Sustainable Development and Environmental Governance: Challenges and Policy Perspectives
Author(s): Dr. Abdul Rahman
Publication #: 2604019
Date of Publication: 11.08.2019
Country: India
Pages: 1-15
Published In: Volume 5 Issue 4 August-2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.62970/IJIRCT.v5.i4.2604019
Abstract
The focus of the current study is on the issues which jeopardize the achievement of development together with environmental management. Because those very crises we are concerned about–such as climate change, biodiversity loss, resource scarcity, and social equity issues–propose that a failure to execute sustainability is not simply the hand of mistaken-policy but is a deeply-seated dimension to governance structure, power distribution and ways of working. In this paper, through the lenses of ‘Earth System Governance’, ‘Polycentric Governance’ and ‘Institutional Theory,’ a hybrid theoretical perspective is applied to the critiques of government’s response. This is a multi-dimensional account of governance that takes into account institution building, actors’ actions, change, mechanisms for accountability and resource distribution; how institutions develop. Adopting this model, the study outlines four issues; fragmented institutions that do not cooperate with each other at all; a wide divide between the policy goals that has been promised and the reality of the implementation; inequalities in power and resources among multiple actors and sectors; excessive power and disproportionate corporate interests. This combined suggests that environmental governance is failing, and not due to a minor mistake on the part of one individual, but rather as a structural failure across our entire political and economic institutions. To realise these aims, this paper suggests multiple policy proposals. It nurtures an inclusive governance mechanism that caters for the local concerns being brought forward and enables full-scale benefits for all actors. In fact, it emphasizes the need to reformulate our economies and systems in such a way as to conform with the concepts of sustainability (e.g., ecological economics and natural resource accounting) and the integration thereof. The study also shows that it must be true that our policies must consider the overlapping systems within the water, energy and food systems and can utilise technology to enhance governance. And if we are going to really achieve sustainable development, this analysis comes to the conclusion that we need to transform our modes of governance — to make coherent, inclusive, more resilient and equity enhancing forms of governance. It serves as a reference point by which we may articulate links between the necessity of sustainable development in the complex and unjust world, by tying environmental protection to social justice.
Keywords: Earth System Governance, Polycentric Governance, Institutional Theory, Sustainable Development, Environmental Management, Power Dynamics, Policy Integration.
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