GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES - OJIAMBO SOLOMON EDWARDS

MAKERERE UNIVERSITY B. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING COURSE CODE: ENV 3201 GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES AND THEIR REGIONAL IMPLICATIONS GROUP 11 Names of group members. Registration no Sign LUTAAYA JOEL 07/U/9946/EVE ………….... KIZZA FRANCIS 07/U/9455/EVE …………… OJIAMBO SOLOMON EDWARDS 07/U/14387/EVE ...…………. OKOT WALTER O7/U/14460/EVE …………… BABALANDA RONALD 07/U/7147/EVE …………… Introduction For many years now since the industrial revolution, the environment has stood threats of degradation the world over. Human activities both economic and consumptive have played a very big role in constraining the ability of the natural environment to effectively continue providing for both the present and future generations (sustainable development). It is clear that all systems, be open have a carrying capacity/threshold and thus exceeding this point draws a line of possible negative uncertainties that may jeopardize the existence of life on the planet earth. Basing on such ideas, the world leaders had a call of responsibility to find ways of safe guarding the global environment by setting policies that were meant to serve as a guide to sustainable development. Unfortunately little had been attained by the time of the world summit on sustainable development held in Johannesburg, South Africa 2002. These environmental policies had favoured some regions better than others and emphasis had been drawn on just a few countries ignoring others. Developing/poor countries according to Alam, et al (2008) are faced with high levels of poverty and a deterioration of the environment and ecosystems. The need for development by these countries motivates them to primarily rely on the natural environment to provide basic and economic materials. The global community considering this had to forge a way forward in order to try and reduce on this problem. They discovered that the only way out was to integrate development ideas with the environment. But no country alone can be able to achieve these efforts with out the global initiative. Threats to Earth's environment have increasingly become globalized and in response to at least ten major global threats among which include global warming, deforestation, population growth and persistent organic pollutants;-countries, NGOs and corporations have signed hundreds of treaties, conventions and various other types of agreements aimed to protect or at least mitigate and minimize damage to the natural environment which they consider helpless at the moment. (Dr Brundtland 2006) emphasizes that today’s environmental issues are no longer local, national or regional but global. They are political, economic and cross-sectoral, key to national, regional and global security. Global environmental policy development and implications (UNEP) can only if full account is taken of regional priorities. This because environmental issues are usually local, regional or sub-regional in scale, and therefore require regionally based solutions that take into consideration geography, specific environmental conditions, cultural heritage, traditions and practices. Definitions of key terms Environmental Policy Wikipedia the free on line encyclopedia defines Environmental policy as any action deliberately taken to manage human activities with a view to prevent, reduce, or mitigate harmful effects on nature and natural resources, and ensuring that man-made changes to the environment do not have harmful effects on humans the world over. The term environmental policy comprises two major words: environment and policy. Environment primarily refers to the ecological dimension (ecosystems), but can also take account of social dimension (quality of life) and an economic dimension dealing with resource management. Policy can be defined as a "course of action or principle adopted or proposed by a government, party, business or individual" in its, his or her activities. Thus, environmental policy focuses on problems arising from human impact on the environment, which retroacts onto human society by having mainly a negative impact on human values such as good health or the 'clean and green' environment. Key Environmental issues addressed by environmental policy include (but are not limited to) air and water pollution, waste management, ecosystem management, biodiversity protection, and the protection of natural resources, wildlife and endangered species. Relatively recently, environmental policy has also attended to the communication of environmental issues to the local communities so as to get them involved in environmental protection. According to EnviroWise a European body responsible for environmental conservation, an environmental policy can be a written statement outlining an organization’s or countries mission and driving force behind the objectives and targets of managing the established environmental management system (ISO 14000 series). The Geography web dictionary looks at environmental policy as a statement by a supranational, national, or regional government of its approach to environmental protection. Environmental policy statements usually make commitments to decreasing pollution and waste, to using of energy and resources efficiently, and to minimizing the environmental effects on habitats and biodiversity of new developments, and of the extraction of raw materials. Global Environmental policies Global Environmental policies are therefore those that are made so as to be adopted widely and applied world wide. All countries that ratify these policy have a responsibility to implement them so as to control human activity on the environment with in there countries. Emphasis in greatly put on those activities that are transboundary (e.g. global warming and pollution of air and waters) Global environmental policies can be simply be, defined as a set of principles by which global organizations and nations determine their environmental aims and objectives. Region A region is defined by Wikipedia as a medium scale area of land or water, smaller the whole area of interest (for example the world, a nation, a river basin or a mountain range) but bigger/lager than a specific site. In Environmental geography, regions are based on natural features, ecosystems and geographical elements. Basing on these the United Nations Statistics Division has devised a system of macro-geographic regions (i.e. continents). There are seven regions of the world according to the United Nations: Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania, Polar and Oceans. Africa Northern (Maghreb) · Sub-Sahara (Central · Southern · Western · Eastern (Horn)) Oceania Australasia · Melanesia · Micronesia · Polynesia Americas North (Northern • Middle • Central • Caribbean) · South (Southern Cone) · Anglo · Latin Polar Arctic · Antarctic Asia Central · Eastern(Northeastern) · Northern · Southeastern · Southern · Western Oceans World · Arctic · Atlantic · Indian · Pacific · Southern Europe Central · Eastern · Northern · Southeastern · Southern · Western Figure 1: Uploaded from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/region Regional implications From the above definitions, we can now derive the meaning of this term as the effects or results that emerge from the adoption and application of the global environmental policies. The implications from past research and experience show that they impact on the different components of the environment in the world regions differently. The developing south is mostly affected in the negative way as the developed north uses these policies to take advantage and even exploit the under developed region the more. The oceans region has also benefited from these environmental policies as pollution has been halted in some areas although this is not the case in the African region especially in its sub-regions of the Sahara and Eastern horn. Discussion Global environmental policies and their regional implications NB: The global policies herein are identified, explained and their global implications analyzed concurrently. One should however know that Global Environmental policies have both positive and negative impacts on the global regions. It depends on several factors for a given policy to be regarded as positive or negative. Having identified the various threats facing the global environment right from the time of the industrial revolution, different nations of the world devised ways on how they could save what was left of our beautiful planate earth. With the beginning of the 19 century, a number of international conventions, treaties, protocols and agreements were signed among many countries. The world leaders had seen that the nightmare they faced was so horrible for any of them to take on individually. ‘Together we stand, Divided we fall’ seemed to be the best alternative as later on strengthened in the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development 1992 as ‘…. but no country can achieve this on its own …’ the conference was aimed at reaffirming The United Nations Declaration on the Human Environment adopted at Stockholm on 16 June 1972. A number of environmental policies ever since then have been established all over the world as a basic step towards environmental protection and sustainable development. With the aim of establishing a new and equitable global partnership (United Nations 1992) through the creation of new levels of cooperation among States, key sectors of societies and people, and working towards international agreements which respect the interests of all and protect the integrity of the global environmental and developmental system, plus Recognizing the integral and interdependent nature of the Earth, our home, the following polices emerged. Provide a safe and healthful workplace and ensure that personnel working in organizations are properly trained and have appropriate safety and emergency equipment. In parts of the world where working conditions were so poor are given an opportunity especially in the underdeveloped regions to improve their way of life. All companies around the world have to allow inspectors into their premises to carry out compliancy audits in accordance to the agreed workers conditions in the environmental impact statement. The once high death tolls that used to occur in factories and other work places have been greatly checked by this policy. Those working in dangerous working environments are provided with safety and protective gears to reduce on the vulnerability level to harm. Multinational companies have played a great deal of work in improving the skills of the local communities by carrying out training workshops to improve on the skills needed in service delivery. But there have been instances where by the people who have acquired these kills have been taken out of the developing regions to the developed ones. This is one of the major causes of brain drain in many poor countries as people move to regions with soft life compared to the developing countries. Life in the later situation is considered to be very hard and difficult. Therefore given the modern skills, people migrate leaving very little for the poor countries to benefit from. Incorporate environmental factors in business decisions Countries across the world are required to set up environmental regulations aimed at guiding businesses in their decision making process. Before a decision is made, businesses are to first evaluate the impacts such a decision is likely to have on the local, regional let alone the global environment. The implications of this have been greatly positive because businesses allover the world are taking better decisions to protect the natural environment by finding alternative ways in which to carry out their operations. Environmentally sensitive businesses have been able to improve on their good will especially in the developed world. Poor country based organizations are now also able to sale their products in the international market since they meet the required conditions set internationally. Negatively, the goods from the more developed countries (MDC) regions tend to flood the less developed countries because they are perceived to be of high quality compared to the local products. Besides those products from say east Asia are generally usually cheap because poor country governments want to encourage more foreign investments in the nations, a typical example of this is Uganda’s case. Encouraging and promoting environmentally sustainable economic development. The policy aims at encouraging nations, organizations and individuals involved in economic activities to carry on their activities or practices but in a sustainable way so as to enable the natural environment to continue operating in a normal way. Various researches found out that uncontrolled and regulated, economic development was the major cause of environmental degradation around the world. This is because people wanted to earn more yet the technology used was not properly developed. The environment suffered greatly as more vegetation was cleared to create space for economic activity and in poor countries more resources were exploited for sale to earn income from the developed nations. The policy says that human beings are at the center of the world and therefore have a responsibility to maintain the environment’s health and productiveness. The policy’s assumption is that there must be a balance or harmonization between the three Es explained as Environment, Energy and Economic development. Human beings for many years now have benefited from the increased standards of living due to improvements in the economic and industrial activities leap around the world. According to this encouraging economic development among global nations will create a capability and sense of concern to protect the environment since it tends to give an alternative to the developing world in terms of relaying only on nature but engaged in activities such as trade non environmental commodities However from the onset of the industrial revolution there has been an increase in demand for resources and we have been exploiting more and more of these earth’s resources to meet the high global demand resulting into worldwide environmental damage. Different regions of the world have been affected in different ways as a result of this. The developed countries provide money to the developing countries so that they can improve on their methods environmental extraction activities so as to harvest more and meet the global market especially found in the developed countries. Economic growth does not merely increase the burden on the environment but it also provides the conditions that are necessary to protect the environment by making it possible to bear the costs of environmental protection. So, environmental protection and economic development/growth, far from each other, should be thought of as interrelated concepts. It is fundamental; therefore, that maximum effort should be exerted onto the idea to secure the coexistence of these two notions, under the concept of "sustainable development." Publish environmental policy and consult with local community on environmental issues. To create a well informed public countries under their environmental agencies are required to disseminate environmental policies so that the citizens are aware of what is expected of them. Agenda 21 clearly stipulates that all citizens have a role to play in environmental management. To guide them therefore policies must be made available to them. This has to a great extent helped the MDCs in preserving their environments while it is yet to bear recognizable fruits/results in the developing world. For example in sub-Saharan Africa, the levels of corruption are high and little effort is put on implementing the policy. In making the policies therefore the local communities should be consulted so that there are no contradictions with the indigenous values of the people. It also helps to get the right information needed on what the real problems facing society are. This has been so instrumental in developing regions of Africa, Latin America and west Asia. Initially local values were ignored and local communities rendered useless but global environmental policy has shifted this position in many regions. Development and improvement of technologies to minimize waste and other pollution The policy seeks to minimize health and safety risks that face populations. Improving technology is one of the best ways of preventing environmental degradation. Little input in terms of energy, time and resource is required to produce a lot. Technologies related to waste reduction have been distributed across the world by encouraging the waste management hierarchy which is associated with the 3Rs of reduce, reuse and recycle. Formally LDCs were a home for rubbish and scrap metal but with the emergency of this policy much of these have been removed from the environment for reuse and recycling. Multinational companies like telecommunications and beverage companies have tried to reduce on the amount of waste relished into the environment through reducing the size of air time cards and giving discounts to people who return back the soda bottles respectively. However to some extent the policy has encouraged crimes in the regions were environmental security and legislation is loss. For example in Uganda and her neighbors, people are found of steeling property and selling it as scrap to recycling companies. The reuse policy is also miss used by hawkers who put in drinks which are some times not inspected and sale them to the general public in the developing regions. It is clear that developed regions of North America, Europe and Australia have stringent environmental regulations and enforcements thus have been able to benefit from this in a better way. Note that not all material can be re-used in the same way, some plastics like PVCs are not good for warm foods thus ignorance to use them could cause disease. Sharing of appropriate pollution control technologies among nations or states Through global conferences, agreements and conventions, states that have been able to develop their technologies are mandated to help other nations to do the same. Pollution is a transboundary problem and therefore saving your own jurisdiction does not mean that another state shall pollute it for you. It has therefore become paramount that developed regions transfer efficient technologies to the other regions to save the global environment. To some extent, regions don’t have the same level of technology because of different reasons. Developed regions like North America and East Asia have the required skills and capital to develop these technologies and implement them, unlike the LDC regions that lack the required adequate skills. The technologies that have been adopted in some of the areas of the poor regions of Africa, Asia, and parts of Oceania have collapsed due to poor and inadequate implementation strategies. Energy resource conservation Looking at this policy, one remembers that all living species require energy for survival. However the energy sources should be used in a sustainable way so as to meet livelihood needs in the future. Global environmental policy requires regions of the world to conserve energy resource giving priority to the non renewable sources and rely mainly on the renewable resources. Energy resources like coal and fossil fuels are non renewable and take a very long time to form. This aspect makes them vulnerable to ‘extinction’ whilst resources such as solar energy and wind power can be regenerated over and over again. Regionally, it has enabled countries to find alternatives to their old energy sources by adopting renewable energy sources, say solar power. This is done on a high scale in the developed areas because companies and governments take up the initiative to erect plants of renewable energy to serve their populations. This is however still presenting a big challenge to the LDC regions where governments are lacking enough capital yet the multinational companies aim at extracting the non renewable instead ( e.g. in Africa most companies involved in drilling oil are from developed region which is ironical). This has led to a deficiency in energy conservation in developing countries. In the building sector, engineers around the world have adopted new ways of building by using glass which allows in light and saves the wastage of energy. Recycling and reusing are also responsible for energy conservation. Green Aid Plan This policy was advocated for by Japan in august 1991, to call on governments in the developed regions to come forward and take a lead in encouraging environmental conservation in the less developed regions. Together with other MDCs Japan, have given moral and financial aid to organizations that are involved in environmental protection with no or very light conditions attached. At the beginning of the 21st century, Japan relived many developing countries of their debts to her if they agreed to carry out environmental management in their countries. A lot of emphasis has since then been made in the country by setting up a number of regulations that are legally binding to all citizens in an effort to protect the environment. All regions of the world that would love to get funds have been motivated to adopt the greening of their countries thus environmental conservation. Global Pollution and nonrenewable energy taxes These taxes are geared towards slowing down environmental degradation particularly issue of global warming. For example a carbon tax is believed to have the potential to slow down environmental and climate change while bringing in revenue to the nation or state. Emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide cause the earth's atmosphere to warm, leading to deadly droughts, floods and other extreme weather events. Taxes on carbon/energy can help mitigate global climate change, by raising the prices of carbon-rich fuels to reflect the social and environmental costs they inflict on society. Higher prices of carbon-based fuels would also boost the use of renewable energy, such as solar and wind power. Figure 2: picture showing pollution by gases. Uploaded from mosnews.com Professor Elizabeth Bogan uses the graph below to explain how these pollution taxes operate. The graph represents the economic effect of a carbon tax and shows how that tax level might best be set. A carbon tax changes each emitter's marginal cost and marginal benefit of reducing emissions. The tax raises the cost of using traditional carbon-based sources of energy like coal and petroleum, stimulating users to turn to alternative energy like solar cells or wind power. The graph promotes the idea that the tax would be most efficient if set at a level that would reflect the marginal cost of abatement as well as the marginal damage costs of pollution. Figure 3: optimal carbon pollution tax level. Source the Princeton Department of Economics Countries in different regions of the world have found this policy as one of the most effective ways of combating the high levels of pollution and at the same time limiting the exploitation of non renewable energy sources. For example during the Copenhagen summit on climate change, developing regions were also asked to get involved in reducing on their emission levels. This is way the petroleum prices have stayed high to reduce on their usage. Peaceful environmental dispute resolution Dispute over environmental resources allover the world has been very common for millennia now. These are much pronounced in the developing regions where most of the people derive their general livelihood primarily from the environment. The policy seeks to define peaceful ways in which these disputes can be resolved so that every one or stakeholder can benefit. In real sense it is however said that the developed regions are the ones that act as a driving force behind these conflicts. Some nations try to cause a situation of insecurity so that they come in as redeemers yet extracting these environmental resources for their own good. This could be the reason why disputes like that in Darfur, Niger delta, Iraq and the DRC’s Katanga province. Adoption of the precautionary principle Regions of the world are encouraged to apply this policy in all their innovations. The policy calls on organizations not to use the lack of full scientific certainty as a reason for posting cost effective measures to prevent environmental degradation. It also aims at avoiding environmental damage and achieving sustainable development. States that have adapted to this policy have been able to avoid several scenarios of environmental damage. However, developing regions have attained very little compared to the MDCs because of the limited research facilities and skills. Combating poverty and extreme hunger. Different scholars around the world have asserted that poverty is one of the major forces behind environmental degradation. To put more emphasis on this, all 192 signatory members to the UN set it as on of the major Millennium goals (goal number 1) It targets at reducing the number of people who live on less than on dollar per day. It is there important to create employment for men, women and the young people. Across the world, some regions like those in Asia and Oceania have tried to achieve this although majority of the African region has failed to meet the target and in some countries like Uganda the situation is getting worse. The income gap is widening every year as the money donated by the developed world is being embezzled by the affluent that are in high offices. In simple terms it is like global fund money is only encouraging corruption in the developing regions. The natural environment is therefore in the gallows waiting to be destroyed any time because the poor people have to exploit it for survival. This is the greatest thereat to environmental and biodiversity conservation around earth. Carry out environmental impact assessment All proposed projects that are anticipated to have an adverse impact on the environment are required to carry out an impact assessment. This finalizes with writing an environmental statement that contains the agreed terms on which the project is to conduct its studies to limit or totally avoid environmental damage. Developed sub regions like North America and East Asia have adopted this policy and atouched a lot of meaning to it has a healthy environment. On the contrary, less developed countries ignore it to some level. The exercise is undertaken as required but the implementation part is still facing loopholes. But it has helped some how to limit the pollution levels. Halt human population explosion. Population growth its self is not bad but overgrowth is not. The global environment today is going through what is referred to as the 6th extinction phase because of the high increase in the number of people. The International Monetary Fund’s Rosenberg, et al (2006) documented that for the past 50 years; world population has increased drastically and is expected to continue as illustrated in figure 4 below. Figure 1: Adopted from A quarterly magazine of the IMF From this we can observe that this policy is likely not to be met especially in the less developed countries. The constraints to this include looking for a big market for global investment. Such a situation implies that this might only benefit the MDCs but a ‘dream’ for the developing countries although some countries like Rwanda have come out and put a strain on the number of children (4) born to every citizen. Combat climate change. World leaders held a summit on climate (Kyoto protocol) where all regions were called upon to take measures to combat the escalating condition. All members are told that they had a common but differentiated responsibility and every one had to play his or her part. Developed countries have tried all they can to reduce on their contribution to global warming through improving the technology they use say substitution of fossils with bio fuel in auto mobiles. Household equipments like air conditioners and refrigerators have been modified by shifting from the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) to environmentally friendly gases. LDCs on the other hand have attracted and established environmentally oriented organizations that are trying to sensitize people on how to minimize climate through encouraging the planting of trees. This has bore fruit in many areas of these LDC regions although there is a problem of political interferences in isolated countries. Conclusion Globalization of the environmental policies has added a new dimension to the environmental issues facing the world. The benefits and costs of this global village are unevenly distributed, with developing regions facing special difficulties in meeting these policies compared to the well established developed regions. Bibliography Alam, Mahbubul, Rashid, A.Z.M. Manzoor, & Furukawa, Yasushi. (2008). Policy Implications and Implementation of Environmental ICTPs in Developing States: Examples from Bangladesh. Electronic Green Journal, 1(26). United Nations (1999), a/conf.151/26 (vol. i), A report of the United Nations conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Report of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm, 5-16 June 1972 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.73.II.A.14 and corrigendum), chap. I. Bogan. E, (Prof ) Setting the Optimal Carbon Tax Level , Princeton Department of Economics. UN documents: gathering a body of global agreements (2002), Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development; The World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 August - 4 September 2002, (United Nations publications; CONF.199/20)  Rosenberg. L and Bloom. D(2006), Finance and development ( (vol. 43, no. 3) Global demographic trends, Harvard University press, USA. Brundtland. G. H (Dr), 2006, Globalization and Sustainable development, USA. Global Environmental Policies and their Regional Implications 16 | Page: This work belongs to Group 11 ENV regional planning class