WASHINGTON — The worldwide drive for higher incomes in the face of mounting environmental destruction has heightened the tension between growth and the environment.
Developing countries that want to sustain high growth, as well as industrial countries that wish to generate any kind of growth, worry that environmental investments will slow the economy. Japan, which has led on matters of the environment and climate change, also faces the question of how much more effort it can afford.
In developing countries and industrial countries alike, the perception of this tradeoff between the growth and the environment rests on the view held in many circles — wrongly — that environmental protection, not environmental degradation, is the obstacle to growth.