UNEP in a study pointed MEA regime is suffering from “treaty congestion”. Global leaders are signatories to a whopping 500 internationally recognized agreements. Following Ecological segments in the past 50 years covered are:
- 61 atmosphere-related
- 155 biodiversity-related
- 179 related to chemicals, hazardous substances and waste
- 46 land conventions
- 196 conventions that are broadly related to issues dealing with water. After trade, environment is now the most common area of global rule-making.
Climate Change: Are we on the Right Path?
- The climate change is on our head and descending very fast and we have seen the kind of disaster that around the world in terms of the droughts, surges, forest fire so by every day the problem is becoming more acute and complex impacting every thread in every aspect and facet of the human society.
- Climate change is moving very fast and creating serious problems to those who are not responsible for it and in fact, the people who are poor and living on marginal lands are going to suffer very seriously. Sea-level rise and ingress is leading to loss in terms of actual land area and the ingress of the saline water adversely affecting the coastal and drinking water turned saline.
- The point is that after Paris agreement we find that the climate change issue is not receiving the kind of push that it requires. We are witnessing the problem is becoming far greater i.e. from 2015 we find that there was a little bit in the global carbon emission and now we find that from 2017 it has increased by two percent so the question is that how serious are we when commitment different countries have made. agreed at that time that we are going to make these agreements or these commitments more aggressive but I don’t think that any government has come out with more aggressive commitment as yet this is a process and it’s a rather a slow process to really finalize the rules but then so many countries are there so it is a time taking and actually is getting affected in a very serious way and now the October report which says that what we thought is right and perhaps a reasonable that holding the temperature to degree will be reasonably good but now we find that perhaps that is not the case so I think the revised calculation shows that it has to be 1.5 and even then it is not completely safe.
Issues Plaguing the Effectiveness of Environmental Governance
- First, the legislation governing the environment is sector-based and highly fragmented. It is fragmented horizontally between sectors as well as vertically between levels of government, and without the necessary mechanisms for coordination. It results in inefficiency, inconsistency, lack of precedent and inability to enforce commitments as the global administration and bureaucracy weigh verdicts with huge paperwork, files, procedures leading to red tape and petty politics.
- Second, the legislation is marked by broadly formulated rules. They provide the responsible sector authorities with wide discretion in balancing environmental concerns against sector objectives when laying down regulations and deciding individual cases. This is particularly important because the sector authorities are those primarily responsible for controlling the environmental effects of their activities, according to the principle of integration.
- Third, the principles of environmental law laid down in important public documents on environmental policy are interpreted and applied most inconsistently, or not at all.
Way Forward
- Agreement that these commitments be made more aggressive.
- Abandoning leisurely attitude
- Stringent norms that the government be made accountable.
- Speeding up the slow process to really finalize the rules.
- Group of warring camps be converted into coordinated action taking entities.
- Barrier-free flow of the new technology
- Scientific apprehensions must be accounted for in drafting MEAs.
- Time has come for the non-governmental actors to step in a big way with the pro-active role
- Fostering environmental ethic within state officialdoms, these organizations can inspire assent to and implementation of MEAs
- Creation of “green troops” modeled on the peace-troopers of the United Nations. The staff would consist of emergency environmental “troops” which can be deployed to environmental disaster scenes, conduct green investigations, substantiate treaty compliance through on-site inspections, and assess the damage.
Conclusion
It is time that we should augment our input into the research effect and create situations which are really having to save ourselves from the impending climate change you see our country has different climate as well as different soils and different landforms and therefore any single solution is not going to help this country what is required is that regionally we have to step up and now we know that every state has a climate cell and these cells have to be activated so that they start doing some work in order to really see the local problems and to decide that what kind of adaptation has to be developed for different for agriculture for coastal agriculture for coastal fisheries and so on and so forth the Smart City concept that we are having has to really look relook about the question of making it climate safe and how we can do it and I do not see yet there the climate and the importance of the climate and the adaptation that is required to really face the climate change has not been mainstreamed into our planning and thinking and action and this is what is needed that at present whatever we do we have to really work out a plan where the climate considerations and the likely impact and the way that we are going to face them becomes a central right issue. The impact for India and really what’s at stake as far as India is concerned starting with first off do they say at stake the least start on the adaptation side on getting people to adapt to the changes which are going to take place in terms of coastal zone development in terms of the way manage water resources in terms of way you design your cities etcetera so let’s at least start doing something and yes keep up the pressure because these guys in the West are absolutely lacking in any sort of responsibility because they’re not going to feel the impact on the scale that we are going to be feeling but we have to keep it up alright.
