... last decade, extensive literature has argued that a direct link between environmental degradation and economic development is too simplistic and that the nexus is governed by a complex web of factors. These authors have argued that other explanatory variables should be included in the models, including; inequality (Kaufman et al, 1998), income growth, institutional and political factors (Torras & Boyce, 1998) and international trade (Stern et al., 1996) The following paper gives an overview of the literature published to date and puts forward a conceptual, methodological and fundamental critique, before concluding with some reflections on the debate. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) Hypothesis The EKC Hypothesis was originally put forward by (and named after) Simon Kuznets (Kuznets, 1955) who was the first to observe the relationship between inequality and per capita income. Today, this bell shaped curve has been used to explain the relationship between environmental degradation and economic development. ...

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