The Architecture of Global Environmental Governance: Bringing Science to Bear on Policy

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oran R. Young
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Cold Water ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Focus On Form ◽  
Organizational Reform ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Governance Systems ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Institutional Challenges

This article draws on the findings of the international research project on the Institutional Dimensions of Global Environmental Change to evaluate current proposals for reforming organizational arrangements that address environmental protection and especially calls for strengthening the UN Environment Programme or creating a UN Environment Organization. The first section explores pitfalls arising when policy-makers focus on form before sorting out functional matters. The next section examines institutional challenges confronting efforts to create effective environmental governance systems. The final section broadens the scope to address issues extending beyond environmental protection in a world of nation states. The goal is not to throw cold water on specific proposals of those who advocate organizational reform. Rather, the article argues that form should follow function in this realm as in others. By itself, organizational reform cannot achieve environmental protection, much less the broader goal of sustainable development.

Global Environmental Change and the Nation State

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Biermann ◽  
Klaus Dingwerth
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Empirical Knowledge ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Global Environmental

This article outlines the theoretical problematique and some empirical knowledge regarding the impacts of global environmental change on the nation state; thereby it also introduces this special issue of Global Environmental Politics. We argue that global environmental change decreases the capacity of nation states to fulfill their definitional functions without the cooperation of other states. The added stress due to environmental change also increases the demand for adaptive capacities of nation states, which further diminishes their resources to fulfill other core functions. Based on an overview of the complex interplay between global environmental change and the nation state, we focus on the various ways in which the nation state may mitigate, or adapt to, the impacts of global environmental change, including horizontal diffusionism and vertical institutionalism. In summarizing the other contributions to this special issue, we further argue that a reconsideration of key theoretical concepts such as sovereignty, agency, and multilevel governance is required in order to improve our understanding of the complexities of global environmental governance.

2. Ideas about environmental protection

2020 ◽  
pp. 54-92
Author(s):  
Jean-Frédéric Morin ◽  
Amandine Orsini ◽  
Sikina Jinnah
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Causal Beliefs ◽  
Global Environmental Governance ◽  
World Views ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter explores the ideas and debates which shape global environmental politics. At least three types of socially constructed ideas play a key role in international environmental governance: world views, causal beliefs, and social norms. However, ideas are not universally shared, which means that ideological clashes are a feature of global environmental governance. The chapter looks at five of the major ideological debates that have marked the evolution of global environmental governance. The first two debates present conflicting world views: the first concerns the scope of environmental values, while the second examines the intrinsic values of non-human organisms. The following two debates concern causal beliefs: one is about the relationship between human intervention and environmental protection, while the other concerns the relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation. The last debate considers different social norms related to environmental justice and the appropriate behaviours expected towards historically marginalized populations.

scholarly journals Respiration of Mediterranean cold-water corals is not affected by ocean acidification as projected for the end of the century

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 5671-5680 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Maier ◽  
F. Bils ◽  
M. G. Weinbauer ◽  
P. Watremez ◽  
M. A. Peck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ocean Acidification ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Cold Water ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Dry Weight ◽  
Lophelia Pertusa ◽  
Seawater Ph ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The Face ◽  
Abundance And Distribution

Abstract. The rise of CO2 has been identified as a major threat to life in the ocean. About one-third of the anthropogenic CO2 produced in the last 200 yr has been taken up by the ocean, leading to ocean acidification. Surface seawater pH is projected to decrease by about 0.4 units between the pre-industrial revolution and 2100. The branching cold-water corals Madrepora oculata and Lophelia pertusa are important, habitat-forming species in the deep Mediterranean Sea. Although previous research has investigated the abundance and distribution of these species, little is known regarding their ecophysiology and potential responses to global environmental change. A previous study indicated that the rate of calcification of these two species remained constant up to 1000 μatm CO2, a value that is at the upper end of changes projected to occur by 2100. We examined whether the ability to maintain calcification rates in the face of rising pCO2 affected the energetic requirements of these corals. Over the course of three months, rates of respiration were measured at a pCO2 ranging between 350 and 1100 μatm to distinguish between short-term response and longer-term acclimation. Respiration rates ranged from 0.074 to 0.266 μmol O2 (g skeletal dry weight)−1 h−1 and 0.095 to 0.725 μmol O2 (g skeletal dry weight)−1 h−1 for L. pertusa and M. oculata, respectively, and were independent of pCO2. Respiration increased with time likely due to regular feeding, which may have provided an increased energy supply to sustain coral metabolism. Future studies are needed to confirm whether the insensitivity of respiration to increasing pCO2 is a general feature of deep-sea corals in other regions.

scholarly journals Can the subaltern protect forests? REDD+ compliance, depoliticization and indigenous subjectivities

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 419-435
Author(s):  
Franziska Müller
Keyword(s):  
Capacity Building ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Educational Practices ◽  
Global Environmental Governance ◽  
Educational Materials ◽  
Governance Systems ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Global Carbon

REDD+ regimes are accompanied by capacity-building and educational practices, which play an important role in REDD+ governance. These practices address subaltern local and indigenous actors, seek their compliance and thereby contribute to the stabilization of otherwise all-too-fragile global carbon governance systems. In this article I analyze the governing effects of such practices by drawing on Robert Fletcher's concept of "multiple environmentalities" and Tania Murray Li's "analytic of assemblage." Empirically I focus on educational materials that have been designed for REDD+ projects in cooperation with one of the world's largest REDD+ funds, Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative. I identify several strategies that aim at aligning diverse actors, seek to de- or re-politicize REDD+ concepts, authorize knowledge, and, most significantly, address local actors as responsible ecological stewards, who contribute to stabilizing REDD+ regimes on the ground. In total, these strategies promote programmatic subjectivities among indigenous 'stakeholders' and contribute to a new, 'glocal' understanding of nature-society relations.Keywords: global environmental governance, REDD+, governmentality, environmentality, capacity-building

scholarly journals Respiration of Mediterranean cold-water corals is not affected by ocean acidification as projected for the end of the century

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 7617-7640 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Maier ◽  
F. Bils ◽  
M. G. Weinbauer ◽  
P. Watremez ◽  
M. A. Peck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ocean Acidification ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Cold Water ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Dry Weight ◽  
Lophelia Pertusa ◽  
Seawater Ph ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The Face ◽  
Abundance And Distribution

Abstract. The rise of CO2 has been identified as a major threat to life in the ocean. About one-third of the anthropogenic CO2 produced in the last 200 yr has been taken up by the ocean, leading to ocean acidification. Surface seawater pH is projected to decrease by about 0.4 unit between the pre-industrial revolution and 2100. The branching cold-water corals Madrepora oculata and Lophelia pertusa are important, habitat-forming species in the deep Mediterranean Sea. Although previous research has investigated the abundance and distribution of these species, little is known regarding their ecophysiology and potential responses to global environmental change. A previous study indicated that the rate of calcification of these two species remained constant up to 1000 μatm CO2 a value that is at the upper end of changes projected to occur by 2100. We examined whether the ability to maintain calcification rates in the face of rising pCO2 affected the energetic requirements of these corals. Over the course of three months, rates of respiration were measured at a pCO2 ranging between 350 and 1100 μatm to distinguish between short-term response and longer-term acclimation. Respiration rates ranged from 0.074 to 0.266 μmol O2 (g skeletal dry weight)−1 h−1 and 0.095 to 0.725 μmol O2 (g skeletal dry weight)−1 h−1 for L. and M. oculata, respectively, and were independent of pCO2. Respiration increased with time likely due to regular feeding which may have provided an increased energy supply to sustain coral metabolism. Future studies are needed to confirm whether the insensitivity of respiration to increasing pCO2 is a general feature of deep-sea corals in other regions.

States and Natures: An Introduction

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Whitehead ◽  
Rhys Jones ◽  
Martin Jones
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Grand Canyon ◽  
Sandy Beaches ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Bahamas ◽  
Biological Communities ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Victoria Falls

Before continuing to read this book, stop, place this volume back on the shelf and take a moment to look through the pages of an illustrated atlas of the world. At least half of this atlas will probably be given over to illustrating one of the dominant political ordering principles around which our world continues to be constructed and conceived—the nation-state. If your atlas is similar to ours, however, you will also notice that nation-states are not only represented and recognized according to their territorial shape and official political nomenclature. Skimming through the glossy colour pages of our atlas, a continual cross-referencing appears between the political, ecological, and geological motifs of nation-states. The political map of the US, for example, is surrounded by images of the forests of New England in the fall and the spectacular geological strata of the Grand Canyon. Turning the page you find an immediate association being made between Iceland and the volcanically heated Blue Lagoon Lake, the Bahamas and its golden sandy beaches, Belize and banana trees, Peru and the cloud-laden Andes. Further into the atlas the fjords are deployed as an icon for the Norwegian state, barren deserts are used to denote Western Sahara and Mauritania, and a dramatic picture of Victoria Falls is carefully positioned below a map of Zambia. These images are, of course, as with so much of what is routinely produced within the visualizations of state and nationhood, crude stereotypes of complex geographical entities. However, we want to argue that this collection of ecological and geological imagery does reveal an interesting relationship, a relationship that is central to the ways in which our worlds are constructed, ordered, and reproduced—the relationships between states and natures. This book is premised upon the exploration of a paradox. While contemporary discussions of global environmental change, trans-boundary biological communities, and systemic ecological threats routinely emphasize the irrelevance of state systems and boundaries as means for understanding and addressing questions of nature, everywhere you look nature is continually being ordered and framed by nation-states.

7. International institutions

2020 ◽  
pp. 229-258
Author(s):  
Jean-Frédéric Morin ◽  
Amandine Orsini ◽  
Sikina Jinnah
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Environmental Institutions ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Institutional Architecture ◽  
Over Time

This chapter looks at intergovernmental organisations and international regimes. As several environmental problems have transnational implications, governments have been eager to establish international institutions to address these problems collectively. In the aftermath of the landmark 1972 Stockholm Summit on the Human Environment, states created several international institutions specifically dedicated to environmental protection. Over time, and in keeping with broader trends in global politics, these institutions have begun to interact with institutions that specialize on other topics. The chapter then tracks international environmental institutions' development and impacts over time. It also considers how international environmental institutions exhibit differing levels of autonomy, before going on to look at the interactions between international institutions, in particular the dynamics of synergy and conflict between them. Finally, the chapter studies the literature on actual or planned reforms to the institutional architecture for global environmental governance.

Methods and Capacities for Institutional Policy Making in Environmental Governance

2020 ◽  
pp. 18-33
Author(s):  
Mononita Kundu Das
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Environmental Regulation ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Institutional Policy ◽  
Global Environmental

Environmental governance is the range of rules, practices and institutions related to the management of the environment in its different forms ranging from conservation, protection and exploitation of natural resources. It also indicates all the processes and institutions, both formal and informal, that encompasses the standards, values, behaviour, and organizing mechanisms used by citizens, organizations and social movements as well as the different interest groups as a basis for linking up their interests, defending their differences, and exercising their rights and obligations in terms of accessing and using natural resources. Globally environmental governance is deciphered as the sum of organizations, policy instruments, financing mechanisms, rules, procedures, and norms that regulate the processes of global environmental protection. The need for environmental regulation is the result of identification of factors resulting in environmental degradation.

scholarly journals Environmental problems and environmental governance in the context of dynamic economic growth – the case of China

2008 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Richerzhagen ◽  
Imme Scholz
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Policy Coordination ◽  
Governance System ◽  
Effective Response ◽  
Global Environmental

AbstractThe fast growing anchor countries have become key players in mitigating global environmental change. China is a very particular anchor country. The size, scope and quality of the environmental degradation associated with its dramatic economic growth is much larger than that of all the other anchor countries. Despite being regarded as an all-embracing emerging superpower, China is a very heterogeneous country regarding its economic, social and environmental structure. Regional differences require an effective response. However, China’s environmental governance system is characterized by a number of weaknesses, which impede the implementation of targets and objectives set by policies and laws. The most significant weakness refers to the insufficient institutional framework for horizontal and vertical policy coordination. Good environmental governance requires measures that address these deficiencies. Furthermore, the diffusion of public information on the costs of environmental degradation and the rule of law have to be promoted as complementary measures.

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