Generating appropriate policies to minimize environmental pollution in developing countries

Abstract

Environmental pollution causes the countries to experience difficulties in different aspects. First, environmental pollution makes countries uninhabitable. On the other hand, it is possible to talk about many negative economic consequences of increasing environmental pollution. Within this framework, high number of sick people leads to an increase in health expenditures in the country. This problem is especially significant for developing countries. In order for the industrial production to increase rapidly, the carbon emission problem caused by the companies may not be given importance. This situation generates very serious social and economic problems for these countries in the long term. For this purpose, in this chapter, firstly, types of environmental pollution are discussed. After that, some information has been given on policies that can be developed to prevent environmental pollution. Finally, an evaluation has been performed with AHP methodology. It is concluded that environmental pollution is of vital importance, especially for developing countries. Because of this situation, some actions should be taken in time to reduce environmental pollution by these countries. The most important cause of environmental pollution of countries is fossil fuels used in energy consumption and it is thus suggested to impose additional taxes upon the companies that pollute the environment as a result of the use of fossil fuels. Additionally, necessary policies should be implemented to increase the use of renewable energy within the country.