SOCIOECONOMIC DRIVERS OF ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION: A NARRATIVE REVIEW OF GLOBAL PATTERNS AND POLICY IMPERATIVES

Abstract

Environmental degradation is a serious problem affecting the socio-ecological stability of the world, and is mostly a systemic issue, not necessarily one of “mere” biophysical processes. While a great deal of research has been done on the individual environmental pressures, the knowledge base is still siloed and disjointed which hinders the development of a coherent policy. This narrative review aims to fill this gap by summarising the literature published between 2010 and 2026 and to critically assess the key socioeconomic causes of environmental degradation and the policy priorities these raise worldwide. The analysis is organised in four thematic pillars: Economic growth paradigms and the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), Demographic change and rapid urbanisation, Socio-economic inequality and power asymmetries, and Institutional governance in the context of globalization. The reviewed literature provides the following key insights: First, economic growth by itself does not necessarily lead to absolute decoupling. Concurrently, environmental disparities are disproportionately handed down to vulnerable communities in the Global South by interacting global and local processes of structural wealth inequalities. Macro-level, high-consuming countries bring high-carbon production to developing countries with lower regulations, thus shifting their carbon footprints. On the local level, marginalized communities are exposed to disproportionate environmental risks, including industrial pollution, climate-related environmental degradation, as well as weak political representation, weak land tenure security, and weak institutional protections which are underfunded. As a result, the cost of global economic expansion is borne by the least contributors to global consumption, at the local level, in the form of ecological and health damages. Moreover, from the literature, it is known that institutional quality is an important conditioning factor which influences either sustainable technological innovations or the occurrence of regulatory races to the bottom in the context of global trade flows. Ideationally, this review connects discrete economic and sociological approaches and proposes an integrated, multi-scalar concept of accounting in terms of consumption and structural power. On the practical side, it provides policymakers and practitioners with effective, evidence-based means of integrating socioeconomic development with planetary boundaries such as redistribution fiscal measures, green technology transfer, and decentralised institutional enforcement.