Foreign direct investment and the environment involves international businesses and their interactions and impact on the natural world. These interactions can be observed through the stringency applied to foreign direct investment policy and the responsiveness of capital or labor incentive for investment inflows. [1] The laws and regulations created by a country that focuses on environmental regimes can directly impact the levels of competition involving foreign direct investment they are exposed to. [2] Fiscal and financial incentives stemming from ecological motivators, such as carbon taxation, are methods used based on the desired outcome within a country in order to attract foreign direct investment. [3]
External funding sources that come from foreign direct investment stimulates the increase of innovative ideas surrounding technological advances while it also holds the potential to decrease unemployment. [3] When financial and fiscal motives are combined with environmental consciousness, the promotion of green and sustainable innovations increases. Such environmental consciousness can result in the decrease of industrial pollutants, which contributes to infant mortality and other health issues. [4] Policies created that attract innovative and environmentally conscious technological advancements have been stated as a great way to encourage increase in the abundance of environmentally friendly foreign direct investments.[ citation needed ] The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development promotes policies that can have positive social and economic impacts. [5]
Foreign direct investment does have the potential in initiating negative effects on countries as well. Foreign direct investments allow for the chance of compromise and collaboration between policies of negotiating countries, which brings the opportunity for new perspectives on green innovation. However, intensifying regulations around production costs, such as environmental effect, can decrease the attraction of foreign direct investment to that country. Businesses or governments may wish to negotiate with a country with less complicated policies, therefore decreasing a country's competitive edge on the international market. [2]
A complete list of foreign direct investment incentives that can be applied in regards to international business can be found in Foreign direct investment.
Some researchers find foreign direct investment leads to strict environmental policy. [6] Environmental consciousness has been a pressing topic for discussion and concern in the global community as has been seen in the recent Paris Agreement. For a country to become more attractive to foreign investors, one may consider implementing incentives that simultaneously reduce cost while also enabling environmental initiatives. Incentives are policy or regulation measures that are implemented to serve both as a reason to increase foreign direct investment while also maintaining control over the impact investment may have. [7]
Fiscal incentives alone, such as taxation laws that aim to reduce the tax burden of a firm, do not largely contribute to attracting foreign direct investment in research and development. [7] Financial incentives direct monetary contributions from a government to a firm; this could include direct capital subsidies or subsidized loans. Incentives that combine both fiscal and financial aspects, have the capacity to increase interest in investment. [3]
Canada is part of the OECD, an amalgamation of countries dedicated to working in unison to increase environmental sustainability. [8] Research shows that the total amounts of CO2 emissions have been increasing for Canada. [9] One study shows that Canada is not prepared to avoid the effects of environmental issues that come with economic growth as it does not have a high level of per capita GDP to avoid these negative effects at this time. [10] While another study shows that Quebec which is a major exporter of hydropower, decreased their green house gas emissions by 35%. [11]
Since the 1980s, Canada has developed more lenient foreign direct investment policies in order to attract investment. [8] For example, recent Chinese investment in Canada's oil and gas industry has raised concerns that such investments may increase global emissions. [12] Furthermore, Canada is involved in trade agreements over water with the United States such as NAFTA. [13] Researchers argue trade agreements concerning water is affecting the sustainability of water management. [14] It is stated that water governance and management is changing in Canada. There are many commodities that are produced with water, which may increase the competition for water resources [14] and this may affect water security. [15]
Canada has been taking preliminary steps to become more environmentally conscious within their trade agreements and environmental regulation policies. In order to address air pollution and its effects on the environment such as acid rain, Canada has partnered with the United States through Canada-United States Air Quality Agreement. Canada and the United States work together to address acid rain issues. [16] Moreover, chemicals and waste industries have economic benefits however also pollute the environment. Canada is part of multiple groups such as United Nations Commission for Sustainable Development and Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, to ensure waste management is effectively managed. [17] In addition, Canada is part of multiple trade agreements to ensure economic growth as well as protection of the environment. Canada has made trade agreements that focus on both labor and the environment with countries such as Chile, which focus on promoting environmental transparency and strengthening the effectiveness of domestic environmental laws and regulations. [18]
For the past 30 years China has experienced rapid economic growth. Many studies have been dedicated to documenting the impact foreign direct investment has on the environment in China. However, there have been varying conclusions as to whether or not such investment is environmentally beneficial for the country. Jiajia Zheng and Pengfei Sheng discovered that provinces in the East have higher evidence of market development and lower CO2 emissions while provinces in the West have lower evidence of market development and higher CO2 emissions. [19] It has been documented by the scientific community that there is a correlation between foreign direct investment and increases in China's CO2 emissions as energy consumption in the long-term impacts CO2 emissions. [10] Researchers found that a 1% increase in foreign direct investment stocks, increase industrial SO2 levels by 0.099%, which shows that increases in foreign direct investment impacts the level of emissions. [10] When market development increases, so do the CO2 emissions. Moreover, sulfur dioxide emissions are said to be one of the main sources of pollution in the air. [20]
Some researchers conclude that foreign direct investment does not have negative effects on China's natural environment. [20] Studies have shown that the presence of foreign direct investment has the potential to reduce air pollution. [20] Foreign direct investment can be beneficial to China's environment as the foreign companies bring more efficient technology which could improve productivity and energy efficiency. [10] China progressed in its market oriented economy as this market oriented reform improved electricity generation efficiency. [19] In addition, cleaner technology helps China's environment. Further, there is an openness of trade, which can impact the environment and has been studied. [21] The results found that international trade would raise income, promote consumer spending on environmentally friendly goods and curb emissions as trade openness brings more technology through from developed countries which help the environment. [10]
China is taking some steps towards a cleaner environment through policy-making. [22] Studies have shown that environmental regulations have the potential to encourage industrial relocations. [23] China has energy saving and airborne emissions reduction policies which have been stated to help move air-polluting industries. [24] China has accomplished reducing carbon emissions through far reaching efficiency programs as in 2004, the country adopted national fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles. Although China is improving their environmental regulations, there is still more work to do such as increasing transparency of environmentally informed national accounts, and the need for greater enforcement. [23]
Statistics have shown that although there is a long run, positive but marginal, impact of foreign direct investment in India, the long run growth of foreign direct investment impact on CO2 is even larger. [25] It has been hypothesized that the impact on environment may be larger as CO2 emission is an air pollutant that is typically generated through economic activities. [25] By the turn of this century, India had been named as the 4th highest in global ranking of CO2 emission. [25]
Many developing countries desire increased inflows of foreign direct investment as it brings the potential of technological innovation. [10] However, studies have shown a host country must reach a certain level of development in education and infrastructure sectors in able to truly capture any potential benefits foreign direct investment might bring. [25] If a country already has sufficient funds in terms of per capita income, as well as an established financial market, foreign direct investment has the potential to influence positive economic growth. [25] Pre-determined financial efficiency combined with an educated labor force are the two main measures of whether or not foreign direct investment will have a positive impact on economic growth within a country. [25]
Since 1991, India has sought to increase foreign direct investment interest within their country by instilling liberal trade and investment policies. [25] Since making these policy changes India has seen an increase in GDP growth rates at 7% annually. However, since the surge in foreign direct investment inflow, pollution emission and resource depletion has been increasing at alarming rates due to greater economic activity (such as the cement, transportation and paper industries). [25] There is hope that as income growth increase, there would be a positive long run effect on the environment as consumer demand shifts towards relatively cleaner goods - this shift would cause pollution-intensive goods to fall, potentially reducing pollution emissions. [25] India, as well as many developing countries, have been experiencing rapid economic development once adopting more liberal economic policies. [25]
There is potential for regulation of industrial pollution to increase with further economic development due to the creation of developed public institutions capable of regulating environment depletion. [25] However, until then these public sectors and institutions can be implemented, India will continue to experience increased resource depletion and pollution emissions with increases of foreign direct investment. [25]
Studies have demonstrated that there is a causal link between Carbon dioxide per capita, and foreign direct investment inflow in Nigeria.[ citation needed ] Foreign direct investment can be critical in promoting growth in the adoption of new technologies, stimulating knowledge transfers, and introducing alternative management practices as well as better institutional organization arrangements. [26] In many Developing countries foreign direct investment is expected to improve the balance of payments. Therefore, in many African countries, foreign direct investment impacts constitutes a key outcome of globalization which can propel them to support and promote liberalization policies.[ citation needed ] When a country adopts policies focused on liberalization, it aids in the increase of free movement capital. Therefore, long term capital, such as foreign direct investment, could then have the potential to embody adverse environmental consequences.[ citation needed ]
In many globalization discussions, it is argued that environmental quality can be viewed as a good, therefore increasing free trade and foreign direct investment would lead to a cleaner environment.[ citation needed ] In 1986, Nigeria saw foreign direct investment as a pathway to enhance growth that could span the entire economy and therefore adopted structural adjustment programs for foreign direct investment inflows.[ citation needed ] Due to the success of the structural adjustment programs, Nigeria has become the continent's second top foreign direct investment recipient, with their oil sector receiving 90% of foreign direct investment inflow.[ citation needed ]
However, Nigeria has demonstrated an inverse relationship between Gross domestic product (GDP) and Carbon dioxide emissions, as GDP per capita increases, per capita emission falls.[ citation needed ] A decline in the manufacturing sector shares in the country explains the average carbon dioxide emission per capita drop of 0.84 tons from 1980–1989 to 0.41 tons from 2000 to 2009.[ citation needed ] It has been documented in numerous studies that developing countries tend to utilize lax environmental regulations as a method of instilling unethical industries from developed countries in hopes of increasing economic gains. [27] [26] Studies have concluded that within Nigeria, although there is a long-standing relationship between quality of the environment and foreign direct investment whereas the same can not be said for foreign direct investment and economic growth. [28] However arguments have been made that although "extractive" foreign direct investment may not have a significant impact on a countries growth and development, manufacturing foreign direct investment may be more beneficial. [29] There is constant growing evidence demonstrating that the increase of foreign direct investment within Nigeria, leads to further deterioration of their natural environment.[ citation needed ]
According to the report of Asian Development Outlook, [30] Armenia's exports, international remittances, and private capital inflows have all been negatively impacted by regional and global downturns, which have caused the nation to enter its worst recession since shortly after independence. The recession caused a decline in many of Armenia's key economic sectors, including the production of chemicals, building materials, mining and metallurgy, and the trade in processed diamonds.
Agriculture did not experience any continuous expansion, and the services sector only expanded by 0.7 percent as a result of limited activity in the financial, tourist, communications, and transportation industries. As net remittance inflows, which had fuelled the housing bubble, fell by one-third and net foreign direct investment fell by around one-fourth to about US$700 million, private investment fell by 25%.
Due to the weak remittance inflows and the recession, private consumption also declined. The largest price increases in December 2009 were for sugar, fuel, prescription drugs, and home utilities, in that order. The inflation rate was 6.5 percent (ranging from 34 percent to 20 percent). The current account deficit decreased somewhat, from US$1.4 billion to US$1.3 billion, as a result of fewer remittance inflows and transfers, but increased relative to the declining GDP, from 11.6 percent in 2008 to 15.4 percent in 2009. [31]
Emissions trading is a market-oriented approach to controlling pollution by providing economic incentives for reducing the emissions of pollutants. The concept is also known as cap and trade (CAT) or emissions trading scheme (ETS). One prominent example is carbon emission trading for CO2 and other greenhouse gases which is a tool for climate change mitigation. Other schemes include sulfur dioxide and other pollutants.
Environmental finance is a field within finance that employs market-based environmental policy instruments to improve the ecological impact of investment strategies. The primary objective of environmental finance is to regress the negative impacts of climate change through pricing and trading schemes. The field of environmental finance was established in response to the poor management of economic crises by government bodies globally. Environmental finance aims to reallocate a businesses resources to improve the sustainability of investments whilst also retaining profit margins.
A special economic zone (SEZ) is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country. SEZs are located within a country's national borders, and their aims include increasing trade balance, employment, increased investment, job creation and effective administration. To encourage businesses to set up in the zone, financial policies are introduced. These policies typically encompass investing, taxation, trading, quotas, customs and labour regulations. Additionally, companies may be offered tax holidays, where upon establishing themselves in a zone, they are granted a period of lower taxation.
A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon emissions from producing goods and services. Carbon taxes are intended to make visible the hidden social costs of carbon emissions. They are designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by essentially increasing the price of fossil fuels. This both decreases demand for goods and services that produce high emissions and incentivizes making them less carbon-intensive. When a fossil fuel such as coal, petroleum, or natural gas is burned, most or all of its carbon is converted to CO2. Greenhouse gas emissions cause climate change. This negative externality can be reduced by taxing carbon content at any point in the product cycle.
A subsidy, subvention or government incentive is a type of government expenditure for individuals and households, as well as businesses with the aim of stabilizing the economy. It ensures that individuals and households are viable by having access to essential goods and services while giving businesses the opportunity to stay afloat and/or competitive. Subsidies not only promote long term economic stability but also help governments to respond to economic shocks during a recession or in response to unforeseen shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
An environmental tax, ecotax, or green tax is a tax levied on activities which are considered to be harmful to the environment and is intended to promote environmentally friendly alternatives via economic incentives. One notable example is a carbon tax. Such a policy can complement or avert the need for regulatory approaches. Often, an ecotax policy proposal may attempt to maintain overall tax revenue by proportionately reducing other taxes ; such proposals are known as a green tax shift towards ecological taxation. Ecotaxes address the failure of free markets to consider environmental impacts.
In economics, hot money is the flow of funds from one country to another in order to earn a short-term profit on interest rate differences and/or anticipated exchange rate shifts. These speculative capital flows are called "hot money" because they can move very quickly in and out of markets, potentially leading to market instability.
A foreign direct investment (FDI) refers to purchase of an asset in another country, such that it gives direct control to the purchaser over the asset. In other words, it is an investment in the form of a controlling ownership in a business, in real estate or in productive assets such as factories in one country by an entity based in another country. It is thus distinguished from a foreign portfolio investment or foreign indirect investment by a notion of direct control.
Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is a strategy to add all of the estimated environmental costs associated with a product throughout the product life cycle to the market price of that product, contemporarily mainly applied in the field of waste management. Such societal costs are typically externalities to market mechanisms, with a common example being the impact of cars.
Environment friendly processes, or environmental-friendly processes, are sustainability and marketing terms referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that claim reduced, minimal, or no harm upon ecosystems or the environment.
The Kuznets curve expresses a hypothesis advanced by economist Simon Kuznets in the 1950s and 1960s. According to this hypothesis, as an economy develops, market forces first increase and then decrease economic inequality. As more data has become available with the passage of time since the hypothesis was expressed, the data shows waves rather than a curve.
Carbon pricing is a method for governments to mitigate climate change, in which a monetary cost is applied to greenhouse gas emissions. This is done to encourage polluters to reduce fossil fuel combustion, the main driver of climate change. A carbon price usually takes the form of a carbon tax, or an emissions trading scheme (ETS) that requires firms to purchase allowances to emit. The method is widely agreed to be an efficient policy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon pricing seeks to address the economic problem that emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases are a negative externality – a detrimental product that is not charged for by any market.
A green-collar worker is a worker who is employed in an environmental sector of the economy. Environmental green-collar workers satisfy the demand for green development. Generally, they implement environmentally conscious design, policy, and technology to improve conservation and sustainability. Formal environmental regulations as well as informal social expectations are pushing many firms to seek professionals with expertise with environmental, energy efficiency, and clean renewable energy issues. They often seek to make their output more sustainable, and thus more favorable to public opinion, governmental regulation, and the Earth's ecology.
In economics, a spillover is a positive or a negative, but more often negative, impact experienced in one region or across the world due to an independent event occurring from an unrelated environment.
An eco-tariff, also known as an environmental tariff, is a trade barrier for the purpose of reducing pollution and improving the environment. These trade barriers may take the form of import or export taxes on products that have a large carbon footprint or are imported from countries with lax environmental regulations. A carbon tariff is a type of eco-tariff.
A carbon fee and dividend or climate income is a system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address climate change. The system imposes a carbon tax on the sale of fossil fuels, and then distributes the revenue of this tax over the entire population as a monthly income or regular payment.
The pollution haven hypothesis posits that, when large industrialized nations seek to set up factories or offices abroad, they will often look for the cheapest option in terms of resources and labor that offers the land and material access they require. However, this often comes at the cost of environmentally unsound practices. Developing nations with cheap resources and labor tend to have less stringent environmental regulations, and conversely, nations with stricter environmental regulations become more expensive for companies as a result of the costs associated with meeting these standards. Thus, companies that choose to physically invest in foreign countries tend to (re)locate to the countries with the lowest environmental standards or weakest enforcement.
A foreign direct investment (FDI) is an investment in the form of a controlling ownership in a business in one country by an entity based in another country. It is thus distinguished from a foreign portfolio investment by a notion of direct control. Broadly, foreign direct investment includes "mergers and acquisitions, building new facilities, reinvesting profits earned from overseas operations, and intra company loans". FDI is the sum of equity capital, long-term capital, and short-term capital as shown in the balance of payments. FDI usually involves participation in management, joint-venture, transfer of technology and expertise. Stock of FDI is the net cumulative FDI for any given period. Direct investment excludes investment through purchase of shares.
A circular economy is an alternative way countries manage their resources, in which usage of products in the traditional linear make, use, and dispose method is not implemented. Instead, resources are used for their maximum utility throughout their life cycle and regenerated in a cyclical pattern minimizing waste. They strive to create economic development through environmental and resource protection. The ideas of a circular economy were officially adopted by China in 2002, when the 16th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party legislated it as a national endeavor though the various sustainability initiatives which were implemented in the previous decades starting in 1973. China adopted the circular economy due to the environmental damage and resource depletion that was occurring from going through its industrialization process. China is currently a world leader in the production of resources, where it produces 46% of the world's aluminum, 50% of steel and 60% of cement, while it has consumed more raw materials than all the countries a part of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) combined. In 2014, China created 3.2 billion tonnes of industrial solid waste, where 2 billion tonnes were recovered using recycling, incineration, reusing and composting. By 2025, China is anticipated to produce up to one quarter of the world's municipal solid waste.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) has been an important part of the Chinese economy since the 1980s. During the Mao period, most foreign companies halted their operations in China, though China remained connected to the world economy through a limited scale of international trade. Since 1978, China was again open to foreign investment and within two decades it became the largest recipient of foreign direct investment among developing countries. While China's acceptance of foreign investment is commonly associated with Deng Xiaoping’s policies, Chinese leaders including Mao Zedong and Hua Guofeng already acknowledged the need to import foreign capital and technology in the early 1970s. The investments from the 1970s up till the 2000s mainly focused on the manufacturing sector, earning China the label “world’s factory”. However, female migrant workers who contributed to the growth through participation in the foreign-owned manufacturing sector had to work in poor conditions, with insufficient labor protection, and under restricted migration opportunities due to the hukou system.
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