I gave testimony in front of the Environmental Audit Committee of the House of Commons this morning on the environmental effects of development. I argued that it was the responsibility of rich countries to spend the research and development and take action to clean up the environment. It would be wrong to impose environment limits on developing countries from on high because all countries as they first industrialise pollute their cities. Once they start becoming richer, then they clean up: hence, I pointed out, London’s air quality is the cleanest since records began in 1585. Of course, by investing in new technologies, we will be able to pass on the benefits of those clean technologies to developing countries - helping their environments get cleaner more quickly.

I had submitted a memorandum on the private sector and water which was discussed. I pointed out that the empirical evidence was clear that the private sector had increased access to water, but that it was important for DFID to continue to help countries set up the regulatory systems so that expertise could be shared with governments with little experience running utility regulators. The memo is available here.

Finally, we discussed conditionality (which I said I thought was an ineffective instrument) and also trade liberalisation. I was asked whether I thought trade liberalisation should be forced on developing countries. I explained that developing countries would benefit from liberalisation and that the WTO’s special and differential treatment for those countries made a mockery of the multilateral ethos of the WTO. Nevertheless, the obsession with only liberalising when others liberalise had led to stagnation and there needs to more emphasis on unilateral liberalisation. So I argued that the EU and other developed countries should liberalise without requiring the same from others.