Today's most pressing environmental problems are planetary in scope, confounding the political will of any one nation. How can we solve them?
Global Environmental Governance offers the essential information, theory, and practical insight needed to tackle this critical challenge. It examines ten major environmental threats-climate disruption, biodiversity loss, acid rain, ozone depletion, deforestation, desertification, freshwater degradation and shortages, marine fisheries decline, toxic pollutants, and excess nitrogen-and explores how they can be addressed through treaties, governance regimes, and new forms of international cooperation.
Written by Gus Speth, one of the architects of the international environmental movement, and accomplished political scientist Peter M. Haas, Global Environmental Governance tells the story of how the community of nations, nongovernmental organizations, scientists, and multinational corporations have in recent decades created an unprecedented set of laws and institutions intended to help solve large-scale environmental problems. The book critically examines the serious shortcomings of current efforts and the underlying reasons why disturbing trends persist. It presents key concepts in international law and regime formation in simple, accessible language, and describes the current institutional landscape as well as lessons learned and new directions needed in international governance. Global Environmental Governance is a concise guide, with lists of key terms, study questions, and other features designed to help readers think about and understand the concepts discussed.
"With its concise but very thorough treatment of the inherently complex topic of global governance, whether focused on environmental or other issues, this first in the series sets a high bar for the ensuing books." "Global Environmental Governance serves as an essential primer on the formation of international environmental law and policy...A wonderfully informative account by two of the most respected experts in the field, Global Environmental Governance is not to be missed for anyone looking toward the future of environmental law." "Speth and Haas have penned a compact, elegant account of global environmental politics, diplomacy, and institutions and their intellectual foundations. The authors combine insider experience with scholarly perspective, a sense of urgency with a sense of humor…The best book of its kind yet written."---J.R. McNeill, author of Something New Under the Sun "Speth and Haas take us on an inspiring journey into the world of sustainable development and the global response. Their book is an excellent introduction to a subject of the greatest importance."---Gro Harlem Brundtland, former prime minister of Norway "A superb primer on global environmental trends and their underlying causes, efforts over the past thirty years to deal with them, and possible solutions for the future, including radically new approaches. It would be an excellent starting point for any college environmental policy course."---Norman Vig, Winifred and Atherton Bean Professor of Science, Technology, and Society, Emeritus, Carleton College
