Human rights and international environmental governance

The first section of this chapter considers the failure of the international legal system to provide adequate mechanisms for global environmental governance. Secondly, there is a discussion about some proposals for change to environmental governance that could flow from existing institutions and developments. Third, the development of a specialist environmental tribunal to resolve environmental disputes is discussed as a proposed change to environmental governance. The subsequent section covers the possible development of an international human right to a healthy environment, to provide an interim focus for changes to global environmental governance. There is potential for more major modifications to governance to be considered such as the establishment of a global environmental organisation (GEO) that could be negotiated by the international community in the future. The key argument in this chapter is that a new global environmental institution could operate in the interests of the common concern of humankind to ensure that the global environment is protected. This argument is founded upon the view that international environmental governance should be in a process of transformation through innovation beyond traditional models of governance to consider how authority may be exercised in the broader interest of the international community to protect the global environment. This perspective of innovative governance questions the present reliance upon states to develop effective international institutions to deal with global environmental protection and raises the possibility of a new global environmental organisation that has a wider representation which includes non-state actors (Burris et al. 2008: 21). In the final part of this chapter, the potential development of this GEO is discussed. However, the dilemma is that this change could take some time to occur and the threat to the environment is becoming critical. Thus it is arguable that interim changes such as the development of a human right to a healthy environment could assist to protect the global environment in the intervening period of time.