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3) Increasing Int ernational Inf luence on Environment al Policy Development
Porter and Brown write, “underneath the fluctuations of electoral politics and economic
cycle, there is an inexorable evolution in international relations toward more effective
cooperation on global environmental threats (Porter and Brown,1996,p.177).” It is obvious
that, as such inexorable evolution, international influence on environmental policy development,
especially in developing countries, will increase more and more in the future.
As increasing the international influence, the development pattern of environmental policy
shown in developed countries’ experiences is likely to be shortened or changed the shape in
developing countries. The shortening or changing the shape of development pattern depends
on the “leapfrog” on environmental policies in developing countries. Above all, because both
multilateral and national development assistance agencies have had great concern with
environmental issues in developing countries recently, recipient countries will have a lot of
opportunities to learn from developed countries’ experiences, and the “leapfrog” will be
accelerated through international development assistance programs. The evaluation on leapfrog
on environmental policies in developing countries will be increasingly important.
The “leapfrog” on environmental policies do not always have a useful influence on
environmental policy in developing countries. It accelerates the tempo of environmental policy
development, and forces the gap between economic growth and environmental policy
development to widen than ever in developing countries. For this reason, the scarcity of funds
and technology for environmental conservation is likely to be more serious. Moreover, in these
conditions, environmental policy in developing countries does not benefit from economic
growth as did the developed countries so (World Bank,1992,pp.39-40). In short, there are some
potentialities that the leapfrog harms policy effectiveness in developing countries.
Accordingly, developed countries should, through multiple-level cooperation - national
government, local governments, companies, and citizens -, appeal to developing countries to
make good use of their experiences on environmental policy in a way to adaptable to the tempo
of each country’s economic growth, and assist to bridge the gap between economic growth and
environmental policy development in developing countries.
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