Green Growth
Daniel Esty analyzed the Environmental Sustainability Index, which grades the “environmental health” of 150 countries. He found that the single biggest variable in determining a country’s ranking is income per head.
Economic growth offers solutions to the sorts of environmental woes (local air pollution, for example) that directly kill humans. About a quarter of all deaths in the world have some link to environmental factors. Among these killers (especially of children) are diarrhoea, respiratory infections and malaria.
As poor countries get richer, they usually invest heavily in environmental improvements, such as cleaning up water supplies and improving sanitation, that boost human health. (Their economies may also shift gear, from making steel or chemicals to turning out computer chips.)
But the link between growth and environment is much less clear when it comes to the sort of pollution that fouls up nature (such as acid rain, which poisons lakes and forests) as opposed to directly killing human beings.
A mixture of factors related to good government -— accurate data, transparent administration, lack of corruption, checks and balances — all show a clear statistical relationship with environmental performance. Among countries of comparable income, tough regulations and, above all, enforcement are the key factors in keeping things green.
“How green is their growth,” The Economist