Strategies for Improving Global Environmental Governance: Challenging the Status Quo

1. Strategies for Improving Global Environmental Governance:Challenging the Status Quo Maria Ivanova and Daniel Esty Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy Open Meeting of the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Research Community Rio De Janeiro, October 6-8, 2001

2. “No crisis in history has so clearly demonstrated the interdependence of nations as the environmental crisis.” -- UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, 2000. “A central problem of global governance is that however far and fast international economic integration proceeds, political authority remains vested in national governments and national politicians.” --V. Cable 1999, Globalization and Global Governance.

3. Presentation Plan • Defining global environmental governance • do we need reform? • do we need to reform? • do we reform? • could and should be engaged? WHY WHAT HOW WHO

4. Premises and Assumptions • Complexity of environmental problems • Inability of current regime to address them • Status quo (political and institutional) not a constant, therefore not an insurmountable obstacle

5. Defining Global Governance “Governance is the framework of social and economic systems and legal and political structures through which humanity manages itself.” -- World Humanity Action Trust, 2000.

6. Why Reform? • Nature of problems • Scale, scope and complexity • Failed collective action • Lack of incentives for collaboration • Fragmentation • Institutional proliferation

7. Why Reform?,Continued • Deficient authority • Inadequate mandate, funding, political support • Insufficient legitimacy • Lack of process and outcome fairness

8. What to Reform? • Institutional structures • Institutional methods of governing

9. What to Achieve? • Improved problem solving • Information • Knowledge • Capacity • Improved collective action • Create a policy space for continuous interaction among actors • Ensure that multi-dimensional issues are addressed directly and with full participation • Uncover the common interests of parties through a continuous flow of information

10. What to Achieve, Continued • Enhanced legitimacy • Proportionality • Participation • Equity • Common but differentiated responsibilities • Strengthened policy space • Institutional center of gravity • Counterbalance and counterpart to economic and trade regime • Division of responsibilities where trade, environment, and development intersect

11. What to Achieve, Continued • Improved fairness • Common but differentiated responsibilities • Capacity-building • Finance, technology, information, and knowledge transfer • New global ethic • Knowledge • Perceptions • Values

12. How to Reform? Global • environmental mechanism • Data collection mechanism • Scientific and analytic assessment mechanism • Rule-making mechanism • Financing mechanism • Technology transfer and capacity building mechanism • Civil society participation mechanism • Compliance and reporting mechanism • Implementation strategies mechanism • Dispute settlement mechanism

13. Who to Engage? • Institutions • Public policy networks • Civil society • Governments

14. The New Solutions • Leadership • Collaboration • Political will