services (CAIS)
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
content_source UNIMAS Institutional Repository
url_provider http://ir.unimas.my/
language English
topic HC Economic History and Conditions
spellingShingle HC Economic History and Conditions
Rasiah, Rajah
Shazali, Abu Mansor
Abas, Said
Economic Growth and The Environment In Malaysia
description The debate on economic growth and the environment has continued to draw considerable passion. Economists tend to be dominated by the Kuznets inverted "U" shaped curve expositions that contend that environmental conditions tend to deteriorate until a certain per capita threshold income is reached after which they will improve (see World Bank. 1992; Panayotou, 1993; Antle and Heidebrink, 1995; Seldon and Song, 1994). However, sustainable development arguments originating from green groups in the North claim that the South economies should avoid the growth path of the North so as to avoid environmental catastrophe, premised on the argument that environment costs are difficult to estimate and prices cannot be apportioned to living matter. This position is pervasively pushed at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) where some insist that trade should be linked to environmental standards. To gamer sUpJX>rt from the South, there has been a push to expand development assistance to assist them to strengthen environment-friendly production capabilities. Critics argue that this effort is a double whammy for developing economies, at one level restricting the independence of South's development JX>licies, and at another level merely opening demand for the North's environment-friendly technologies. It is extremely difficult to ignore the contention that environmental costs cannot be assessed against income levels as it will not be in sync with normative definitions of development. However, given that economic activities typically generate emissions, it is not sufficient to just remove them all together. While taking cognisance of the need to prevent the proliferation of environmentally hazardous emissions, it might still be worth re-examining the Kuznets curve. Indeed it is interesting to see if latecomers shorten the time period, threshold per capita incomes and pollution intensities given rising awareness and the growth of environment-friendly technologies. However, while these are interesting exercises, this paper looks at Malaysia to see if the Kuznets curve trends are being replicated. This paper attempts to contribute to this literature by examining economic growth and the evolution of environmental governance in Malaysia. The next section introduces the analytical framework. The following section discusses economic transition in Malaysia, followed by its corollary on the environment The subsequent section deals with its impact on the environment, including governance.
format Article
author Rasiah, Rajah
Shazali, Abu Mansor
Abas, Said
author_facet Rasiah, Rajah
Shazali, Abu Mansor
Abas, Said
author_sort Rasiah, Rajah
title Economic Growth and The Environment In Malaysia
title_short Economic Growth and The Environment In Malaysia
title_full Economic Growth and The Environment In Malaysia
title_fullStr Economic Growth and The Environment In Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Economic Growth and The Environment In Malaysia
title_sort economic growth and the environment in malaysia
publisher Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS)
publishDate 2002
url http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/2144/1/Economic.pdf
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/2144/
http://www.myjurnal.my/
_version_ 1724078407777517568
score 13.211869

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