ENV 1301 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: North American Free Trade Agreement, Kyoto Protocol, United Nations Environment Programme
Document Summary
When you add what nature does for us for free, it adds up to more than every nation could provide together ( trillion) Occurs when markets ignore: the environment"s positive impacts on economies (ecosystem services, the negative effects of activities on the environment or people (external costs) Government intervention counters market failure through: laws and regulations, taxing harmful activities, designing economic incentives to promote fairness, conservation, and sustainability. Once society agrees that a problem exists, it may persuade its leaders to solve it through policy. Policy: a formal set of general plans and principles to address problems and guide decision making. Driven by short term profits: not long term social policies. Commonly held resources will become overused and degraded: be prevented by restriction of use and management. Resources that everyone uses: people destroy commonly held resources. Environmental policies also promote fairness by eliminating external costs.