The Asia Foundation’s Robin Bush Makes an Economic Case for Environmental Conservation

The Edge Malaysia, a business and financial publication, features an article co-written by The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Malaysia, Robin Bush, and climate consultant Darshan Joshi, “Climate and Environmental Governance: Making the Economic Case for Environmental Conservation.”

Carbon pricing is fast becoming a contemporary buzzword, with the adoption of carbon pricing instruments (CPIs) having grown significantly since 2010. While these instruments were confined, mostly, to European nations back then, today some 46 national jurisdictions operate in the presence of some form of carbon pricing regime. Developing countries are also showing an interest in their implementation; the World Bank indicates that Brazil, Indonesia, Morocco, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam — and indeed Malaysia — have announced that either a carbon tax or emissions trading scheme (or in some cases, a combination of both) is on the policy horizon.

 

The proliferation of CPIs is the result of numerous pressures, some more significant than others. First, the continuous nature of scientific discovery in the realm of climate change necessitates a stronger response to the issues of emissions growth and environmental degradation. Recognition of the need for policymakers to act is quite possibly at an all-time high; so is public pressure on policymakers to act.

 

A second factor is the need for governments to find alternative sources of financing to both pay back for Covid-related fiscal outgoings (including record-setting stimulus packages) as well as fund further climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts.

 

Carbon pricing is fast becoming a contemporary buzzword, with the adoption of carbon pricing instruments (CPIs) having grown significantly since 2010. While these instruments were confined, mostly, to European nations back then, today some 46 national jurisdictions operate in the presence of some form of carbon pricing regime. Developing countries are also showing an interest in their implementation; the World Bank indicates that Brazil, Indonesia, Morocco, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam — and indeed Malaysia — have announced that either a carbon tax or emissions trading scheme (or in some cases, a combination of both) is on the policy horizon.