The balance between propagating environmental sustainability and economic development is difficult to achieve, and there is bound to be a trade-off between the two. "Environmental concerns" are those issues arising from the harmful aspects of human activity on the planet; in order to properly gauge if they are luxuries or necessities for developed countries, one must first determine how "developed" a country actually is, as well as what constitutes "luxuries" because these are relative to various nation's current economic dispositions.
Ultimately it is the opportunity cost of focusing on environmental concerns as compared to furthering the country's own economic needs which determines if it is truly a luxury.
Developed countries, such as the United States, are generally more industrialized and have a high Human Development Index rating: this means that factors such as national income, life expectancy and education are taken into account. Thus it can be inferred that in most of these countries, the consumer or the average peoples are of prime importance; consumer spending comprised 71% of the US economy in 2013.
It is only logical then to assume that a country such as USA needs to continue to focus on its consumption and maintaining the consumer spending. It can only do this by investing further into products that appeal to people and that are in high demand, which will inevitably be at the cost of the environment.
There are many goods produced that people not only want but need due to the lifestyles in developed countries such as oil: 95% of American households own a car. Yet oil is a non renewable source of energy and so automatically becomes an environmental concern.
If investments into the tertiary sector were diverted towards saving the environment, it is likely that consumer choice would reduce and consequently spending as well as national income which would be detrimental to the overall economic development of the country. This is a position that a country like USA would not want to compromise.
On the other hand, the term "luxury" is defined as a "state of great comfort, especially when involving great expense." It has already been established that Americans lead lifestyles that would be perceived as one of "great comfort" which implies that thus the country can easily afford to focus on environmental concerns as they are already economically developed, and abundantly so. Production, consumption and distribution runs smoothly and the population is well educated, so paying some heed to the environment should not be a problem.
To further put things in perspective, the average American's monthly salary is 458% greater than the average Indian's salary. Thus, in order to maintain their respective households and minimize costs, the quintessential Indian worker or local businessman is not going to be worried about respecting the same environmental standards large American corporations hold in such a high regard. He or she will simply do whatever it takes to produce goods in the most cost-effective and efficient manner, which does not necessarily involve the most environmentally friendly processes.
USA already has the resources at its disposal. It has the finances and with environmental initiatives that make the best use of these combined, such as using renewable sources of energy or launching environmental sustainability campaigns, it would not cost the USA so much so as to completely disassemble the current economic framework. In fact, it could be argued that focusing more on the environment would portray the USA as a more evolved society, only further enhancing its "developed" status. More jobs could be created that focus on bettering the environment to replace those ones that were lost due to being detrimental to the same.
As far as wants and desires are concerned, the American people too are aware of their environment and are beginning to demand goods that are more "eco-friendly". USA has never been one to fail to cater to its people's consumeristic whims, and soon, this environmental fad that was once considered a luxury is becoming and will become the standard.
