International Environmental Policy

International Environmental Policy

With globalization and today's constantly expanding global economy, many international environmental problems are global in scope, because environmental degradation comes from many different locations (for example global warming, which is a problem everyone contributes to and will someday have to bear the burden of). Governments are intended to represent citizens, so although most environmental problems are the result of individuals, people look to the government to fix environmental problems. Also, it proves to be more efficient to seek to solve international environmental problems with states and governmental policies.

Thus, it has become the duty of states to try to find solutions for the ever increasing threats of these global environmental issues. One of the privileges governments enjoy is being the only administrative unit in control of its own territory, thus it has the unmitigated power to create and establish laws and policies among its citizens. "States have, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the principal of international law, the sovereign right to exploit their own resources pursuant to their own environmental policies, and the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other States or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction." [~Principal 21 of the Stockholm Declaration] (Vig and Axelrod, 15).

However, when problems occur in areas that are outside the jurisdiction of a nation, states do not act to rectify them, as they are not their immediate responsibility. This includes both trans-boundary problems (such as acid rain) which affect areas outside of the polluting nation's domain, and global environmental problems (such as global warming) which affect the entire earth. Because these areas are beyond control of any government (as there is no absolute global government), states are likely to abuse these resources, and because these are areas outside of national jurisdiction, few governments will actively promote policies to protect these locations and their environments, as it is not their responsibility. As a result, countries will not do much about environmental degradation in public realms and furthermore, will have low expectations of others, so they are unwilling to make commitments. This conundrum is known as the "Tragedy of Commons".

Nevertheless, over the past couple of decades, growing awareness and concern for the global environment has led to the emergence of other actors in the international environmental policy forming battleground. Although states hold a privileged position in not only domestic, but international politics, international organizations are increasingly gaining influence in policy making and international environmental governance.

The four stages of international governance are: problem identification, which involves establishing the facts of the issue and deciding what needs to be done; negotiation, in which bargaining and rulemaking eventually sculpt treaties by and between diplomats/states; formal adoption, the adoption and conversion of international, signed treaties into national/domestic law, in most cases requiring it to be passed by the senate/parliament as legislature; and finally, implementation, the stage when behavior is changed and established policies are enforced.

Despite the Tragedy of Commons, national governments are still held ultimately responsible for the global environment. However, without the influence of any actors besides generally self-interested, sovereign governments, nothing will be accomplished. Thus, to create international environmental policy, the presence of international organizations is necessary. The actors who contribute to international environmental policy include international organizations, multinational corporations, non-governmental organizations, scientists, and of course nation-states. Each play different roles and participate in different stages and aspects of international environmental governance.

Formal international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organization perform several major functions in international governance and policy making: agenda setting, framing, national interest formation, monitoring, policy verification, rule making, and enforcement. Agenda setting includes the publication of reports, generating potential responses by other