1Assistant Professor (Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad), Department of Petroleum Engineering, E-mail-balikram.archana@gmail.com
2Assistant Professor, Centre for Economic Policy and Public Finance (CEPPF), Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI), Patna, Bihar. E-mail: barna.ceppf@adriindia.org; barnaganguli@yahoo.in
Online published on 4 January, 2017.
Environment and economic development are intertwined. Development that avoids its impact on environment will have to face severe consequences. Without development, a society cannot move forward; so development should adopt sustainable mode. Sustainable development is such development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The Environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis establishes an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic growth and environment degradation. It assumes that environmental degradation increases when per capita income reaches a certain point, or the turning point. There is inverse relationship between income and emissions, higher the income, lower the emissions and vice-versa. This paper has tried to show the two sides of a coin i.e. two parts of economic development. Development whose relation can be traced back to the industrial revolution has both ill and good effects on environment. In order to have less impact on environmental degradation, better techniques should be used which lead to sustainable development.
