January 08, 2008
New research refutes the widely held view that local businesses in developing countries have little or nothing positive to contribute in the global fight against greenhouse gas emissions. Case studies published in the recent issue of the academic journal Studies in Comparative International Development (SCID) have produced three key findings:
• Businesses in developing countries are not locked into a single, polluting pattern of growth;
• Some are exceeding the environmental performance of their counterparts in industrialized countries; and
• They are crucial players in the global effort to mitigate climate change.
“Recognizing the environmental agency of developing country firms is a starting point – not the final destination,” said Simone Pulver, who guest-edited the special issue of SCID titled “Greening Development: The Role of the Developing-Country Private Sector.” The cases cited in the issue are still exceptions to the norm, but “understanding why and how they came to adopt innovative environmental technologies and practices will be central to any search for global sustainability,” said Pulver, who is an assistant professor with the Watson Institute’s Global Environment Program.
Among the issue’s case studies from leading academics are:
• The rise of two companies, in China and India, into the world’s top 10 manufacturers of wind turbine technology;
• The role of Mexico’s national oil company in leading its government to adopt a progressive climate change policy; and
• The improved environmental performance of both eco-certified banana producers in Ecuador and of large steel, power, and automotive companies in India.
“It is often assumed that the greatest potential for improving business environmental practice in developing countries lies with foreign multinationals and not with the countries’ own businesses,” Pulver said. “These case studies reject this common assumption and point to the crucial role of developing-country firms as they serve the world’s most populous and fastest growing markets.”
SCID is an interdisciplinary journal that addresses issues concerning political, social, economic, and environmental change in local, national, and international contexts. The journal’s editorial management is housed at the Watson Institute. It is published four times a year by Springer Science + Business Media.
Table of Contents
• Introduction: Developing-Country Firms as Agents of Environmental Sustainability?
Simone Pulver, Brown University, Watson Institute for International Studies
• Technology Acquisition and Innovation in the Developing World: Wind Turbine Development in China and India
Joanna Lewis, Pew Center on Global Climate Change
• Importing Environmentalism: Explaining Petroleos Mexicanos' Proactive Climate Policy
Simone Pulver, Brown University, Watson Institute for International Studies
• Eco-certification of Ecuadorian Bananas: Prospects for Progressive North-South Linkages?
Cristian Melo, Florida International University
Steven Wolf, Cornell University
• Globalizing Corporate Environmentalism? Convergence and Heterogeneity in Corporate Greening in India
Richard Perkins, London School of Economics