Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
to come up with ways of avoiding overlaps and fi nding synergies between
treaty regimes.
There were high hopes from Rio +20 that international environmental
governance could be strengthened at an institutional level, in particular to
address the increasing fragmentation and overlapping work within interna-
tional environmental law. Some small changes were adopted, but states were
not yet ready to even upgrade UNEP to a UN specialized agency (despite the
fact that almost every other policy area has its own such agency). UNEP was
established after the 1972 Stockholm Conference and it still serves as the main
institutional body for the advancement of international environmental protec-
tion; the Commission on Sustainable Development was established after the
1992 UNCED, but this was a weak Commission, now due to be replaced.
From the institutional perspective, the main progress has been with treaty
regimes, 46 which have created innovative ways to deal with all kinds of envi-
ronmental problems.
The political momentum and direction for international environmental
law have been steered by major UN environment and development
conferences, where declarations and action plans have been adopted. It is
diffi cult to say exactly what the signifi cance of these UN conferences has
been. The 1992 UNCED has often been regarded as the seminal confer-
ence since, at the time at least, it demonstrated major states and other
stakeholders to be taking environmental protection seriously. The follow-
ups to the UNCED have been disappointing to many. However, from a
more positive perspective we can see them as conferences where the inter-
national community has sought to deal with a much more challenging
issue: how to put the Rio Principles and Agenda 21 into action. Yet, after
the widely felt disappointment in Rio +20, it seems pertinent to ask
whether UN conferences really are the best forum for providing political
direction for international environmental protection. Many are asking
whether there are better investments to be made than in convening such
large-scale conferences.
International environmental law has progressed in the way that it deals
with environmental problems. For instance, we are now seeking more holis-
tic solutions, the prime example being the Convention on Biological
Diversity, which enables the international community to unite efforts to
protect various species and habitats, which prior to the biodiversity regime
were dealt with in only a fragmented manner. Though for the most part
attempts by states to curb and control the release of persistent organic pollut-
ants are restricted to a regional level, in 2001 they came together to negoti-
ate and conclude a global Stockholm Convention, on the basis of which
global measures against POPs are now possible. Increasingly, we are seeing
states being prepared not only to seek regional solutions to environmental
problems, but to aim for global solutions.
 
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