Global environment protection in the 21st Century
Global environment protection in the 21st Century
The climate change phenomenon has significantly evolved from the 20th century where the main concern of policy-makers was management of confined ecosystems i.e. forests, river basins, lakes etc. In the twenty-first century, however, policy-makers are faced with the challenge of protecting the earth ecosystems as a whole – which includes its subsystems, as well as creating solid institutions that would facilitate a safe transition along with a co-evolution of both natural and social systems at a larger planetary scale (Biermann 4). The governance challenge affects a diversity of players from governments to civil society organization, to national alliances and local actors, to private and public agents, as well individual citizens of planet earth. Addressing the challenge of global environment protection requires effective international collaboration and action. In this respect, there is need for creation of a new international institution for global environment protection.
A new international environment protection institution would seek to address the current shortfalls of the existing international organizations such as the UNEO and USD. The existing institutions are highly fragmented and run their own environmental programs; the new institution must incorporate all the functionalities and foster effective coordination. A new larger integrated organization would also address the problem of lack of accountability in earth system governance to a single overall international institution (Biermann 6). The new agency would significantly improve the facilitation of both norm-building as well as norm-implementation processes. This advantage would result from a rather enhanced mandate together with better capabilities of the new institution to create capacities especially in developing countries. This would be better that the present “catalytic” mandate of the UNEP that forbids the program from undertaking project implementation. The new agency would also carry additional political and legal powers such as ability of its governing body to approve certain binding regulations under certain conditions on all countries. It would also have the leverage of adopting legally binding treaties that have been thoroughly negotiated by think tanks under its auspices. Such mandate by far exceeds those afforded to UNEP, which is restricted from adopting legal instruments (Biermann 10). Furthermore, the new intergovernmental organizations would have the powers to take meaningful action against any state that forfeit any international agreement pertaining global environmental protection.
The new environment organization would also have improve implementation of the earth system governance through common comprehensive reporting system regarding the condition of the environment as well as the respective state of implementation of individual countries. This would better the current insufficient arrangement where a number of environmental bodies require their colleagues to report on their respective policies, and a handful specialized organizations being responsible for collection and dissemination of valuable knowledge and research activities (Biermann 12). There is outright gap in coordination, bundling, processing, along with dissemination of knowledge in a proper policy-oriented way. The new agency would significantly streamline and harmonize all reporting requirements into a single report to be acted upon by a single environment organization. This would do away with high level of bureaucracy, and reduce administrative challenge particularly in developing nations.
In conclusion the benefits of having an international body exclusively dedicated to dealing with sustenance of the global environment are plenty: influence on governance through administration research and funding; synthesis of scientific findings; development and implementation of environmental policies; and distribution of knowledge on environment protection to all stakeholders, among others.
References:
Biermann, Frank. Reforming Global Environmental Governance: The Case for a United Nations Environment Organization (UNEO). Feb 2011. Web.14 January, 2013.
