For the last six decades or so environmental issues have become increasingly important on the global agenda because the resources on which human beings depend for survival are under serious threat. Global dimension of environmental problems necessitated the need for global environmental governance eventhough local or regional action remains a vital aspect of responses to many problems. Consequently one of the defining characteristics of global Environmental Politics is  awareness of interconnections and of the need to ‘think globally, act locally.’

This paper is an attempt to understand the dynamics of global environmental politics and policies in a critical way. It examines the key historical developments and trends in this area, the major national, institutional and substantial actors, the factors that enhance or hinder prospects for effective policy insights and potential  future paths of global policies that address climate change, sustainable development, biodiversity, chemicals and wastes, desertification, marine biodiversity, ozone  depletion and  other related issues. The paper also examines how environmental issues and global environmental politics fit into the ‘Sustainable Development Goals' and how pursuit of these goals, in turn, impacts global environmental politics.

This paper is an attempt to understand the dynamics of global environmental politics and policies in a critical way and how environmental issues and global environmental politics fit into the 'Sustainable Development Goals' and how pursuit of these goals, in turn, impacts global environmental politics.

Global concern about the environment evolved in response to expanded scientific understanding of humanity’s increasing impact on the biosphere, including the atmosphere, oceans and forests, fresh water, soil cover and many animal and plant species. Many by-products of economic growth- such as burning of fossil fuels, air and water pollution, hazardous waste, toxic chemicals, plastics, increased use of natural resources- put cumulative stress on the physical environment that threaten human health and well-being. The realisation that environmental threats have serious socio-economic and human costs and that unilateral actions by individual countries cannot solve these problems produced increased calls for international co-operation to halt or reverse environmental degradation. [2]

Environmental Issues on the Global Agenda

Before the era of globalization there were two traditional environmental concerns: conservation of natural resources and the change caused by pollution. Post-Second World War global economic recovery brought with it evidence of  new pollution, leading to  international agreements in 1950s and 1960s covering such matters as discharges from oil tankers. This was, though, hardly central to diplomacy at UN General Assembly (UNGA). However, in 1968 the UNGA agreed to convene what became the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment (UNCHE) to focus governments’ attention and Public opinion on the importance and urgency of the question. This Conference led to the creation of the ‘United Nations Environmental Programme ( UNEP) and the establishment of environmental departments by many governments. Yet it was already clear that, for the countries of the South environmental questions could not be separated from their demands for development, aid and restructuring of International economic relations. This provided the political basis for the concept of ‘Sustainable Development’. Before this was formulated by the  Brundtland Commission in 1987 (WED 1987), the environment had been edged out off the international agenda by the global economic downturn of the 1970s and then by the onset of the ‘Second Cold War’.[3]

By that time, new forms of transnational pollution such as ‘acid rain’ were causing concern alongside scientific realisation that some environmental problems – the thinning of the stratospheric ozone layer and the possibility of climate change- were truly global in scale. The relaxation of  East-West tension created the opportunity for a second great UN Conference in 1992. It’s title, the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) reflected the idea of sustainable development and an accommodation between the environmental concerns of developed states and the economic demands of the South. The 1992 UNCED or ‘Earth Summit’ was at the time the largest international conference ever held. It raised the profile of the environment as an international issue, while providing a platform for both Agenda 21 and international conventions on climate change and the preservation of biodiversity. The most serious arguments at UNCED were over aid pledges to finance the environmental improvements under discussion. Rio also created a process at the UN to review the implementation of its agreements. The Commission on Sustainable Development was to meet at intervals and there were follow up UNGA Special Sessions and full-scale conferences.[4]

In 2012, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) met at Johannesburg (South Africa) emphasising the importance of eradication of poverty and bringing progress in providing clean water, sanitation and agriculture practices. One controversial element was the role to be played in such provision by public-private partnerships. Ten years later in ( 2012) and in the shadow of a major downturn in Global economy, Rio+20 met in Brazil. It attracted little public attention, but it did resolve to set ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ for the future.[5]

While the UN Conferences marked the stages by which the environment entered the international political mainstream, they also reflected underlying changes in the scope and perception of environmental problems.

Emergence of Green Political Movements

The growing understanding of environmental problems and the failure of established political parties to embrace these issues effectively led to the emergence of green Political movements. Several new high-profile NGOs- Friends of the Earth, Green peace, the World Wildlife Fund for Nature alongwith more established pressure groups such as the US Sierra Club and the British Royal society for the Protection of Birds etc. came into existence. These groups called for effective international action and environmental governance. [6]

International Regimes in Global Environmental Politics

International regime is the name given by the scholars and practitioners of international relations to a system of principles, norms, rules, operating procedures and institutions that actors create to regulate and coordinate action on a particular issue area of international relations.

The regulation of transboundary environmental problems is the longest established function of international co-operation. It is reflected in hundreds of multilateral regional and historical agreements providing for joint efforts to manage resources and control pollution. Prominent examples of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) include the  1979 Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution Convention and its various protocols and conventions governing such things as the cross-border movement of hazardous waste and chemicals.

Controlling, taxing and even promoting trade has been one of the more important functions of the state. However, trade restrictions can also be used as an  instrument for nature conservation. In the 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the use of trade penalties and restrictions by MEAs has been a vexed issue when the objective of environmental protection came into conflict with the rules of the GATT/World Trade Organisation (WTO) trade regime.[7]

Norm Creation

Over the last four decades the development of international environmental law  and associated norms of acceptable behaviour has been both rapid and innovative.  Some are in the form quite technical concepts that have been widely disseminated and adopted as a result of international discussion.

The UN Earth Summits were important in establishing environmental norms. The 1972 Stockholm Conference produced its ‘Principal 21’ which combines sovereignty over national resources with state responsibility for external pollution.

The Agenda 21, issued by the 1992 Rio Earth Summit was frequently decried because of its non-binding character, but this internationally agreed compendium of environmental ‘best practices’ subsequently had a wide impact and remains a point of reference.[8]

Aid and Capacity Building

Frequent North-South arguments since Rio about the levels of aid and technology transfer that would allow developing countries to achieve sustainable development has seen many disappointments and unfulfilled pledges. In 1991, UNEP, UNDP, and the World Bank created the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) as an international mechanism, specially for funding environmental projects in developing countries . Most environmental conventions now aim at capacity building through arrangements for the transfer of funds, technology, and expertise, because many of their member states simply lack the resources to participate fully in international agreements. The stratospheric ozone and climate change regimes aim to build capacity and could not exist in their current form without providing for this functions.[9]

Governing the Commons

The global commons are usually understood as areas and resources that do not fall under sovereign jurisdiction. The high seas and the deep ocean floor come into this category (beyond the 200 mile exclusive economic zone), as does Antarctica. Outer space is another highly important commons, its use being vital to modern telecommunications, broadcasting, navigation, and surveillance. Finally, there is the global atmosphere.

The commons all have an environmental dimension, not only as resources but also as ‘sinks’ that have been increasingly degraded. The global atmosphere has been degraded in a number of highly threatening ways, through damage to the stratospheric ozone layer and, most importantly by the enhanced greenhouse effect now firmly associated with changes to the earth’s climate. This is often characterised as ‘tragedy of the commons’. Where there is unrestricted access to a resource that is owned by no one, there will be an incentive for individuals to grab as much as they can and there will come a time when it is ruined by over exploitation as the short-term interests of individual users overwhelm the longer-run collective interest in sustaining the resource.[10]

Sustainable Development & Environment

The concept of ‘Sustainable Development' has emerged as an alternative paradigm of development that is closely related to environmental issues. It aims to meet human development goals while also enabling natural systems to provide necessary natural resources and ecosystem services to humans. The desired result is a society where living conditions and resources meet human needs without undermining the environment. The Brundtland Report (1987) defined sustainable development  as “development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the  ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”[11]

In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (2015 to 2030) and explained how these goals are integrated and invisible to achieve sustainable development at the global level.[12]

The UNGA’s 17 goals address the global challenges including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice.

On 6 July 2017, the  SDGs were made more actionable by a UNGA resolution that identifies specific targets for each goal and provides indicators to measure progress. Most targets are to be achieved by 2030, although somehave no end date.

Thus, global environmental politics involves actions by, and interactions among states, NGOs and other actors that transcend national boundaries and that affect the environment and natural resources of  multiple regions or the entire planet. The emergence of environmental issues in global politics reflects growing awareness of the cumulative stresses that human activities place on the earth’s resources and life support system. Most of global environmental politics focuses on efforts to negotiate and implement multilateral agreements or other mechanisms for cooperation to protect the environment and natural resources. Some of these agreements stand at the centre of global  environmental  regimes of varying effectiveness that seek to govern and guide stable behaviour.

1. Eliot, Larry. (Jan. 15,2020) : “Climate Crisis Fills Top Five Places of World Economic Forum’s Risk Report”, The Guardian.

2. Chasek, Pamela S. and Downie David L.(2021) : Global Environmental Politics, Eighth edition, Routledge, New York & London.

3. Baylis, John; Smith Steve; and Owens, Patricia. (2014) : The Globalization of World Politics, Oxford University Press, p.332

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid, p.333

6. Ibid. P. 334

7. Ibid, p. 335

8. Ibid, pp.335-336

9. Ibid , p. 336

10. Ibid.

11. Brundtland, G.H., et al. (1987): Our Common Future : Report on the World Commission on Environment and Development, Oxford  University Press. P.43

12."Sustainable Development" Wikipedia.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sustainabledevelopment. ( Retrieved on 22 April, 2023).