• Trade and MEAs

Trade and MEAs

Since environmental issues entered the international agenda in the early 1970s, global environmental governance (GEG) institutions have been developing rapidly. As a consequence, however, the GEG system has outgrown its original design. And, at the same time, environmental degradation continues.

This book argues that the GEG system needs to be rethought so that it can meet the challenges of its own growth, respond to future issues and move from its current emphasis on awareness-raising and treaty creation to actual environmental action and implementation. It analyses the challenges and identifies practical steps to reform the environmental governance regime.

The first chapter of the book provides a primer on the GEG reform debate to date. It identifies lessons from recent debates on GEG evolution and reform and presents a snapshot of previous and ongoing initiatives.

The second chapter discusses six key challenges to effective GEG. These are:

• proliferation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEA)s and fragmentation of GEG
• lack of cooperation and coordination among international organisations
• lack of implementation, enforcement and effectiveness in GEG
• inefficient use of resources
• GEG outside the environmental arena
• non-state actors in a state-centric system.

The final chapter discusses the central elements for a practical reform agenda. It recommends that the GEG system should:

• ensure effective leadership and management by high-profile political leaders and persons of the highest professional calibre and international repute
• be seen as a knowledge-based and knowledge-producing system. This will require strengthening and rationalising knowledge cooperation within the GEG system
• operate as a coherent “system” with reasonable coordination, regular communication and a shared sense of direction among its various elements. To achieve this, the UN Environmental Management Group (EMG) should be restructured to meet the different coordination needs of different agencies
• be well-managed. GEG institutions should have the resources they need and should use these resources efficiently; and they should be effective in implementation. This will require reduced expenditure on reporting and improved financial tracking
• ensure that environmental concerns and actions are mainstreamed into international policy and action, particularly in the context of sustainable development. To aid in this, the Commission on Sustainable Development should revert to its original design intent and focus on integrating environment into development.

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