Liberal environmentalism

Progressive liberal environmentalists argue that environmental legislation benefits local industry by encouraging firms to develop new technology and capture overseas markets in environmental technology.

In Growth Fetish Clive Hamilton argues that the introduction of aggressive environmental regulations by the German government have helped German firms to overtake their British competitors:

“Today, British officials publicly express regret they bowed to industry and allowed Germany to take the lead, because it is now to dislodge German pollution control firms from markets throughout the world”.

However, most developing countries do not have the same level of environmental standards as western countries. Subsequently, western countries, which impose heavy environmental regulations on their own firms, without demanding it of others, are effectively putting their own manufacturers at a disadvantage in the global market.

Unfortunately, right –liberals aren’t much help on this issue since they argue that developing countries shouldn’t have to abide by western environmental standards. With over 6 billion people in the world we can’t afford to have one set of rules for shrinking developed countries and one set for rapidly developing states like China.

This in another example how right liberalism mutates into left liberalism since liberal philosophy denies countries the right to put their own interests first.

Despite what liberal internationalists preach, we still live in a world of competing states where one country's success can come at another’s expense.