Journal of Ecosystem & Ecography
Open Access

Abstract

Governance and sustainable development are children of similar history and parentage. They emerged in the late 1980?s, with shared characteristics and overlapping potential. By the mid 1990?s they were common terms in popular and professional discourse, along with renewed interest in the role of institutions in societal change. Neither of these terms is yet mature. Perhaps more importantly, the overlaps between their wider meanings remain understudied. The terms remain contested, and will continue to be for some time, because their meanings and implications bring different promises and threats to power-holders, old and new. With an ever expanding international environmental law and policy making regime, the international community must now consider how the existing institutional machinery can be strengthened and better coordinated to ensure that it can confront the sustainable development challenges of the new millennium. The debate on International Environmental Governance (IEG) that has been initiated offers the chance for the international community to take a serious look at the global framework for sustainable development that we are trying to create. An important guiding principle in global governance reform is the fair and equitable distribution of bargaining power to ensure that the influence and voice of the world?s poor is heard and indeed reflected in the decisions of international environmental governance processes. Imbalances in the structures of global governance must be remedied with new efforts to create a more inclusive system. The process for taking decisions and setting priorities will therefore have to be scaled up to account for the new complexities. This is where global governance will be instrumental in providing clear norms and processes for reconciling differences. Decision-making must be made more transparent and independent evaluations of international policies can be a first step towards increased accountability

Biography

Rouchi Chaudhary is a research fellow in the Department of Public Administration, Panjab University, doing her research on J&K Police and has published 5 papers in journals/books. Swati Bishnoi is a student in her ninth semester, studying law in the University Institute of Legal Studies, Panjab University and has presented papers in 2 environmental conferences.