Europes

International
Politics in Terms of
Helping Developing
Countries and
Combating Global
Environmental
Issues
Name: Tsang Yuen Ting
Major: English Studies

Europe has been playing an important role in terms of two vital yet complex problems
improving quality of life of developing countries and ameliorating the global
environmental issues. Since these two issues affect every nation, no one can isolate
herself from them. Considering the matter of European countries which are most
likely developed countries helping developing countries, the key terms developed
countries and developing countries need to be defined. According to Nfuka and Rusu
(2009), developing countries generally lack a high degree of industrialization,
infrastructure, and other capital investment, sophisticated technology, widespread
literacy, and advanced living standards among their populations as a whole. As for
developed countries, based on Educational Pathways International (n.d.), they usually
have economic systems based on continuous, self-sustaining economic growth and
high standards of living. However, there are no WTO definitions of developed and
developing countries; members announce for themselves whether they are
developed or developing countries (World Trade Organization, 2016) (Refer to
Tables A & B in Appendixes). As for the matter of global environmental problems, the
most environmentally friendly countries are deemed to be, or are even known as the
Member States of European Union or countries from Europe, like Germany and
Norway. Citing from Sharma (2014), it is difficult not to notice that the leaders in the
OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development)'s "Environment"
topic are all European countries with highly developed economies.
To a large extent, it is necessary for the European countries to lend a helping hand to
those who are not that well-developed and they have already launched some programs
and put forth some policies to do so. In addition, as the pioneers in becoming more
environmentally friendly, Europe definitely bears responsibility in terms of combating
global warming. In the following, the reasons for the European countries aiding the
less developed countries as well as the issue of reliving distress in the environment are
elucidated.
The first rationale for sending help to the less developed countries is global solidarity.
According to U.S Catholic Bishops (1997), solidarity is action on behalf of the one
human family, calling us to help overcome the divisions in our world. Solidarity binds
the rich to the poor. As everyone is a global citizen on the planet regardless of your
nationality, races, religious backgrounds, social status, and so on, there is a right an

responsibility for the more affluent and educated groups to help those who are in
need. Europeans may be living a different live compared with those living in the poor
countries. Nonetheless, if various communities want to stay in peace, human kinds
need to be united by assisting each other in social, political, cultural issues, just to
name a few. Indeed, European countries provide over half of what governments
around the world give in aid to developing countries (Bale, 2013). European Union
and the Member States have set up a fund called Official Development Assistance
(ODA) to donate money in a bid to help the poor countries fight against poverty and
develop their economies. Different countries have different recipients of aids (Refer to
Table C in Appendixes). They help the less developed countries to flourish their
economies in terms of creating job markets and providing work opportunities. As
financial assistance to build new infrastructure, improve ports or customs facilities in
developing countries in short: we want to help developing countries trade their
way out of poverty (Anonymous, 2013). European Commission (2013) stated that
seven out of ten people believe that helping these countries is also good for the EU,
benefiting its citizens. Many natural and human-caused disasters for instance famine,
poverty, political instability and wars are happening in the near neighbourhood of
Europe the Middle East and Africa. This without a shadow of doubt also hinders
Europe as a whole.
Take the refugee crisis starting from 2015 as an example. Millions of migrants flee
from their homelands to Europe for safety due to civil war, creating division in
Europe over how to settle the refugees for some European countries are worried about
security, social acceptance, religious conflicts that may be brought by the refugees
whereas some believe that it is all about humanity and moral that they should handle
the influx of the refugees, like Germany. In view of this, if the European countries
cannot come up with an agreement on how to handle the crisis, it will damage the
solidarity among the European countries. Nonetheless, if the European countries joint
hands with each other to solve the problem, not only the refugees would benefit from
the cooperation, but it would also be advantageous for the European countries for they
can have more trades, cultural exchange, or even investments with the less developed
countries at a later stage, when those countries finally eradicate the danger of wars
and become stable and prosperous. To sum up, it strengthens solidarity on a global
basis, no matter among the European countries, or between the developed and
developing countries if aids are offered to other poorer nations.

Moving on from the reason for sending help to the impoverished areas, European
politics in terms of the environment are discussed. Europe is known for its green
policies in general, compared with those of the rest of the world, like Chinas,
Americans since they put much more emphasis on combating the climate change.
According to Bale (2013), environmental policy is another area where Europe takes
the lead, although it is by no means perfect and continues to have trouble persuading
its allies to follow the trend. Europe has been seen as the goal setter and
environmental activist to engage human kind not to shun responsibility for protecting
the nature and continuing to strive for sustainable development in the environmental
aspect. In particular, European Union has implemented some comprehensive and
feasible plans to slow down the climate change. For instance, the European
Commission has been launching the European Climate Change Programme since
2000. They would set some targets to gradually reduce the emission of greenhouse
gases. The EU emissions trading system is the EU's key tool for cutting greenhouse
gas emissions from large-scale facilities in the power and industry sectors, as well as
the aviation sector, according the European Commission (2016). They would also
focus on adapting to use renewable energy and reduce the use of non-renewable ones,
hence the Member States of European Union are required to follow binding national
targets in the system of Renewable Energy Directive. Additionally, they encourage
technological breakthrough to overcome the difficulty of climate change, thus
European Union is in support of the development of low-carbon innovation via some
campaigns like NER300 programme for renewable energy technologies and
carbon capture & storage Horizon 2020 funding for research and innovation. All
these that Europe has been progressing are to be frank not only for the sake of the
present generation but also for the future of the earth. For the benefits that Europe can
embrace, they can increase their energy security by relying less on imported energy
and more on renewable energy; more job opportunities can be created and boost the
green economy as well as sharpen the competitiveness of Europe since green business
would be more and more prevalent. As for the upsides that can be enjoyed by the next
generations, sustainable development can continue to be carried on without doing
much harm to the environment while it still can help to meet the needs of the future.
Therefore, it is a win-win situation for European governments to implement the green
policies that are currently on progress.

To sum up, Europe as an area that are more developed take the leading role to
continuously improve the global society in terms of supporting less developed
countries in monetary and non-monetary manners. More importantly, Europe has
made every effort to deal with the climate change crisis that it benefits both Europe
itself and the rest of the world. It is expected that Europe will keep on employ its
advantageous position and superiority to help better the world and make peoples life
more pleasant.

References
1. Anonymous. (2013). Aid for Trade: Helping developing countries trade their way
out of poverty. OECD Insights.
2. Bale, T. (2013). European Politics . (3rd ed.). UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
3. Educational Pathways. (2016). Educational Pathways International. Retrieved 15
April, 2016, from http://www.educationalpathwaysinternational.org/?page_id=97
4. European Commission (2016). European Commission. Retrieved 20 April,
2016, from http://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/strategies/2020/index_en.htm
5. Nfuka, E.N & Rusu, L. (2009). IT Governance in the Public Sector in a
Developing Country. Stockholm: University and Royal Institute of Technology,
Sweden.
6. Sharma, A. (2016, no-date). The World's 5 Most Environmentally Friendly
Countries -- The Motley Fool. [Weblog]. Retrieved 22 April 2016, from
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/01/19/the-worlds-5-mostenvironmentally-friendly-countri.aspx
7. U.S. Catholic Bishops. (1997). Called to Global Solidarity: International
Challenges for US. Parishes.
8. World Trade Organization. (2016). World Trade Organization. Retrieved 22 April,
2016, from https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/devel_e/d1who_e.htm

Appendixes
Table A

(Source: World Economic Situation and Prospects 2012,

http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/wesp/wesp_current/2012country_class
.pdf)

Table B

(Source: World Economic Situation and Prospects 2012,

http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/wesp/wesp_current/2012country_class
.pdf)

Table C

(Source: Development Co-operation Report, 2011)

Table D

(Source: Global Green Economy Index, 2014)