Principles of Environmental Policy and Legislation

Principles of Environmental Policy and Legislation

Copyright: © 2023 |Pages: 14
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-4158-9.ch002
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Abstract

The global environmental governance system has not successfully achieved its primary goal: to protect the global environment and achieve sustainable development. Among the reasons for this is the incoherence and lack of cooperation of international actors; inflation of multilateral environmental agreements, inappropriate international structures, and institutions; failure to follow the documents and non-implementation of the obligations contained in them; inefficient allocation of resources; unpopular way of making decisions; policy-making and decision-making outside the system of global environmental governance, and the absence of non-governmental actors in a state-centered system. This chapter aims to identify the causes of the inefficiency of the global environmental governance system and examine the necessary measures to address the shortcomings of this system.
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Introduction

The “Global Environmental Governance System” consists of documents, organizations and institutions, decisions and policies, financing mechanisms, rules, rituals, norms, and implementation of the provisions of the documents through which the protection of the global environment and sustainable development is to be achieved (Koh, 2008). But has the system been able to achieve these goals sufficiently? If not, what is the main reason or reason? And what can be done to address these shortcomings? Policymaking, organizing, establishing institutions, financing, setting rules and rituals, and ultimately implementing principled policies through relevant rules require cooperation and coordination among international actors, including governments, civil society, and the private sector (Boyle, 2002). Therefore, it is necessary to examine the role of coordination and cooperation among international actors in the global environmental governance system to achieve environmental protection and sustainable development goals(Alexandroff & Cooper, 2010). In a division, we can say Global environmental governance consists of three pillars: first, a process that ultimately aims to regulate the outcome of various meetings and decisions in the form of documents inappropriate language that the political representatives approve of governments, approved by the parliaments of the countries, and finally In the legal system of the signatory states, it takes the form of essential documents; A total of formal and informal institutions, both private and public; And third, the implementation and fulfillment of the environmental commitments of States and members of the international community, which, according to the international instruments referred to in the preceding component (Meganck & Saunier, 2012), are necessary—existing to be implemented using current structures (Najam, 2003). The effect of human actions on the ecosystem; Deep is usually borderline and sometimes irreversible. In the most optimistic case, assuming that governments have the necessary political will to protect the environment, we can still not expect the phenomenon of border crossings to be controlled by occasional and uncoordinated governments' responses without the cooperation of all international actors. In practice, the measures taken by the countries of the world to protect the environment, due to their inconsistency and lack of cooperation with each other, did not have acceptable results and could not adequately respond to environmental degradation, including climate change, air pollution, soil and oceans, hazards: nuclear or genetic manipulation, rampant reduction of natural resources, and destruction of biodiversity and landscapes(Risse, 2004). Much of the provisions of the hundreds of multilateral environmental agreements that have taken so much energy, time, and financial resources to build have never been implemented due to inconsistencies and lack of cooperation from international actors, and this has led many of these documents never to achieve their goals because they were created not to achieve (Najam, 2003). All this shows how necessary it is to create an efficient global environmental governance system in which all actors in the international community, especially governments, are organized in a coherent system. Only in the shadow of such a system will the international community's actors, especially the governments, react in a timely and efficient manner to the factors and forces that harm the environment while preventing the destruction of the environment and avoiding environmental destruction anti-environmental actions. This article first examines the concept of environmental governance system and its features and then the shortcomings and challenges of global environmental governance and then seeks to evaluate the impact of cooperation and coordination on the global environmental governance system by examining various sources and examine the hypothesis that whatever The higher the level and level of coordination and cooperation between international actors, especially governments, as the foremost and most influential actors, the better the protection of the environment and sustainable development will be achieved. Finally, the present article seeks to show what characteristics the global environmental governance system should have to achieve the result, namely protecting the global environment and sustainable development(Miller, 2007).

Key Terms in this Chapter

Precautionary Principle: One of the most commonly encountered and controversial principles of environmental law, the Rio Declaration formulated the precautionary principle: To protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of complete scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation. The principle may play a role in any debate over the need for environmental regulation.

Equity: Defined by UNEP to include intergenerational equity - “the right of future generations to enjoy a fair level of the common patrimony” - and intragenerational equity - “the right of all people within the current generation to fair access to the current generation’s entitlement to the Earth’s natural resources” - environmental equity considers the present generation under an obligation to account for long-term impacts of activities and to act to sustain the global environment and resource base for future generations. Pollution control and resource management laws may be assessed against this principle.

Polluter Pays Principle: The polluter pays principle stands for the idea that “the environmental costs of economic activities, including the cost of preventing potential harm, should be internalized rather than imposed upon society at large.” All issues related to responsibility for environmental remediation costs and compliance with pollution control regulations involve this principle.

Sustainable Development: Defined by the United Nations Environment Programme as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” sustainable development may be considered together with the concepts of “integration” (development cannot be considered in isolation from sustainability) and “interdependence” (social and economic development, and environmental protection, are interdependent). Laws mandating environmental impact assessment and requiring or encouraging development to minimize environmental impacts may be assessed against this principle.

Public Participation and Transparency: identified as necessary conditions for “accountable governments,... industrial concerns,” and organizations generally, public participation and transparency are presented by UNEP as requiring “effective protection of the human right to hold and express opinions and to seek, receive and impart ideas,... a right of access to appropriate, comprehensible and timely information held by governments and industrial concerns on economic and social policies regarding the sustainable use of natural resources and the protection of the environment, without imposing undue financial burdens upon the applicants and with adequate protection of privacy and business confidentiality,” and “effective judicial and administrative proceedings.” These principles are present in environmental impact assessment, laws requiring publication and access to relevant environmental data, and administrative procedures.

Prevention: The concept of prevention can perhaps better be considered an overarching aim that gives rise to a multitude of legal mechanisms, including prior assessment of environmental harm, licensing or authorization that set out the conditions for operation and the consequences for violation of the conditions, as well as the adoption of strategies and policies. Emission limits and other product or process standards, the use of best available techniques, and similar techniques can all be seen as applications of the concept of prevention.

Transboundary Responsibility: Defined in the international law context as an obligation to protect one’s environment and prevent damage to neighboring environments, UNEP considers transboundary responsibility at the international level as a potential limitation on the sovereign state’s rights. Laws that limit externalities imposed upon human health and the environment may be assessed against this principle.

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