Fostering the Governance Dialogue

In a podcast interview with the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS), a professional association that actively studies multilateral relations, global governance, and international cooperation, Global Environmental Governance Project Director, Dr. Maria Ivanova, examines the international environmental system, highlighting six necessary functions for good environmental policy making. To effectively enact environmental policy, Dr. Ivanova argues that global institutions must serve as a: (1) coherent information clearinghouse, (2) developer of policies and norms, (3) catalyst, (4) coordinator between its currently fragmented multiple entities, with (5) the capacity to attain results, and (6) the authority to enforce environmental policies to provide accountability. In her concluding remarks on the system’s past achievements and current limitations, Dr. Ivanova refers to the words of Dean Emeritus of Yale’s Environment School, Gus Speth, who noted that “we have won many battles but we are still losing the planet.” Listen to the podcast here.

The University of South Florida invites nominations or applications for the position of founding Director of the USF School of Global Sustainability. This is a full-time, 12-month tenured Full Professor position with benefits. USF’s newly established School of Global Sustainability was created in response to overwhelming student and faculty interest, and is central to the University’s Strategic Plan. Candidates should have an outstanding international reputation and recognition for interdisciplinary research and scholarly activities in sustainability. The Director position description can be found below in addition to executive summaries on the School of Global Sustainability and the Master of Arts. The application deadline is February 3rd, 2010 though applications will continue to be accepted until the position is filled.

USF School of Global Sustainability_Director Description

School of Global Sustainability_Executive Summary

Master of Arts in Global Sustainability_Executive Summary

The preeminent French economic journal, Alternatives Economiques, interviewed Global Environmental Governance Project Director Dr. Maria Ivanova on the present condition of the global environmental governance system. The current system, argues Dr. Ivanova, must be reformed. “The effectiveness of the governance system is reduced because  numerous institutions establish their own norms and follow their own policies without cooperation or coordination.” Instead, a proactive institutional mechanism with the means to inform, set standards, mobilize different stakeholders  and hold actors accountable should be established. The most important precondition for the creation of an effective, legitimate and equitable system for global environmental governance, Dr. Ivanova says, is a “rethinking of our moral and ethical values and the development of a new ethic of global citizenship.” Read the interview transcript in French and in English.

At the 10th National Conference on Science, Policy, and the Environment: The New Green Economy, Dean Emeritus of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and GEG Forum Participant, Gus Speth delivered the Senator John H. Chafee Memorial Lecture. Titled, “A New American Environmentalism and the New Economy,” Speth remarked on the parallels between the environmental crises of the 1970s and today, which now demand similar political, economic, and social intervention, “It’s time for something different – a new environmentalism. We must build a new environmentalism in America. And here is the core of the new environmentalism: it seeks a new economy. And to deliver on the promise of the new economy, we must build  a new politics.” According to Speth, the unquestioning commitment to unlimited growth has undermined the planet’s ability to sustain life. Read the transcribed speech, here or visit our GEG Bookshelf for the lecture and other global environmental governance publications.

In the aftermath of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, GEG Project Emerging Leader Negusu Aklilu analyzes the outcomes in the business newspaper Addis Fortune. Aklilu points out that certain  obstacles were overcome, but argues that the Copenhagen Conference ultimately fell short of its main aim, a legally binding carbon emission target that would mitigate further climate change. Unfortunately, certain issues were simply too difficult to overcome, points out Aklilu, particularly national sovereignty and financial responsibility. Read the article, here.