Globalisation, Transport and the Environment: New Perspectives for Ecological Economics

This article aims to offer an overview of key issues centred around the relationship between globalisation and transport-related environmental decay in the ecological economics literature of the past decade, followed by an exploration of new research endeavours. The scientific contribution of 10 years of Ecological Economics to issues of environmental sustainability in relation to international trade and transport is certainly not impressive. Hence, also contributions from other environmental economics journals are considered. Two themes which apparently have received less attention in the ecological economics literature are addressed, namely (1) the influence of global trade on the environment and (2) the environmental effects of international transport induced by trade. The total effect of globalisation and transportation on the environment originates from complex changes in the scale, structural, technological and product effects of our industrial system. Various conflicts between global trade/transportation and the environment are pointed out on the basis of these four effects. The paper argues that the net effects of these changes are still uncertain. Ecological economics, however, should contribute to the challenging task of analysing more thoroughly the effects of global trade and transport on the environment