Open Borders, Broken Promises: Privatization and Foreign Investment

The report warns that while foreign investment can provide necessary capital for infrastructure and clean production, it often facilitates the transfer of polluting industries from industrialized Western nations to the Third World, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Commonwealth of Independent States. It asserts that international bodies like the World Bank, GATT, and IMF enable this shift, allowing Western corporations to bypass strict home-country environmental standards while increasing the debt and political dependence of recipient nations.

• Foreign investment presents a dual nature: it can provide essential capital for infrastructure and clean production in countries like Poland, but it also risks the transfer of "hazardous or inappropriate technologies and products" from industrialized Western nations to economically and politically powerless countries.
• International organizations, specifically the World Bank and the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT), are identified as facilitators that allow polluting industries to migrate from the West to the Third World, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (1993). Open Borders, Broken Promises: Privatization and Foreign Investment. https://www.ciel.org/reports/open-borders-broken-promises-privatization-and-foreign-investment-protecting-the-environment-through-contractual-clauses-greenpeace-1993-hunter-and-downes-eu93-1-2/

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. Open Borders, Broken Promises: Privatization and Foreign Investment. 1993. https://www.ciel.org/reports/open-borders-broken-promises-privatization-and-foreign-investment-protecting-the-environment-through-contractual-clauses-greenpeace-1993-hunter-and-downes-eu93-1-2/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=Open Borders, Broken Promises: Privatization and Foreign Investment |date=1 January 1993 |url=https://www.ciel.org/reports/open-borders-broken-promises-privatization-and-foreign-investment-protecting-the-environment-through-contractual-clauses-greenpeace-1993-hunter-and-downes-eu93-1-2/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforinternationalenvironmentallaw1993open, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{Open Borders, Broken Promises: Privatization and Foreign Investment}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {1993}, month = jan, url = {https://www.ciel.org/reports/open-borders-broken-promises-privatization-and-foreign-investment-protecting-the-environment-through-contractual-clauses-greenpeace-1993-hunter-and-downes-eu93-1-2/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }