Internationally agreed environmental goals: A critical evaluation of progress

Autor: Ashbindu Singh, Marc A. Levy, Jason Jabbour, Stefan Schwarzer, Peter Gilruth, Roberto Sánchez-Rodríguez, Fatoumata Keita-Ouane, Neeyati Patel, Carol Hunsberger
Přispěvatelé: International Institute of Social Studies
Rok vydání: 2012
Předmět:
Zdroj: Environmental Development, 3, 5-24. Elsevier
ISSN: 2211-4645
Popis: The number of international environmental institutions, goals and agreements has increased greatly since the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972. However, the results of this proliferation for environmental protection have been mixed. The upcoming ‘‘Rio þ20’’ conference (2012), offers world leaders an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of achieving a sustainability agenda and to revisit their strategies for doing so. To inform this process it is crucial to learn from the ambitions, achievements and shortcomings on goal attainment to date. Drawing on the United Nations Environment Programme’s fifth Global Environment Outlook report (GEO-5), this paper presents an evaluation of progress made on globally agreed environmental goals in relation to a series of biophysical trends. The analysis suggests a picture of patchy achievements rather than sustained progress. The most encouraging results have occurred where measurable targets were established on problems with relatively straightforward causes and courses of action. Key obstacles to the achievement of goals include a series of mismatches: between narrow objectives and the need for integrated approaches; between types of problems and types of solutions; between the fragmentation of governance and the need for collective action; between science and policy; between the responsibilities and resources of environmental institutions; and between complex Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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