ABSTRACT
The crux of the problem is that while economic development and globalization threaten the environment, many scholars and politicians argue that development is the key to achieving decent human well-being and to solving these same environmental problems. People are still debating about what it means: David Pearce a decade ago collected 13 pages of definitions of sustainable development, all sharing and emphasizing differently the three parts of economic growth, environmental protection, and equity. To resolve it, a 'Grand Bargain at Rio' emerged in which poor countries agreed to work on environmental protection if their growth was secured and if any costs of their cleaning up were borne by the wealthy. Development pathways, ecologically-unequal exchange, and the ecological debt need all to be addressed as the next international division of labour continues to unfold in new ways. International debate on and politics of the environment can be seen as the result of a tension between development goals and environmental protection.
