Environmental Economics In India

Abstract

Environmental economics is an emerging area in the realm of economic science. Before 1970s a little attention was paid for the growth and development of this part of the area of knowledge in economics. The first oil stock in 1971 and thereafter the emergence of relatively higher levels of environmental damages at the global level prompted the scholars in this field to apply economic tools to environmental science. Studies on environmental science are plentifully available; however they do not cover the economic content of environment. Similarly, early economists of the classical and neoclassical regime made specific comments about the significance of nature and environment, but did not include them in their exposition of theories. Today, people all over the world have realised that environment is not just the study of flora and fauna, but a synthesis of study of various branches of knowledge like Science, Economics, Philosophy, Ethics, Anthropology, etc. Therefore, a study of environmental economics calls for a detailed understanding about various environmental factors, their influence in the economy, their functions upon the environment, and their impacts upon the life of the people of the present and future.

Meaning Of Environmental Economics 

Arun Balasubramanian stated that "no longer is economics merely a science of production and distribution, it has to take into account the ecological repercussions of economic activities that could affect both production and distribution." It means that economics as a subject cannot exist in isolation, it cannot even be a mere study of how goods and services are produced, but at the same time it has to take into consideration the impacts of the use of resources on the environment. The impacts may be in the form of externality, pollution, exhaustion, etc. Any study on the economic content of production, distribution, development, etc. cannot be completed without touching upon the environmental aspects like externality, pollution, damage, exhaustion, depletion etc.

Environmental economics can therefore be defined as that "part of economics which deals with interrelationship between environment and economic development and studies the ways and means by which the former is not impaired nor the latter impeded." It is thus a branch of economics which discusses about the impacts of interaction between men and nature and finds human solutions to maintain harmony between men and nature.

Environmental economics teaches us how to promote economic growth of nations with least environmental damage. Classical and neoclassical school of thoughts underestimated the environmental issues of production and consumption, since they considered these issues merely as social issues. When the environmental goods get transferred into economic goods, the problems of environmental damage crop up, and therefore the need to interact with economic principles.

Economy and the Environment interlinkages