What is Right and What is Wrong in the Environmental Governance Model? Environmental Regulations for Improving Environmental Sustainability Ratings

The improper allocation of economic and environmental resources damages the United Nations sustainable development Agenda, which remains a challenge for policymakers to stop the rot through efficient governance mechanisms. The study designed an efficient environmental governance framework by extending the different governance factors linked to the environmental sustainability ratings in the cross-section of 67 countries. The results of the two-regime based estimator show that environmental corruption (regime-1), environmental politics (regime-2), and environmental laws (regime-2) negatively correlated with the environmental sustainability rating, whereas environmental democracy (regime-1 & 2) positively correlated with the environmental sustainability agenda across countries. The government effectiveness and the country’s per capita income both escalates environmental sustainability ratings. The results align with the Demopolis theory, the effective regulatory theory, and the theory of law and politics. The causality estimates show that environmental corruption and government effectiveness causes environmental politics and economic growth. In contrast, environmental democracy and environmental regulations cause a country’s per capita income. The bidirectional causality is found between environmental regulations and environmental corruption on the one hand, while environmental regulations and environmental politics Granger cause each other on the other hand. The results show the importance of environmental regulations in managing ecological corruption and politics across countries. The variance decomposition analysis suggested that environmental politics likely influenced the environmental sustainability agenda, followed by government effectiveness and environmental democracy for the next ten years. The study emphasized the need to design an efficient environmental governance framework that minimizes environmental corruption and enables them to move towards environmental democracy, stringent environmental laws, and regulations. Government effectiveness would mainly be linked to reducing corruption and political instability to achieve clean, green and sustainable development.

Characterization of ecologically dysfunctional municipalities: a contribution to Environmental Democracy

This research aims to promote a discussion on how to characterize an ecologically dysfunctional municipality, in terms directly linked to environmental legal noncompliance, and how it can impact the axes of Environmental Democracy, based on the identification of institutionalized environmental conflicts by governmental agencies that have a duty to conduct investigations and punish its offenders. The methodology used was a documental analysis of works published on the subject in books, specialized magazines, scientific articles available in libraries or on the internet; and the analysis of a case study, which took place in a medium-sized municipality in the state of São Paulo. Using the methodology, we were able to characterize ecologically dysfunctional municipalities, and their impacts on the structural axes of Environmental Democracy, in order to provide access to information, increase citizen participation, and resolve environmental conflicts.

A Decade of National Green Tribunal of India: Judgement Analysis and Observations

Established in 2010, it has been more than a decade since the establishment of the National Green Tribunal in India and in this context, the effectiveness of the National Green Tribunal as an institution comes to the forefront specifically from the lens of access to justice. To fill in the gap that is existing in the environmental area in the social and economic dimension role of an effective institution created for environment protection is a matter of utmost relevance. The judicial mechanism as a means of access to justice in environmental matters as one of the pillars of environmental governance is seen as means for achieving environmental justice and bringing in environmental democracy. National Green Tribunal is a quasi-judicial body dealing specifically with environment-related civil litigations, which brings about the plurality of justice with its multidisciplinary approach. This paper through the analysis of judgments of the year 2019 of the specific months where the tribunal has done significant intervention, through analysis looks into the impact the judgments have concerning environmental protection and innovations brought and jurisprudence created through its judgments and impact on the access to environmental justice.

A Procedural Idea of Environmental Democracy: the 'Débat Public' Paradigm within the EU Framework

The aim of this paper is to analyse the 'débat public' procedure, which finds its roots in the Canadian legal system and its most defined formulation in France, and which more recently has been circulating to Italy – first at the regional level and, since 2016, at the national level. The first part of the paper will thus be devoted to a historical overview of the débat public and to how it is implemented in each of the two legal systems. The second part will subsequently distil the 'paradigm', i. e. those distinctive traits that make the débat public an autonomous research subject, within the multi-layered legislative framework of environmental governance in Europe. Three main features of the paradigm will be pointed out (Participation, Effectiveness, Authority), thus highlighting how it can respond to the needs in light of which it has been designed, namely dealing with proximity conflicts and providing a forum for the construction of shared rational decisions in environmental decision-making. The paper eventually leads to the conclusion that the débat public, with its codified rules and procedures, represents the first and probably the most noticeable attempt towards the institutionalisation and generalisation of deliberative practices in environmental decision-making, thus towards developing a procedural stance in environmental democracy.

COMPLIANCE TO ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT REGULATIONS BY A GOLD MINING COMPANY IN ZAKA DISTRICT, ZIMBABWE - A TRAVESTY OR TRIBUTE TO ENVIRONMENTAL DEMOCRACY AND JUSTICE

Zimbabwe’s Environmental Management Act has provisions promoting the conduct of environmental impact assessment (EIA) prior to project implementation to protect the environment and environmental rights. Using data collection methods inspired by phenomenological study, this paper discusses if EIA processes by a gold mining company had mainstreamed or marooned ‘access rights’ which are the cornerstone of environmental democracy. While the Zimbabwe’s EIA policy is applauded for covertly mainstreaming environmental democracy, research findings suggest that there exist gaps in the policy framework, policy and practice in promoting comprehensive environmental democracy. EIA processes are done to fulfil legal obligations but with little motivation to protect community interests as participation is symbolic. It is recommended to redesign EIA policy and embed broader attributes of environmental democracy such as locals’ participation in all EIA stages and inclusion of experts on community issues in the EIA review panel to promote fairness, inclusivity, transparency during EIA. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/781/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

ENVIRONMENTAL DEMOCRACY THROUGH ACCESS TO INFORMATION

The overall aim of environmental laws is to protect the environment from any adversary effects in order to lay down the foundations for sustainable development and secure a better life on earth for the present and future generations. Environmental protection is more urgent today than ever especially due to global environmental problems. Such a noble aim can only be achieved through environmental democracy rather than exclusive and top-down decision-making. Morocco, for example, witnesses intermittent social protests triggered by the lack of access to environmental information and the gap between laws and their implementation.The main aim of this study is thus to argue that access to information is at the heart of democracy and that the achievement of the intertwined objectives of environment protection, sustainable development, and environmental democracy is dependent on the effective implementation of the right of access to information and the adoption a participatory approach in environmental decision-making. For this, we first define the concept of environmental information, and the access to this human right in international and Moroccos legislations then, we highlight the crucial role of the mass media in raising the public awareness of the threatening environmental issues and their rights and obligations towards the environment and finally, we shed light on the link between the right to access environmental information and the establishment of environmental democracy.