This week the 'Rio Earth Summit' opens in Brazil and on the table is the 'right' of emerging countries to 'pollute in order to grow'. The latter state that the countries already emerging in their past have gone through a period of development – heavy industry – marked by the unbridled use of natural resources and equally heavy pollution; and that it is unfair for emerging countries to deny newcomers the right to 'pollute to grow'. On the other hand, it backfires that global warming today (it didn't exist one or two centuries ago), imposes different behaviors for the good of all, emerging and emerging (the greenhouse effect is more pronounced in the Arctic areas than in the rest of the world, and the melting of the ice cap would lead to a 7-metre rise in sea levels by the end of the century, flooding thousands of coastal cities around the world).
On the table in Rio there is therefore 'green accounting', a way of adding the real cost of natural resources and the effects of economic activity on the climate to the GDP. From the clear waters of the Maldives to the sober offices of the World Bank, green accounting is drawing new followers. A study commissioned by the G8 has estimated the environmental degradation that is not recognized in GDP: the world suffers from 2,5 to 4 trillion dollars each year from this damage, about 7% of global GDP.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/06/16/financial/f224830D61.DTL
