The Institutionalization of the Environment on the International Agenda and the Birth of the Market of Environmental Goods and Services: The Case of Some Economies of Asia Pacific

Environmental goods and services (EGS) are a thriving market that emerged in the 1990s as a result of international agreements to curb environmental degradation and climate change. What started as a struggle between environmental advocates and trade advocates paved the way for negotiation between two closely interconnected international regimes: climate change and trade. The current international debate on the EGS market focuses, on the one hand, on pointing to the poor role that this activity has played in curbing the deterioration of the environment. On the other hand, in the important economic success that the commerce of this type of products is having. Today, the economic spill of the EGS trade is just over two trillion dollars and is expected to increase. Australia, Canada, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States are among the 17 most prosperous economies of this type of market. The supremacy in the international competitiveness of the Asia Pacific Rim over this niche provides elements to expect a relative decrease in environmental impact, because this region emits 63% of all greenhouse gases (GHS) that are generated on the planet. This paper analyzes the importance of the BSA market in a world whose main challenge should be to solve environmental deterioration. However, quantitative data to measure environmental deterioration and economic prosperity show that, at least, in the short term, the environment has not benefited.