Barriers to sustainable development in natural resource‐based economies: Australia as a case study

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Abstract
A growing number of nations are debating the appropriate path and speed of adjustment toward sustainable development in 21st century. However, for many nations whose economies are based on natural resources, implementation of environmental protection and resource management strategies designed for longer‐term development purposes seems highly improbable in view of formidable pressures for maximization of output levels in the short term. Many will not even be faced with the choice between environmental quality or economic growth as envisaged in traditional growth models. External debt pressures and a struggling trade sector based on primary sector exports undergoing extensive terms of trade deterioration could well induce an insidious and protracted period of simultaneous economic decline and degradation or depletion of natural capital stocks. This situation would represent a fundamental constraint upon the attainment of sustainable development proposals. While Australia is unique as a “Western”; industrialized nation with a trade structure hinged upon natural resources, it appears to be entering the vicious cycle of external financing pressures, higher volumes of natural resource exploitation, environmental degradation, and trade and current account deficits. The nature of this predicament is briefly described together with some predictions about the longer‐term consequences of the future paths available. The development of competitiveness in environmental technologies is assessed as a potential solution.