propose a better integration of social costs in the price of goods, so as
to more accurately reflect their ecological effects.^54 Radicals such as
Susan George simply refuse to reduce the environment to a commodity,
preferring to see “the biosphere as the total system and the economy
as the subsystem.”^55 Yet moderates and radicals agree that “con-
ventional free-market economic policies systematically underprice or
ignore natural resources.”^56
The left defends an overtly political conception of the environment.
In the 1980s, the Brundtland Commission had already taken the
position that “many problems of environmental stress arise from
disparities in economic and political power,”^57 and environmentalists
today repeatedly state that the deterioration of the environment has a
direct bearing on the occurrence of poverty, conflict, migration, and
famine. This holistic vision points in particular to the developed
countries, who are the biggest per capita energy and resource con-
sumers. For environmentalists, the available resources simply preclude
the extension of the North’s lifestyle to the entire world population.
The governments of rich countries thus have a political, economic,
and moral duty to help poor countries develop in an environmentally
sustainable way.
The solutions promoted by people on the left proceed from the
principle that alaissez-faireapproach would entail the destruction of
the planet. In their view, domestic and international norms and
institutions must be strengthened. When it comes to compliance,
environmental groups put more faith in financial incentives and in
sanctions than in voluntary, “sunshine methods.”^58 With respect to
financial incentives, it is worth noting that while development assist-
ance remains the most popular instrument, a growing faction within
the left sees carbon markets as an innovative instrument for reducing
(^54) Nicholas Stern,The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review,
55 Cambridge University Press, 2007.
56 Susan George,Another World Is Possible If..., London, Verso, 2004, p. 50.
57 Chasek, Downie, and Welsh Brown,Global Environmental Politics, p. 31.
World Commission on Environment and Development,Our Common Future,
58 p. 46.
Harold K. Jacobson and Edith Brown Weiss, “Assessing the Record and
Designing Strategies to Engage Countries,” in Edith Brown Weiss and Harold
K. Jacobson (eds.),Engaging Countries: Strengthening Compliance with
International Environmental Accords, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 2000,
p. 550.
214 Left and Right in Global Politics