Abstract :
Evidence is mounting of the environmental impact in the Far North of economic and industrial activity elsewhere in the world. While the sources of pollutants found in the Arctic are many and widespread, it is up to just a few countries — notably Canada, the former Soviet Union, Finland, Norway and Greenland — to assess the damage and deal with the impacts. This paper discusses the issue of Arctic pollution in the context of trends in world economic growth, globalization of economic activity, international trade and related institutional arrangements (such as trade and environmental agreements). The importance of tracing the sources of particular contaminants is stressed; this is a first step towards internalization of environmental costs of production, and is also politically a key in efforts to control emissions. Trade and investment agreements commonly discuss rules for cross-border flows of goods, services, personnel and investment capital, as well as matters specific to particular economic sectors. Cross-border flows of pollutants and other ‘bads’ also merit detailed sectoral attention. This linkage would make explicit the connections between production and pollution (making possible the ‘polluter pays’ approach), and also widen the scope for redistribution of economic resources to equilibrate the situation (via trade and investment measures, among others) if flows of goods are related directly to flows of ‘bads’. The paper examines the outlook for addressing Arctic pollution via international environmental agreements (along the lines of the Basel Convention, the Montreal Protocol, CITES, etc.), existing and future trade agreements (such as GATT), or new institutional approaches.
