ABSTRACT
This chapter asks the question: where will the financial resources come from to promote the transition to sustainable development, which is needed in both rich and poor nations? Rich nations need to restructure perverse subsidies, incentives and other aspects of their economies, using the ‘polluter pays’ principle and similar concepts, so as to maintain quality of life while reducing the ecological damage caused by consumption. Developing countries need financial assistance because they have to achieve many of the same efficiency gains as industrialized nations, while reducing poverty, providing education, clean water and health care to their citizens, improving regulatory and judicial systems and developing alternatives to economic dependence on exports of primary commodities. This is a tall order and not one that many countries can implement on their own.
