Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
agencies that are charged with addressing particular problems or enact-
ing particular programs under their purview. At the international level,
the achievement of environmental justice is facilitated and constrained
by institutions of environmental governance. Formal international envi-
ronmental governance is managed by the United Nations, particularly
through the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the United
Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), the United
Nations Development Program (UNDP), and a myriad of specifi c treaty
secretariats, which oversee such issue areas as oceans, climate change,
ozone, and whaling (Ivanova and Roy 2007). Advocates for environmen-
tal justice clearly recognize that global environmental governance institu-
tions provide important channels through which to effect change, both
at home and abroad (Keck and Sikkink 1998; Porter, Brown, and Chasek
2000; Caniglia 2001; Bernstein 2001). Many are uncertain, however,
which institutions provide the most effi cient avenues for change and
whether engagement in intergovernmental institutions like the United
Nations will ever result in signifi cant reform (Ivanova and Roy 2007;
Pellow 2007).
Two UN agencies stand out as central targets in the struggle for
environmental justice: The UN Commission on Sustainable Development
(UNCSD) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC). The UNCSD is the only institution specifi cally charged with
articulating, implementing, and monitoring policies that harmonize the
three pillars of sustainable development: environment, economy, and
equity. In recent years, however, NGO attendance at UNCSD meetings
has waned and some highly respected NGOs have become frustrated
with the organization's effi cacy. In contrast, attendance at the UNFCCC
talks has increased (Smith 2004; Roberts and Parks 2007). Why is it that
nonstate actors are abandoning the UNCSD in favor of this platform
and how might this affect our chances to expand environmental justice
policies at the global level?
Drawing on theories of institutional change and social movements,
I examine the UNFCCC and UNCSD to assess their likelihood of incor-
porating the voices of nonstate actors and creating more just international
environmental law. Based on this analysis, I fi nd that specifi c character-
istics of the UNCSD lead it to be better poised to facilitate global frame-
works that support environmental justice. Treaty organizations like the
UNFCCC also have an important role to play; however, NGOs and other
nonstate actors are more limited in such hard-law environments. As a
result, I argue that advocates for environmental justice should chart an
