New Globalization and Sustainability

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the implications for environmental sustainability of the recent phase of globalization. This phase, here called "new globalization", has been specifically characterized by the spreading of the new economy that has accelerated the globalization of markets, and by the contemporaneous establishment of new rules of (de)regulation of the international markets, crucially managed and enforced by a new international institution: the WTO. This paper argues that the rise of the new economy has introduced new opportunities and new risks for sustainability that require appropriate actions, while the existing (de)regulation rules of the international markets jeopardize the sustainability of world development. In the context determined by the new globalization, environmental policy should shift in the direction of a new generation of knowledge-based instruments. This point is further clarified through a case study concerning the contribution of banks to sustainability in this new context.

Keywords: sustainable development, globalization, new economy, regulation of markets, green finance

JEL Classification: F01, F02, F18, 013, 033, Q32