Global Environmental Governance

[1] Global Environmental Governance is the title of a book written by:Adil Najam, Mihaela Papa, Nadaa Taiyab. All the information of this article comes from this book.

Introduction

Global environmental governance (GEG) is the sum of organizations, policy instruments, financing mechanisms, rules, procedures and norms that regulate the processes of global environmental protection. The efficacy of global environmental governance will ultimately depend on implementation at global and domestic levels. National implementation is the ultimate key, both to the efficacy of the GEG system and to meaningful environmental improvements. Since environmental issues entered the international agenda in the early 1970s, global environmental politics and policies have been developing rapidly.The first global conference on the environment, held in Stockholm in 1972, set in motion three decades of discussion, negotiation and ratification of a whole series of international environmental agreements. The Stockholm Conference spawned the United Nations Environment Programme. The Earth Summit, held in Rio 20 years later, brought with it the Conventions on Biological Diversity, Climate Change and Desertification and created another UN political institution, the Commission on Sustainable Development. And the desire to host a prestigious international institution led to the decisions to locate the small and underfunded secretariats of many of these agreements in many geographically diverse homes—from Montreal to Bonn to Rome and some places in between. Major institutions, such as the World Bank as well as the World Trade Organization, claim sustainable development as their overarching goal. A similar growth of interest is also seen within non- UN international and regional institutions in terms of environmental and sustainable development concerns. Multiple sources of funding for international environmental action are now available. These not only include the operational budgets of the various organizations but also specialized funding mechanisms created either as part of specific treaties or in general. For example, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), created in 1991 has financed US$4.8 billion in projects and generated co-financing of US$15.6 billion.

Challenges

Models

Upgrading UNEP Model
Multiple Actors Model 

Goals

  1. Leadership - The GEG system should grasp the attention and visible support of high-profile political leaders. The key institutions within the system should be managed by leaders of the highest professional calibre and international repute; all working together towards the best interests of the GEG system as a whole.
  2. Knowledge - Science should be the authoritative basis of sound environmental policy. The GEG system should be seen as a knowledge-based and knowledge-producing system.
  3. Coherence - GEG should operate as a coherent “system” with reasonable coordination, regular communication and a shared sense of direction among its various elements.
  4. Performance -The institutions that make up the GEG system should be well-managed; they should have the resources they need and should use these resources efficiently; and they should be effective in implementation. The ultimate purpose of the GEG system is to improve the global environmental condition.
  5. Mainstreaming - The GEG system should seek to incorporate environmental concerns and actions within other areas of international policy and action, and particularly so in the context of sustainable development .

Evidence of Environmental Degradation

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have shown that ecosystem decline and global warming continue, representing real dangers to our planet. This state of affairs is well documented in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2006). For example, despite the feverish discussions about global climate change, carbon emissions continue to rise; global atmospheric CO2 levels that were around 300 parts per million (ppm) in the early 1900s have now reached approximately 380 ppm. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment also found that approximately 60 per cent of the ecosystems that it examined were either being degraded or used unsustainably. Since 1980, 35 per cent of the world’s mangroves have been lost and 20 per cent of the world’s precious coral reefs have been destroyed. A decade after the signing of the Biodiversity Convention, the species extinction rate is still 1,000 times higher than what would be occurring naturally, without human impact. Despite the dozens of global and regional fisheries treaties, an estimated 90 per cent of the total weight of large predators in the oceans—such as tuna, sharks and swordfish—have disappeared over the last few decades. Estimates suggest that we may still be losing as much as 150,000 square kilometres of forest each year.

Actors

A measure of the diversity of actors within the United Nations system whose activities somehow impact the environment is the membership of the UN Environmental Management Group (EMG) which was established by the UN Secretary General to "enhance UN system-wide inter-agency coordination" and whose membership consists of "programs, organs and specialized agencies of the UN system, and all of the secretariats of multilateral environmental agreements". Each of these organizations has a defined environmental mandate and many have specified environmental activities. The membership of this group gives a still incomplete but impressive, picture of the breadth of actors that influence global environmental governance.

  1. Basel Convention Secretariat Convention on Biodiversity (CBD)
  2. Universal Postal Union(UPU)
  3. Secretariat Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
  4. Secretariat Convention on Migratory Species (CMS)
  5. Secretariat Economic and Social Commission for Africa (ECA)
  6. Economic Commission for Europe (ECE)
  7. Economic and Social Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
  8. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)
  9. Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA)
  10. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
  11. Global Environment Facility (GEF)
  12. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
  13. International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
  14. International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
  15. International Labour Organization (ILO)
  16. International Maritime Organization (IMO)
  17. International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR)
  18. Secretariat International Trade Center (ITC)
  19. International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
  20. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
  21. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
  22. Ramsar Convention on Wetlands Secretariat Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD)
  23. Secretariat UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
  24. UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs
  25. United Nations Development Programme(UNDP)
  26. United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP)
  27. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
  28. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
  29. United Nations Human Settlements Programme (HABITAT )
  30. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
  31. United Nations Children’s Fund(UNICEF)
  32. United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
  33. United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)
  34. United Nations University(UNU)
  35. World Food Program( WFP)
  36. World Health Organization( WHO)
  37. World Intellectual Property Organization( WIPO)
  38. World Meteorological Organization( WMO)
  39. The World Trade Organization(WTO)
  40. World Tourism Organization(WTO)
  41. Secretariat United Nations Population Fund(UNFPA)
  42. Division for Sustainable Development (UNDESA/DSD)

[2]

References

  1. Najam, Adil, Mihaela Papa, and Nadaa Taiyab. Global Environmental Governance: A Reform Agenda. Winnipeg: International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2006. Print.
  2. Najam, Adil, Mihaela Papa, and Nadaa Taiyab. Global Environmental Governance: A Reform Agenda. Winnipeg: International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2006. Print.
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