Economic Globalization Is an Obstacle to Global Sustainable Development - Essay Example

Economic globalization is an obstacle to global sustainable development Introduction The emergence of cross border business and the development of business with global operations have created room for the development of a new phenomenon for different countries. Globalization is currently an issue that affects different economies across the world as business, educational, technology, and cultures have gone beyond the borders of countries to become an issue that affects other economies. Globalization is the development of unlimited transfer of goods and services, ideas, labour and technology beyond the borders of a country. Through globalization, international integration of almost of all fields that are of essence to human life have been integrated and made to operate as one unit (House-soremekun & Falola, 2011). Through globalization, economies of countries have been integrated and events within one economic region affect others located thousands of miles away. Environmental, social-political and cultural factors have also been integrated and these issues are no longer handled at isolated country or regional levels. Societies and institutions have also developed a similar operation level supported by the tenets of globalization and this has led to a synergized development process (Rogers, Jalal & Boyd, 2012). The concept of globalization thus affects the current needs and the likelihood of the future generation to meet their desires and demands in life. The debate on whether sustainable development presents opportunities or challenges to the achievement of sustainability in the global sphere has created attraction from global scholar. In this paper, the economic impacts of globalization will be evaluated to indicate both the benefits and challenges it present to global sustainable development in the global sphere (Krapivin, 2007). Reasons for globalization The witnessed accelerated globalization since the end of the world wars has been necessitated by the need for the world to develop a unanimous economy that does business from one platform. The growing globalization has however been influenced by two fundamental factors which binds all economies in the world. The increased need for prosperity has seen different economies growing and producing beyond the local markets, creating a surplus that can only be sustained by the global markets. While the early globalization was necessitated by the need to develop market for surplus products, the current advances in globalization have been because of the need to develop a specialization spirit among countries (Morgan, 2001). Different countries today specialize in the areas that they have the expertise and technical knowledge while doing business with others to supplement their deficit. This has led to the development of trading blocs like the European Union and regulatory agencies like the world trade organization. The achievement of comparative advantage has also been attributed to the drive for globalization as countries seek to specialize in areas that they can achieve maximum benefits as opposed to other areas. This has created a number of benefits to different economies across the globe as countries like Switzerland have grown to be associated with high quality watches while New Zealand specializes in sheep farming for export (Rogers, Jalal & Boyd, 2012). Impacts of globalization of sustainable development Globalization has varying impacts on sustainable development and this can be discussed from economic, political and environmental perspective. As previously mentioned the impacts are both positive and beneficial and negative to individual development of countries. This paper will begin with the positive benefits of the globalization on sustainable development before weighing on the negative impacts to order to take a single stand on the impacts (Cleveland, Laroche & Hallab, 2013). Through globalization, mobility of labour, goods and services has been increased and this has created room for state specialization which has made it possible for countries to concentrate on their areas of technical knowledge alone. As a result, transnational companies have been developed who have specialized in the production and sales of goods and services within their individual competencies while depending on other economies to supplement other areas. according to the world bank report on impacts of globalization on sustainable economic development, the overall production of goods and services has increased by over 45% from 1995-2005 (Morgan, 2001). This period also witnessed growth in developing countries which was higher as compared to the previous period when advances in globalization were limited. China, for example, has capitalized on its high population to specialize on the production of goods that are labour intensive as opposed to goods that employs technology for their production. This has created a massive demand for the Chinese labour force as different companies from other parts of the globe seek to develop their production facilities in china. Nike has established on of its sweat shops in china and this has enabled it to access low cost labour while producing high quality goods for the global market (Cruz, 2013). The economic disparities in different parts of the world have also been attributed to the increase globalization process as this advancement has enabled poor countries to improve their economic status. Within the last 10 years, the number of people who previously lived on less than a dollar a day has decreased significantly due to the benefits of globalization. Through the development of a common economic platform, the millennium development goals have been created which have developed a common economic development blueprint. This blueprint seek to enable countries attain common socio-economic development in different sectors including education, health and environmental sustainability. However, the goals to achieve equal economic development through globalization have not been effectively achieved as the unequal distribution of wealth has continued to increase. According to the international monetary fund and the World Bank report, polarization of wealth has increased significantly with some countries producing the wealthiest and also having a higher population of the poorest (Cruz, 2013). The desire to achieve common economic growth and reduction in the poverty level has thus evaded the process of globalization and this has casted a negative image on its ability to improve the welfare of different countries. Despite opening opportunities for countries and opening new markets for multinationals, globalization has failed to decrease the number of people living on less than a dollar a day. The world income distribution, an indicator of the benefits of globalization and a common trading environment through liberalization has failed to decrease. With a constant disparity in the total income distribution across the world despite the increase in globalization, the hype on its ability to create a common income scale is thus misplaced (Rogers, Jalal & Boyd, 2012). From the 1960, the Theil coefficient of global disparity has witnessed significant increase, demonstrating an increase in economic disparity in the world. An unnatural sigmoid curve has thus been developed with the number of people at the top of the curve being less whiles those at the extreme end making the majority. The middle income earners in different economies in the globe have also witnessed stagnated growth despite the opportunities believed to have been created through globalization (Jaumotte, Lall & Papageorgiou, 2013). Exchange rates and differences in the value of world currencies have increased the disparity in economic growth because of globalization. Countries with stronger economies are at a better position to benefit from the advances in globalization as compared to those with weaker currencies (Asteriou, Dimelis & Moudatsou, 2014). Developing countries have also witnessed irregular growth kinetics with the population growth increasing at a faster rate as compared to economic growth. This has made it relatively difficult for globalization to impact positively on developing economies as it does on developed ones. This reduces its ability to affect sustainable development positively especially in developing economies which may need to benefit more from liberalizing its borders and opening itself up for global businesses (Morgan, 2001). Environmental impacts of globalization in sustainable development Environmental sustainability is one of the current global issues and this has contributed to the enactment of a number of protocols which seek to force countries to adopt safer environmental practices. Globalization, though significant to the progress of international economies have been shown to exist in conflict to the achievement of environmental sustainability (Brunelle, Dumas & Souty, 2014). Through the growth of globalization, countries have adopted newer technological approaches of production which have increased the overall output and increased performance of the economies. However, this growth has occurred at the behest of environmental sustainability as these approaches adopted affect the environmental conservation and result into pollution (Rogers, Jalal & Boyd, 2012). Due to the increased global demand created by advances in globalization, stress on the environmental sustainability is increased and this affects its ability to support the growing future population. As economies work towards improving their output and overall export to other countries as a result of the advances in globalization, the scale effects on the environment increases. Increased product production offers strain on the environment and affects its ability to support the overall population and increase productivity (Colvin et al, 2014). Economic growth has a number of impacts on the sustainability of the environment and these impacts are increased several folds as a result of globalization. This is due to the fact that globalization has the potential to significantly increase economic growth of a country and magnify the effects that this growth had on environmental sustainability. Through globalization, structural change in a country is significantly changed and this contributes to the weakening of the structures previously placed by countries to ensure sustainable environmental conservation (Cruz, 2013). Through globalization, capital and technology of independent countries are changed and this result into changes in the characteristics relative to the available capital and technology. This provides room for the deterioration of environmental conservation plans, which further aggravates the progresses made towards achieving environmental sustainability (Ezcurra & Rodríguez-Pose, 2013). When a country’s market policy fails within the domestic market and such a country moves into the international arena, the failures in policies are further distorted and spread to other nations especially in the developing world which reduces the impacts made on environmental sustainability (Cruz, 2013). Each country has independent product standard assessment which assists in ensuring that the products that are sent to the market are of high quality. This changes when the scale of operation of a country reaches the global level as individual standards are discarded and international standard is used (Prempeh, 2013). Most of the time, the enforcement of this standard fails and this provides room for the flooding of the international market with low quality products. Most of the products are rejected in the market and left for the environment to shoulder the burden of rejection which further affects environmental sustainability negatively (Elmawazini, Sharif, Manga & Drucker, 2013). Globalization creates room for changes in the individual income of citizens and this substantial increase in the relative income of people has significant impacts on the environment. With increased income, citizens of a particular country will increase their consumption relative to the income increase. Most individuals will be willing and able financially to pay for costly goods in order to live a better life in line with their new social status. This further exerts more pressure on the environment as the life span of these products will be reduced and the environment will have to burden the poor waste disposal methods adopted (Ashford & Hall, 2011). In contrast, economic empowerment of countries as a result of globalization also increases the availability of funds which can be directed towards environmental conservation and reduction in the pollution level in a country. This has been the case in the new industrialised countries like Brazil and china that have grown in the national gross domestic product and are today focusing on reducing environmental destruction to maintain sustainability. However, the reverse can also happen when economic meltdown occurs which affects all economies in the world due to the connection created by globalization (Panayotou, 2000). As globalization has created a world market for all countries, it has also created a common ground for the sharing of risks that may arise during the process of doing business though the economic meltdown of 2007 began in the United States as an isolated case. The impacts of the meltdown were felt with other economies that do business with the country. As a result, the ability of such countries to maintain environmental sustainability efforts through improved income and gross domestic product were hampered (Lee & Vivarelli, 2006). Globalization provides ready market for goods and this has increased the pressure on the natural resources of a country as demand increases in the global markets. Though the pressure has been viewed as an approach to eliminate poverty in a country and create an avenue for value addition to the natural resources, the speed of exploitation of the resources due to the current demand does not provide time for the restoration. This has led to the encroachment and degradation of forests and fish reserves in developing economies to meet the global market while affecting the sustainability of the local markets (Stiglitz, 2007). As a result, globalization enforces the development of a vicious circle of poverty and environmental degradation in situations where the access to resources is not limited. In Thailand and Indonesia, globalization and the emergence of urban centres resulted into increased exploitation of natural resources to meet the demands of the international market. However, this changed once the natural reserves were depleted and the influence of the countries in the global markets reduced. Employment and life at the urban centres become completely unbearable forcing a large number of the urban dwellers to migrate to the traditional homes in the rural areas. This further increased the strain on the environment which was already affected by the impacts of globalization and its sustainability eliminated (Abbott & Duncan 2001). Impacts of globalization on cultural and educational sustainability Through globalization, the world has developed an approach to issues that is universal and this has provided room for the homogenization of cultures, one which has led to the development of a global culture at the expense of individual cultural preservation. With advances in global trade and interactions, access to information on culture has been increased and this has created room for other nations to adopt the behaviours and culture of other people. The growth in information and communication has also diversified cultural expression and has created room for international and individual actors to promote specific cultural preferences (Stiglitz, 2003). The need to preserve cultural identities of individuals plays a critical role in the development of people and this makes it critical for cultural preservation to be achieved. Though recent agreements have been developed to ensure that individual cultures are preserved to enable the identities of countries to remain relevant, previous advances in globalization affected the process of preserving individual identities (Ashford, 2000). This has enabled different countries to achieve their millennium development goals with ease as they work in conjunction with international partners to grow the sustainability of their education sector. This has provided room for social, economic and environmental growth as education in these areas have been advanced and the capacity of countries to mitigate challenges arising from the environment or the social sector is adequately addressed (Mol, 2001). Through sustainable educational development, countries and their citizens are empowered to meet their various basic needs and live a standard life as compared to individuals or countries with low education level. However, globalization has been viewed as presenting quite different results as far as education level and standards are concerned especially to the developing economies. Though globalization has provided an opportunity for developing economies to market their products in the international markets, globalization has provided a new front for imperialism and neo-colonialism, an event that has curtailed the impacts of these countries in the global sphere (Esty & Ivanova, 2003). Most countries have been forced to tear the line of other countries that are economically powerful in order to have their products marketed in the global sphere. Threats of sanctions and embargoes are common terms in global businesses as developed countries are threatened to follow a specific line or risk losing the market for their products (Cincera & Ravet, 2014). The control of most countries have been taken up by the markets which most of the time are found in the developed economies as they are forced to conform to a certain standard or accept the terms presented by the neo-colonialists (Panayotou, 2000). Most developing countries also have weak political and economic influence on the advances and factors directing the process of globalization. This reduces their ability to make any significant impacts on the global markets as their products are marketed while still in their raw form without significant value addition (Emami, 2014). The access to the market by the developing economies is thus limited by the nature of their products and this reduces the ability of globalization to create significant economic sustainability (Ashford, 2000). Conclusion Globalization is a force that has changed the world in significant ways and created massive opportunities for different countries by increasing their access to the global market. Through the liberalization of borders, different countries have been able to market their products beyond the borders of their countries. This has created massive economic, social and political benefits to the countries as their international influence has been increased and their economic gross domestic product increased (Mol, 2001). However, despite the advances and opportunities that globalization has created, it has been unable to ensure the achievement of sustainable development in different countries. The economic benefits of globalization has not been felt in all parts of the world equally as it has doubled the economic disparity between countries. The income gap among citizens in a country and between citizens from different countries has also increased and this has led to an increase in the poverty index of some countries. Environmental sustainability of countries has also been affected as pursuit for economic growth has affected the process adopted to ensure environmental conservation. Therefore, globalization has presented a number of challenges to the advances towards attaining both economic and environmental sustainability in countries. References Ashford, N 2000, and “An Innovation-Based Strategy for a Sustainable Environment”, in Innovation-Oriented Environmental Regulation: Theoretical Approach and Empirical Analysis, J. Hemmelskamp, K. Rennings, F. Leone (Eds.) Heidelberg, New York: ZEW Economic Studies. Springer Verlag, pp. 67-107. 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