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Having a degree in International Relations, corruption, bribery and that catch-all word transparency were everyday topics of discussion. Now, writing about environmental policy and practice, not to so much--and I suspect that's similar for many people involved in the green movement, concerned with building an ecologically and socially sustainable future.
All of which, writes John Elkington over at China Dialogue, is a decidedly not good thing. Elkington makes a very good case while fighting corruption should be more solidly on the green agenda. Here's why:
The evidence of the problem is all around us. Think of the scandalous reports emerging from the erstwhile US Minerals Management Service (MMS), responsible – ahead of the Deepwater Horizon blow-out in the Gulf of Mexico – for policing the oil industry, but accused, instead, of being in its pocket. Well before the disaster, the MMS was notorious for cocaine-fueled sex romps between government officials and oil-industry executives. In a version of the revolving door phenomenon found in too many industries, government inspectors were given free football tickets or offered jobs by the same companies they were supposed to regulate.Or consider the case of vote-buying by Japan ahead of this year’s meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), where it has been revealed that small nation representatives were bribed with cash and prostitutes to ensure they backed Japanese plans for wider slaughter. In the end, the negotiations broke down and have been postponed for a year – a year during which the IWC needs to clean up a situation where the man who chaired its latest summit, the Antiguan ambassador to Japan, had his costs paid by a Japanese company.
Elkington points out that the worldwide trade in drugs, people, arms, fake goods, and stolen natural resources is now worth $130 billion annually. It's that last part which most obviously feeds into the green movement's direct concerns, but the others do as well.
Corporate Tax Dodging a Form of Corruption, Too
Corruption doesn't have to be so obvious as Japan's bribery of nations for supporting it's pro-whaling stance, or anti-bluefin ban stance either. Even companies registering in tax havens so as to avoid paying taxes back home can be seen as a form of corruption.
Just like with the black market trade in drugs, people, arms and counterfeit goods, money which could be going to support civic infrastructure, social programs, clean energy promotion, etc, this unpaid tax revenue has a drain on the ability of a nation to provide services.
Bribery & Corruption Make Collective Decisions Rest on Personal Profit
Summing up Elkington writes:
Bribery and corruption shrink the time-scales over which decision-makers think--pushing their decisions towards personal, family, or tribal outcomes. And this is exactly contrary to what we will need if we are to have any chance of achieving economic, social, and environmental sustainability.
Indeed.
Read the entire original: Spotlighting the Shadow Economy
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More on Corruption:
Will Conflict Diamonds from Zimbabwe be Certified as Conflict-Free?
Scandal Erupts Over Forged Anti-Climate Bill Letters
Japan Buys Off Developing Nations' Whaling Support: Whistleblower
