Ecological modernisation beyond Western Europe: the case of Brazil

Abstract

Preventative innovation is central to ecological modernisation (EM). Evaluating the role of international actors in promoting EM in middle-income countries (MICs), the authors review existing studies of EM outside Western Europe, and distinguish ‘internationally oriented’ from ‘domestically driven’ EM. Policy agreements concerning battery and tyre waste, the Cleaner Production Programme, and technological changes in the pulp and paper industry show that foreign actors play a crucial role in promoting EM in Brazil, but they also indicate that international involvement carries risks, such as institutional dependence and introduction of inappropriate technologies.

Acknowledgements

This article is part of Bruno's PhD research, which has been funded by the CAPES Foundation, an agency of the Brazilian Ministry of Education.

Notes

1. As all countries are ‘developing’, and to avoid all kinds of false connotations associated with this term, we prefer to refer to countries in terms of their level of income (measured in terms of gross national income per capita), as high-, middle- or low-income countries. Although such a classification is largely arbitrary, it is less culturally and geographically flawed than most other common classifications. Although we refer to some low-income countries, our focus is upon middle-income countries because these can be considered more likely to meet the conditions for EM than low-income countries. We follow the World Bank's classification, and consider middle-income countries those with a GNI per capita between US$826 and US$10,065 (World Bank 2005).

2. Cleaner production (CP) is assumed to share many assumptions with ecological modernisation. The two concepts are not considered synonyms; CP is much simpler and narrower than EM; however, it seems to be close enough to be used as a proxy for EM.

3. The overview provided here does not claim to be exhaustive, but includes all studies on EM in the non-Western world, published by the end of 2005, that could be identified using available databases and that explicitly include EM among their keywords.

4. As there are not many obvious cases of EM in Brazil, and as it was beyond our capacity to analyse all industries, we chose industries where developments appeared to indicate a possibility that EM might be occurring. Primary information was gained mainly by interviews with representatives of various government agencies, non-government organisations and business associations. For confidentiality reasons, comments attributed to sources identified as GOV(01, etc.) for government, IND for industry and NGO for non-governmental organisations.

5. Resolutions of the Council express the Council's will but they have to be cross-referenced to the acts of the Congress. In the examples described here, no specific act of the Congress has legally supported the Resolutions and their implementation has happened in a context of legal dispute. On the one hand, industry argued the Resolutions were not legally binding and had the value of a ‘gentlemen's agreement’; on the other hand, government argued that existing legislation was sufficient to support the Resolutions and create legal obligations. The courts have not yet presented a final decision on the legal value of the Resolutions.

6. The Public Prosecution is a jurisdictional function of the State, and has the responsibility to ensure that public authorities respect public and social property, the environment and other diffuse rights.