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Transforming governance and institutions for global sustainability: key insights from the Earth System Governance Project

Este artículo describe diferentes áreas en las que se necesitan reformas de manera urgente, que incluyen las normas jurídicas internacionales que negocian cuestiones de legitimidad y equidad. Se basa en una evaluación exhaustiva llevada a cabo en 2011 por el Proyecto del Sistema de Gobernabilidad de la Tierra, un programa de investigación de 10 anos basado en las ciencias sociales, bajo los auspicios del Programa Internacional sobre las Dimensiones Humanas del Cambio Ambiental Global. El proyecto se ha convertido en la mayor red de las ciencias sociales en su ámbito, con la participación de cerca de 1700 colaboradores, junto con una red central de doce instituciones de la Alianza Global de la Tierra y Centros de Investigación del sistema de gobierno.

Frank Biermann, Kenneth Abbott, Steinar Andresen, Karin Báckstrand, Steven Bernstein, Michele M Betsill, Harriet Bulkeley, Benjamin Cashore, Jennifer Clapp, Carl Folke, Aarti Gupta, Joyeeta Gupta, Peter M Haas, Andrew Jordan, Norichika Kanie, Tatiana Kluvánková-Oravská, Louis Lebel, Diana Liverman, James Meadowcroft, Ronald B Mitchell, Peter Newell, Sebastian Oberthür, Lennart Olsson, Philipp Pattberg, Roberto Sánchez-Rodríguez, Heike Schroeder, Arild Underdal, Susana Camargo Vieira, Coleen Vogel, Oran R Young, Andrea Brock and Ruben Zondervan

Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 4: 51–60 (2012)

 

The current institutional framework for sustainable development is by far not strong enough to bring about the swift transformative progress that is needed. This article contends that incrementalism—the main approach since the 1972 Stockholm Conference—will not suffice to bring about societal change at the level and speed needed to mitigate and adapt to earth system transformation. Instead, the article argues that transformative structural change in global governance is needed, and that the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development inRio de Janeiro must turn into a major stepping stone for a much stronger institutional framework for sustainable development. The article details core areas where urgent action is required. The article is based on an extensive social science assessment conducted by 32 members of the lead faculty, scientific steering committee, and other affiliates of the Earth System Governance Project. This Project is a ten-year research initiative under the auspices of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), which is sponsored by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the International Social Science Council (ISSC), and the United Nations University (UNU).