LOOKING FOR LEADERSHIP IN THE 21ST CENTURY
David Hunter
The 1992 Earth Summit was heralded as the turning point for global environmental policy. More than 100 countries came together to merge two critical international concerns: environmental protection and economic development. On paper the Earth Summit did provide a vision, and a broad framework, for moving toward a more sustainable future.
Unfortunately, this rich body of treaties, action plans, and other instruments has not reversed global environmental decline. Virtually every major environmental indicator is worse today than it was at the time of the Earth Summit. Climate change has caused the warmest decade in recorded history, the ozone layer continues to deteriorate, species extinction is at the highest rate since the end of the dinosaur era, fish populations are crashing, and toxic chemicals are accumulating in every part of the planet and in every living organism, including humans.
Not only is the United States the world's only remaining economic and political superpower, it's also the largest polluter and the largest user of most important resources. Once considered the leader in environmental regulation, the U.S. now lags well behind Germany and other European countries in adopting new and innovative regulatory approaches such as ecological taxes, extended product responsibility, and the precautionary principle on avoiding probable environmental damage.
Given the lack of U.S. leadership, global failure to fulfill the promises to move toward sustainability [made at the Earth Summit in 1992] is not surprising. In hindsight, the conference did not herald a significant shift away from the global preoccupation with growth. No set of governments or institutions is managing the global economic tide.
Perhaps the most promising development at the beginning of the 21st century is the rise of grassroots citizen movements-non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The number of NGOs has exploded in recent years, as has their capacity to build networks, gather and analyze information, and gain the attention of key policymakers. The Internet, in particular, provides a vast opportunity for forming and maintaining global networks, sharing information and experiences, and coordinating lobbying efforts.
Whatever approach is used to nudge the global economy toward more sustainable development, it will have little chance of success until the United States takes a leadership role in pursuing global environmental protection above unbridled economic growth.
David Hunter is Executive Director of the Center for International Environmental Law. This is excerpted from "Global Environmental Protection in the 21st Century" Foreign Policy in Focus, Special Report #4, Sept, 1999.
