Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
7
Global Environmental Governance and
Pathways for the Achievement of
Environmental Justice
Beth Schaefer Caniglia
The UNFCCC COP15 meeting erupted after its fi rst week in Copenha-
gen, bringing to a head the clash between the climate justice movement,
a range of formally accredited nongovernmental organizations (NGOs),
and a United Nations agency charged with the facilitation of a binding
agreement among sovereign nation-states to curtail climate change.
Banners, pamphlets, t-shirts, and buttons were displayed by thousands
of participants from around the world. Slogans such as “System Change,
Not Climate Change,” “There Is No Planet B,” “Politicians Talk; Leaders
ACT,” and “HOPENHAGEN: Earth's Body Guard” were some of the
most prominent messages communicated. Activists were everywhere—
inside the offi cial negotiating halls, at the People's Summit called the
Klimaforum, at numerous side events and celebrations, and in the streets
and the jails of Copenhagen. Scientists, ministry personnel, moderate
NGOs, and business representatives became increasingly radicalized as
they waited in line, day after day, to commence the work they hoped to
accomplish inside the Bella Center. They, too, chanted, played musical
instruments, danced to keep warm, and eventually some even walked
out of the offi cial meetings to join protestors in the streets. So many left
Copenhagen disappointed, not only in the weak agreement governments
fi nally reached but in the ability of the UN to organize an effi cient, effec-
tive conference.
COP15 illustrates a conundrum in global governance that is growing
more diffi cult to solve: international institutions, like the United Nations,
are often forced to mediate between the grievances of civil society and
the sovereignty of nation-states. As civil society grows more aware of
and engaged in international institutions, it becomes more important to
understand the limits those institutions grapple with and the circum-
stances under which such institutions incorporate the voices of nonstate
actors. Each sector of the United Nations is populated by particular
