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new plants without such features. Studies using this comparison in the United States found that pollution abatement expenditures for new plant and equipment for all manufacturing industries in that country in 1984 amounted to $4.5] billion. or 3.3 per cent of total new expenditures. The chemical industry spent $580 million (3.8 per cent) on such equipment.[1] Similar studies in the Japanese steel industry found that new investment in pollution control equipment reached as high as 21.3 per cent of total investment in 1976 and even today remains around 5 per cent.[2]
22. Firms involved in food processing, iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, automobiles, pulp and paper, chemicals, and electric power generation all major polluters have borne a high proportion of the total pollution control investment by industry. Such costs provided a strong incentive for many these industries to develop a broad range of new processes and cleaner and more efficient products and technologies. In fact, some firms that a decade ago established teams to research and develop innovative technologies to meet new environmental standards are today among the most competitive in their fields, nationally and internationally.
23. Waste recycling and reuse have become accepted practices in many industrial sectors. In some industrialized countries technologies to scrub sulphur and nitrogen compounds from smokestack gases made remarkable advances in a relatively short time. New combustion techniques simultaneous, raise combustion efficiency and reduce pollutant emissions.[3] Innovative products and process technologies are also currently under development that promise energy- and resource-efficient modes of production, reducing pollution and minimizing risks of health hazards and accidents.
24. Pollution control has become a thriving branch of industry in its own right in several industrialized countries. High-pollution industries such as iron and steel, other metals, chemicals, and energy production have often led in expanding into the fields of pollution control equipment, detoxification and waste disposal technology, measurement instruments, and monitoring systems. Not only have these industries become, more efficient and competitive, but many have also found new opportunities for investment, sales, and exports. Looking to the future, a growing market for pollution control systems equipment, and services is expected in practically all industrialized countries, including NICs.
II. SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT
25. If industrial development is to be sustainable, over the long term, it will have to change radically in terms of the quality of that development. particularly in industrialized countries. But this is not to suggest that industrialization has reached a quantitative limit. particularly in developing
- ↑ U.S. Department of Commerce, 'Plant and Equipment Expenditures by Business for Pollution Abatement', Survey of Current Business, February 1986.
- ↑ Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry, data compiled annually for the Industrial Structural Council, Tokyo. 1970-86.
- ↑ The UN Economic Commission for Europe compiles and publishes a 'compendium of low- and non-waste technologies' A special department in the French Ministry of Environment collects and disseminates information on cl..n processes and technologies ('les techniques propres').
