Environmental Concerns in Global Politics and the Emergence of Global Environmental Governance
1. Expansion of the Meaning of World Politics
Earlier understanding of world politics centred on wars, treaties, state power, and intergovernmental relations.
Later expansion incorporated poverty, epidemics, and governance responsibilities.
Environmental degradation now compels inclusion within world politics because:
Many problems transcend national boundaries.
No single government can solve them independently.
Questions of causation, responsibility, and resource distribution are inherently political.
2. Global Environmental Crisis: Nature, Scale, and Consequences
Declining cultivable land fertility, overgrazed grasslands, depleted fisheries, polluted water bodies.
Massive deprivation:
663 million without safe water.
2.4 billion without sanitation, causing millions of child deaths annually.
Deforestation leading to climate instability, biodiversity loss, and displacement.
Ozone layer depletion threatening ecosystems and human health.
Rising coastal pollution due to land-based human activity.→ Demonstrates that environmental issues are systemic, global, and political.
3. Rise of Environmentalism in International Politics
Awareness intensified from the 1960s onward with concern over consequences of economic growth.
Limits to Growth (1972) highlighted resource depletion linked to population growth.
International institutional response:
Creation of UNEP and global environmental conferences.
Culmination at Rio Earth Summit (1992):
Participation of 170 states, NGOs, and multinational corporations.
Influenced by Brundtland Report (1987) warning of unsustainable growth.→ Marked the consolidation of the environment as a central issue in global politics.
4. North–South Divide in Environmental Politics
Global North priorities: Ozone depletion, global warming, ecological conservation.
Global South priorities: Relationship between development and environmental management.
Rio outcomes: Climate change, biodiversity, forestry conventions. Agenda 21 promoting sustainable development.
Continuing disagreement on how to balance growth with ecology.
Global Commons, Differentiated Responsibilities, and India’s Environmental Position
1. Concept of Global Commons
Resources outside sovereign jurisdiction requiring collective governance: Atmosphere, Antarctica, ocean floor, outer space.
Governance challenges: Difficulty achieving scientific consensus and political agreement.
Key agreements: Antarctic Treaty (1959), Montreal Protocol (1987), Antarctic Environmental Protocol (1991).
North–South inequality shapes access, technology, and benefits from commons exploitation.
2. Principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR)
Core conflict: North seeks equal responsibility for conservation. South argues historical responsibility of industrialised countries.
Rio Declaration recognition: States share responsibility, but developed countries bear greater burden due to:
Historical emissions.
Greater technological and financial capacity.
Institutionalisation in: UNFCCC., Kyoto Protocol (1997) imposing emission targets mainly on industrialised states.
3. Common Property Resources and Community Traditions
Defined by shared rights and duties within communities.
Decline caused by: Privatisation, agricultural intensification, population growth, ecosystem degradation.
Example: Sacred groves in India as community-based conservation rooted in spiritual reverence.→ Illustrates local ecological governance traditions.
4. India’s Stand in Global Environmental Negotiations
Ratified Kyoto Protocol (2002); exempt due to low historical emissions.
Emphasises: Per capita emissions inequality.
Historical responsibility of developed nations.
Priority of economic and social development.
Domestic initiatives: Clean fuel policy, Energy Conservation Act (2001), Electricity Act (2003), renewable energy expansion, Paris Agreement ratification (2016).
Demand for: Financial resources and clean technology transfer from developed countries.
Environmental Movements, Resource Geopolitics, Water Conflicts, and Indigenous Rights
1. Environmental Movements as Political Forces
Often driven by civil society rather than governments.
Among the most vibrant global social movements generating new political visions.
Major strands:
Forest movements in the Global South resisting deforestation.
Anti-mining struggles against displacement, pollution, and MNC activity.
Anti-dam and pro-river movements (e.g., non-violent struggles in India).→ Demonstrate grassroots environmental politics.
2. Resource Geopolitics
Concerned with who gets what, when, where, and how.
Historically linked to:
European expansion, trade, war, and sea power.
Strategic importance of oil and minerals.
Oil as central geopolitical resource:
Gulf region holds majority of global reserves.
Generates conflict, intervention, and strategic rivalry.
Water emerging as future conflict driver:
Disputes over shared rivers, dams, pollution, and diversion.
Examples of military tensions over river systems.
3. Indigenous Peoples in World Politics
Defined as descendants of original inhabitants prior to external domination.
Share:
Cultural continuity.
Close relationship with land and ecological systems.
Major concerns:
Loss of land and displacement, especially due to development projects.
Marginalisation despite constitutional or political recognition.
Political mobilisation since 1970s international networking and UN engagement.→ Integrates environment, rights, and global justice.