Curitiba Case Study - Sustainable City

Curitiba is in Brazil and is recognized as one of the most sustainable cities in the world. It is in east Brazil and has a population of 1.8 million.


Started in 1970 when a team led by Jaime Lerner devised a plan to incorporate ecology, efficient transport, user friendly open spaces along with other goals.


Key aspects of Curitiba include:

• Very efficient bus system where lanes are designated for buses to make journeys quicker and there is a 5 pronged star shape road network to increase efficiency. The bus is cheap (single priced ticket system) and makes travelling quick and easy. 75% of commuters take the buses and this results in 25% less congestion and 30% reduction in fuel consumption.
• Encourage recycling and have a green swap system, this encourages people to walk to a local recycling point where they can swap their waste for bus tickets, food etc. 2/3 of the city's waste is now recycled. The program is voluntary but 70% of households participate.
• There is a lot of open space (28 parks) and pedestrianization which increases the stand of living and also the environment. 52 square metres of green space per person. Builders are encouraged to crate green areas with their buildings by being given tax breaks.
• Encourages non-polluting and hi-tech industries has been successful in achieving growth, avg growth rate of 7.1% (national average of 4.2%). There is high wealth in Curitiba with 66% higher per capita incomes than the Brazil average.

The Growth Of China

China Today...
Second largest economy in the world GDP= $9.24 trillion
worlds fastest growing major economy (however in 2014 suffered slowest growth for 24 years, still 7.2%)
Second largest trading nation and largest exporter of goods
Since 1978 the average income has x4
during last 10 years has contribute more than 30% to global economy
Attracts most FDI in the world

How did it get there?
China's rapid growth started when it switched from a centrally planned economy to a more market orientated economy in 1978 under Deng Xioping. This opened up China to all sorts of opportunities. TNCs started to use the country an an export platform which made it a major competitor on that field to the Asian Tigers.
FDI was initially encouraged in SEZs (small enterprise zones) which were situated along the coast. In early 1980s the number of SEZs was expanded to a total of 17 (14 coastal, 3 inland). These SEZs were areas that had separate, more relaxed regulations and improved infrastructure in order to attract FDI. Shanghai is an example of an SEZ.
China joined the WTO in 2001 which allowed it greater access onto the global market.
China had competitive advantages due to their large population, cheap labour force and their ability to push policies through quickly.


However this growth caused many problems...
There have been massive disparities in incomes creating huge inequality. Areas are being left behind such as Suchuan and many rural areas.
Rapid industialization has caused major pollution in the form of smog and polluted waters (31/52 of the major lakes have severe pollution). Acid rain falls on 30% China.

Economic Vs Environmental Sustainability

Sustainability has 3 pillars:


Environmental - preserving needs of today without compromising needs of future. Involves protecting biodiversity and reducing pollution


Economic - using resources in an optimal way that can be achieved over the long term. Involves access to money, no corruption etc.


Social - a social system that operates in a way of keeping a level of wellbeing that can be sustained in the future Involves freedom of speech and access to healthcare and education.


The common problem faced is that as countries develop and industrialize they consume more and more natural resources are used up. This is happening at rate which is not sustainable. The challenge faced is that western consumption needs to be curbed and we increasing the standard of living in developing countries without increasing environmental impact or resource use.
Traditionally countries have developed at expense of environment. However according to the Kuznets curve a country gets to a stage where in order to increase GDP per capita further it needs to improve the environment. This could be due to the increased wealth and developed society are more aware of the environment. German economist Karl-Heinze Paque says that 'environmental protection comes from affluence'.


ESI was the original indicator of environmental sustainable development. It was in place from 1999 to 2005, it had 21 indicators and Finland topped the ESI with 75.1,
Since 205 the ESI has been replaced with the EPI which ranks countries and focuses more on outcome indicators. Switzerland top the EPI followed by Luxembourg. Note that the top 10 on the EPI are developed countries this backs up the statement from Paque.


So the real problem lies with the 2/3 of the population living in developing countries who need to improve the quality of life without destroying the environment by using up resources or impacting the environment too heavily. We need to live within our limits.


An example of sustainable development is in the Galapagos islands who pursue sustainable tourism. See ecotourism post to see case study.


Another example of sustainable development is Curitiba in Brazil. See other post for case study.

WTO, IMF and the World Bank

WTO is the world trade organization and their role is to help trade flow freely.

• only global organization dealing with the rules of trade between countries
• goal is to help producers of goods, services, exporters and importers conduct their business
• WTO agreements are signed by the large trading nations and are essentially binding contracts to keep trade policies within certain limits. ie. reduce protectionism by getting rid of tariffs or quotas.
• established in 1995
• 160 countries/members

World Bank is there to help developing countries.

• source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries
• aim is to reduce poverty and support development.
• They have two main goals: 1. end extreme poverty by 2030 and 2. promote shared prosperity (promoting incomes of the bottom 40% of developing countries)

IMF is the international monetary fund and they help countries with stability and growth

• 188 countries
• working to secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote employment and sustainable eco. growth along with reducing poverty
• independent organization that promotes monetary cooperation and exchange rate stability.

TNC Case Study - Coca Cola

Transnational companies are huge companies that operate in more than one country. Stereotypically the HQ is in an MEDC while factories are in developing countries as TNC's like to exploit cheap labor and land to maximize profits.


Coca Cola is the biggest manufacturer of drinks in the world. HQ is in Atlanta, America. &0% of it sales are from outside the USA. They don't only sell drinks but sell nearly 400 different products in more than 200 countries.


Positives of Coca Cola on host countries such as Russia:

• creates jobs
• offer training and education
• has invested $1.5 billion in Russian economy
• run community schemes

Negative of CC in host countries:

• low paid jobs in tough conditions
• footloose capitalism - when wages rise they move operations to a lower cost area
• environmental problems ie. degradation
• profits are returned to source country
• to date there have been 179 human rights violations of workers

There are many advantages to being a TNC:

• monopoly power
• access to larger markets
• economies of scale
• offered incentives to invest in certain countries

Aid Case Studies - Haiti, Akosombo Dam and Farm Africa

Aid given to Haiti following the disastrous 7.0 earthquake in 2010 was an example of short term aid. Aid given following an event or natural disaster.

• Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere and has the highest incidence of aid outside of Africa
• It was estimated 320,000 people died and 1 million left homeless
• Schools, businesses and homes were destroyed

Overall there was $9 billion dollars in aid given. However as you can see in the diagram very little of that money has reached communities and organizations, with only 0.6% of it going to Haitian organizations and 9.6% staying with the government. This is a good example of one of the main problems with aid, corruption.
On January 13th American Red Cross announced they had run out of supplies and started to appeal for public donations.
Initially the was piling up at the airport as the logistics were not in place, a common characteristic of an LEDC, water and food took days to arrive.
However some of the aid is now trickling through to the people as the Haitian government has helped over 50,000 people back into sub standard housing (50,000 out of 1 million is still not a lot!) Other improvements include river bank strengthening and tree planting along with rising school attendances. There is a new state of the art hospital that has contributed to the increased life expectancy in Haiti compared to 10 years ago. British red cross have given 26 local businesses loans of £9000 in order to kick start their businesses to try and boost the economy.
Overall the aid has not worked, this is shown in the house building project that spent far too much on houses and cut its goal of god standard houses from 15,000 to 2500 and only 900 have been built so far. it is very hard to track down where the aid has been spent as there is no transparency in the government.

An example of a top down scheme is the Akosombo Dam in Ghana.
A top down scheme is when money is given to a body who directs the money from the top. This strategy did not work as the dam was meant encourage new industries and stimulate agricultural growth however all it did was make 80,000 people homeless and not make enough energy in order to provide rural villages with energy.  It has also hindered transportations. However it has boosted fishing...

An example of a bottom up scheme is Farm Africa in Tanzania.
Tanzanian people mainly live in rural areas where food security is very low and improved and sustained agriculture is crucial for reducing poverty levels. This grassroots initiative worked closely with local communities. In partnership with the government they teach young children farming skills in order to share with their families and therefore improve productivity. They are also turning traditional activities such as honey making into a way to make money. This bottom up scheme has helped the people who need it and provided them with life long skills.

Growth Of The BRICS

Brazil
Russia
India
China
South Africa?

Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill predicted in 2003 the BRIC economies would, by 2050, be wealthier that most of the current major economic powerhouses. In 2012 South Africa joined therefore making the BRIC the BRICS. It is predicted that China and India will become the dominant forces in manufactured gods and services while Russia and Brazil will become the dominant suppliers of raw materials.

These 4 countries are the fastest growing and largest emerging market economies and account for just under half of the world's population. It is believed that China will become the biggest economy in the world sometime between 2030 and 2050 because as discussed in another post they have averaged 10% growth for the last 3 decades.

However they have experienced problems and are likely to run into problems in the future that include:

• Russia face political problems which in turn will cause economic problems for example exports to Russia have fallen sharply, they also rely too heavily upon oil (we have seen lately the huge decline in oil prices that will have an effect on Russian economy)
• India suffer from corruption and also an increasing current account deficit
• Brazil's economic growth has plunged from 7.5% to 0.9% in 2010 to 2012. 
• All growth figures and prospects will have been affected by the financial crisis

Goldman Sachs projected growth

Growth Of The Asian Tigers - Geography and Economics A-Level

The term Asian Tigers, refers to Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore an Hong Kong.

The term was becoming widely used in the 70s and 80s following the emergence of these four countries who all followed a similar pattern of development to becoming developed countries. These countries For example Singapore is now one of the world leading financial centres.

None of these countries had a rich supply of ntural resources. They followed a very export driven model of industrialization by focusing on selling to rich western countries such as the UK and USA. They decided that to boost the manufacturing industry they would have to tap in to economies of scale and therefore rely on international trade. In trading to a larger market they could improve efficiency through E.O.S. This model is different to conventional models of the time which involved imposing raised tariffs and quota on imports which reduced the number of imports and thus allowing the domestic industries to flourish and develop. Although the Asian Tigers did use this model at first before switching heavily to an export driven model.

These countries all had similar characteristics which included:

• GDP growth rate from 1960 to 2000 averaged 6% per year 
• abundance of cheap labour due to being poor in 1960
• all invested heavily in education, this can increase LRAS and increase productivity
• all had strong Chinese influences
• non democratic political systems meaning plans were driven through easily

But is this a good model to follow?

There are many criticisms of this export led model which include:

• dependency on other countries economic health can be very risky
• fast expansion of these countries caused problems such as a in 1990 many stock markets crashed and sparked a worldwide financial crisis
• Rapid industrialization has caused many environmental problems
• Lost competitive edge to India and China who can now create at cheaper unit costs. 

The new era of  Asian Tigers (Tiger Cubs)

It is said that Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand are also following the export led growth model.

It is predicted that these 4 countries will be in the top 50 economies in the world by 2050.

Due to a high number of Chinese entrepreneurs and residents, the transformation of China has led to increased investment. 

Measuring Development - Development and Globalisation Geography unit 3 A2

There are many ways of measuring development, all have their positives and negatives.

GDP - Gross Domestic Product is the total output of an economy.

• Does not take into account inequality
• Nor informal employment
• Very hard to measure with black markets etc.

GNP - Gross National Product is the GDP plus net income from domestic businesses abroad.

• Same drawbacks to GDP
• Doesn't take into account environmental, social development only assumes them

HDI - Human Development Index is an indicator that uses education (literacy rates), health (life expectancy) and living standards (GNP per capita)

• Doesn't take into account environment
• No indicator of distribution
• Doesn't take into account corruption or political freedom

PQLI - physical quality of life index takes into account literacy rate, infant mortaty rate and life expectancy.

• many factors ignored such as political freedom
• economic growth/incomes
• infrastructure

Others

• HPI - happy planet index takes into account ecology, life expectanccy and life satisfaction
• Life expectancy
• Number of mobile phones per 1000 people

All indicators have their positives and negatives but the main problem with them is that they focus on certain aspects of development and not others therefore countries may not rank highly on one but rank highly on another. However the most common is HDI which has rankings, Norway are currently top with 0.944.

Trade and Aid - Economics/Geography A2 level

Aid and Trade are 2 ways to promote growth and development in an economy.

Trade helps an economy because it improves the volume and quantity of exports. This in theory will turn into jobs and improved living standards. Hopefully some of this income will be saved and therefore boost demand in the economy (hopefully include multiplier effect) and start developing as a country. Trade also creates long term jobs which is key for sustained growth. According to the Rostow Model this will push the country past the traditional sector and into the preconditions for take off or take off. I will go into detail on in a different post.
This theory is very simplified and  assumes developing countries all follow the same stages as the now developed European countries the theory was based on. Trade can increase inequality as it is the owners of the firms who keep the money and do as they please with it. Another problem with trade comes about when you are outside of a trading bloc and have to pay an external tariff to trade with countries inside. This prevents many of the lower developed African countries trading with the developed western countries.

One of the main barriers to growth is the savings gap, the difference between the money that is earned and the amount of money that can be saved and thus invested. Due to a high propensity to consume in poorer countries, finding money to save is difficult and thus investment is difficult.

Aid is a useful way of overcoming that savings gap. Aid can come in many forms:

• Bilateral aid - Aid from one country to another
• Multilateral aid - Aid that comes from multiple countries through an international agency such as the World Bank
• NGOs - Non governmental organisations such as Oxfam provide money and professional support This type of aid is unlikely to come with any conditions like the others

Aid can come in the forms of money or in the form of technical assistance in order to create infrastructure or to help boost certain industries. There are many problems with aid that include:

• Can come with tied conditions such as having to buy from the donor country
• Can lead to aid dependency 
• Corruption can cause the aid to never be distributed evenly or where needed.
• Can led to distorted market forces

As mentioned earlier you can get aid in different forms: 

• Tied aid - aid that comes with conditions
• Short term aid - usually comes after a natural disaster
• Long term aid- aid for long term developments such as the improvement of hospitals or infrastructure
• Top down aid - aid given to organizations for large scale projects such as dam building
• Bottom up aid - schemes at grassroots level, often by NGOs working with local communities.

So which is better, aid or trade?
I believe trade is greater than aid when it comes to helping a country to develop. Over the past 50 years Africa has received $500 billion in aid and despite this the continent still suffers from poverty, disease and corruption. Aid is not usually aid as it is usually tied to conditions such as buying from donor country. Aid also creates dependency which is not sustainable compared to growth because as a country increases trade it increases jobs and wealth in a way that they are not totally dependant on aid from other countries. However many developed countries have protectionist measures that prevent trade with developing countries as they would have to pay high taxes. But before a country can truly develop it needs to eliminate any major health problems such as HIV or malaria.