First published in 1993. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, in June 1992, was a unique event in the annals of international affairs. The ‘Earth Summit’ brought more heads of state and government together than any previous meeting, and five separate agreements were signed by most of the participating governments. It was billed as the world’s greatest opportunity to resolve pressing problems of continuing poverty and environmental destruction and to set the world on a path of sustainable development. Thirty thousand people descended upon the city, and the Summit received a blaze of publicity around the world. Yet despite the vast efforts devoted to it, and the unprecedented press coverage which it received, to many the Earth Summit is still a mystery. The outcome has been labelled as everything from a disastrous fiasco to an outstanding success. Which was it; indeed, what was it? What came out of it? What was actually agreed, and what does it mean for the future of environment and development issues? This book presents a major summary and analysis of UNCED. It explains the background to the conference, its major achievements and disappointments, and the legacy which it has left. Individual chapters examine in detail each of the five main agreements signed at Rio, providing a short description of the negotiating background, analysis of the final text, and the likely implications. This title will be of great interest to students of environmental studies.

Despite widespread popular support for environmental action, Phillip F. Cramer argues that current U.S. environmental policy approaches fail to address the real threat of environmental insecurity. Cramer traces this failure to a reluctance to recognize and address the interconnectedness of natural forces--just as all elements within the environment are linked, so too should our perspectives on, and responses to, environmental degradation be linked. In this book Cramer provides an innovative holistic approach to environmental protection that incorporates the best lessons learned from the fields of biology, ethics, philosophy, political science, law, ecology, and international relations. He especially advocates local action and, providing illustrative examples, demonstrates how local action around the world is most effective when carried out within a global framework that supports information dissemination and international coordination. This book will energize to thought and action any scholar, student, or general reader concerned with environmental issues and our current trajectory toward environmental decay.

All serious environmental threats are now international in scope and more than one thousand international environmental agreements already exist. Yet the prospects for international cooperation leading to the management of impacts on the planet remain grim. The Global Environment meets the need for an authoritative assessment of the state of international environmental institutions, laws and policies at the end of the 20th century. The book examines disagreements over the meaning of sustainable development, problems inherent in implementing environmental policies and the conflict over the exclusion of developing countries from the Kyoto Protocol. It discusses the profound trade-offs that may be required, the role of international financial interests in promoting incompatible forms of development and analyses international environmental institutions, law and policy and sustainable development.

"With all entries followed by cross-references and further reading lists, this current resource is ideal for high school and college students looking for connecting ideas and additional sources on them. The work brings together the many facets of global studies into a solid reference tool and will help those developing and articulating an ideological perspective." — Library Journal The Encyclopedia of Global Studies is the reference work for the emerging field of global studies. It covers both transnational topics and intellectual approaches to the study of global themes, including the globalization of economies and technologies; the diaspora of cultures and dispersion of peoples; the transnational aspects of social and political change; the global impact of environmental, technological, and health changes; and the organizations and issues related to global civil society. Key Themes: • Global civil society • Global communications, transportation, technology • Global conflict and security • Global culture, media • Global demographic change • Global economic issues • Global environmental and energy issues • Global governance and world order • Global health and nutrition • Global historical antecedents • Global justice and legal issues • Global religions, beliefs, ideologies • Global studies • Identities in global society Readership: Students and academics in the fields of politics and international relations, international business, geography and environmental studies, sociology and cultural studies, and health.

The second edition of this Handbook contains more than 30 new and original articles as well six essential updates by leading scholars of global environmental politics. This landmark book maps the latest theoretical and empirical research in this energetic and growing field. Captured here are the pioneering and lively debates over concerns for the health of the planet and how they might best be addressed. The introduction explores the intellectual trends and evolving parameters in the field of global environmental politics. It makes a case for an expansive definition of the field, one that embraces an interdisciplinary literature on the connections between global politics and environmental change. The remaining chapters are divided into four broad themes – states and cooperation; global governance; the political economy of governance; and knowledge and ethics – with each section covering key emerging issues. In-depth explorations are given to topics such as climate change, multinational corporations, international agreements and UN organizations, regulations and business standards, trade and international finance, multilevel and transnational governance, and ecological citizenship. Handbook of Global Environmental Politics, Second Edition is a comprehensive review of the field and offers cutting-edge ideas for further research. As such, scholars, students and policymakers will find themselves looking to it for many years to come.

Debates about the causes and impacts of global environmental degradation go to the heart of economic and political systems and raise fundamental questions about power and inequity in a globalized world. The comprehensively revised 2nd edition of this popular text provides wide-ranging coverage of the international negotiations and on assessment of the international political economy of the environment, normative and policy debates on environmental governance, and of prospects for the pursuit of environmental security.

'An important tool for researchers and decision-makers alike' Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO) 'An invaluable source for everyone who needs to be up-to-date on international efforts to solve global environmental challenges. Unique in its presentations of the interrelationship between treaties, IGO, NGOs and governments' Jonathan Lash, President, World Resources Institute (WRI) The essential reference to all the rapidly multiplying international agreements on environment and development issues. This ninth annual edition of the Yearbook demonstrates the international community's position on specific environment and development problems, the main obstacles to effective international solutions, and how to overcome them. It assesses both the achievements and shortcomings of co-operation, distinguishing between the rhetoric and the reality of environment world politics. Contents * Current Issues and Key Themes * Agreements on Environment and Development Systematically listed key data and illustrations concerning the most important international agreements presented on the basis of information from the organizations in question and other sources, covering such matters as: objectives ? scope ? time and place of establishment ? status of participation ? affiliated instruments and organizations ? major activities ? secretariat ? finance ? rules and standards ? monitoring and implementation ? decision-making bodies ? key publications ? Internet sources. This edition includes the new International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. * Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs), including UN specialized agencies objectives ? type of organization ? membership ? date of establishment ? secretariat ? activities ? decision-making bodies ? finance ? key publications ? Internet sources. * International Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) * objectives ? type of organization ? membership ? date of establishment ? secretariat ? activities ? budget ? key publications ? Internet sources. Originally published in 2002

This book examines the question of why effective action has been taken to ameliorate some global environmental problems while no improvement has been made on others. This book provides a comprehensive typology of the potential costs and benefits of effective agreements and clarifies the leader's true interests on particular environmental issues.

This volume brings together a collection of classic and contemporary texts which engage with the core problem of sovereignty from the perspective of various legal and law-related sub-disciplines: legal history and theory, constitutional law, international law and relations and EU law. Many of the highlights from the intense debates about the continuing relevance or otherwise of the internal sovereignty of national legal orders and the external sovereignty of states in a rapidly- globalizing world are reproduced here.c

In 1992, at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, the nations of the world agreed to implement an ambitious plan for ecologically sustainable human development. This book is a comprehensive review of U.S. efforts to achieve such development since Rio. The U.S. has unquestionably begun to take steps toward sustainable development. Yet the nation is now far from being a sustainable society, and in many respects is farther away than it was in 1992. Nevertheless, legal and policy tools are available to put the U.S. on a direct path to sustainability. This book brings together 42 distinguished experts from a variety of backgrounds and academic disciplines. It is among the most thorough assessments ever conducted of U.S. law and policy concerning the environment.