Introduction.

In recent decades, with the growth and development of industry and the increasing spread of prosperity, the environment has been severely damaged in two processes: extraction from natural resources and the return of waste and pollution to the air, soil, and water. This has become one of the major challenges for many countries in the world today and for the future of a large part of the world, leading to the depletion of natural resources and the destruction of the inhabited world. This major challenge has prompted the global community to think about creating effective governance for managing this global damage, and many countries have also created national structures and governance.‌

They strive to minimize environmental damage without hindering growth and development by implementing appropriate programs.

In the international structure, despite the existence of at least two cohesive international structures under the titles of “United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)” and “United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)”, and the multitude of meetings, assemblies, conventions, protocols, rules, and international documents in various environmental areas, we see that not only have the challenges and problems in this field not been reduced, but they have also increased in scope and depth day by day and have encompassed more areas. Among the biggest of these challenges are climate change, global warming, air pollution, pollution of water and oceans, depletion of natural resources and biodiversity, and destruction of habitats. The world has not only been unsuccessful in addressing and confronting these issues, but this problem is expanding both quantitatively and qualitatively day by day.

With the arrival of “World Environment Day” in order to draw global attention to the protection of natural resources and the ecosystem of the inhabited world, and in accordance with the universal and transcendent command of the environment, in this first note, the issue of environmental governance at the global level is addressed, and then with a brief look at environmental governance in our country, we will examine it.

Definition.

The history of global environmental governance dates back to the establishment of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 1979, and since then, there have been significant changes. Many multilateral agreements, conventions, and protocols have been created, resulting in over six hundred multilateral environmental agreements registered with the United Nations. These agreements cover a wide range of environmental issues, including biodiversity, atmosphere, waste, water, and more.

In fact, the global governance system consists of various international documents, organizations and institutions, global decision-making and policies, financial mechanisms, rules, documents and ultimately the implementation and enforcement of global documents, decisions and resolutions, all aimed at achieving the protection of the global environment and sustainable development.

In this regard, the World Bank considers six major indicators of freedom of expression and responsiveness, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and anti-corruption as the key indicators of good governance.

Points to consider include that desirable environmental governance at the global level includes the involvement of institutions and effective actors in the policymaking and decision-making process, and is not interchangeable with sustainable development.

The process of realizing a global environmental governance system.

In the system of environmental governance, efforts are made through the process of creating documents and institutions to establish commitments and obligations for policymakers and governance systems of countries at the global level.

The global environmental governance system, like all governance systems, is based on three fundamental pillars.

The first pillar consists of various assemblies, meetings, and conferences that are held with the presence of leaders from different countries, sometimes on a global scale and sometimes based on common geographical, cultural, or economic conditions, in the form of coalitions, resulting in the development and approval of international and regional documents and decisions. The global environmental governance structure, which is composed of conventions, treaties, protocols, and institutions for interpretation and management, is the first pillar, which includes official and non-governmental institutions, secretariats, commissions, and the like, and ultimately must lead to operationalization. Operationalization is the process of implementing all laws, regulations, policies, and other measures and actions that member states adopt to fulfill their commitments under the second pillar.

It should be noted that the system of governance is a comprehensive system, while many actions must be taken in the border areas. The quality of governance in countries not only affects the quality of their environment, but also affects neighboring and even distant countries.

There are five pillars for successful governance in the field of environment, which include: laws, economic or tax incentives, statistics and research-based information, informed citizens, activists and civil society organizations, and international actions.

Reasons for failure.

The main goal of the global environmental governance system is to protect the global environment and achieve sustainable development, which is considered unsuccessful. The reason for this failure is attributed to various factors, some of the most important of which are briefly mentioned below:

• The main concern is their lack of cooperation and support from the main players, namely countries, politicians, and their planners. Lack of coordination between different countries can be one of the major influential factors.

• In addition, adopting policies and decisions that are not mandatory has given governments the permission to continue with a one-sided development approach on a short-term basis without considering environmental requirements.

• But another issue that is important in this lack of realization is that global decisions are transnational decisions that must be implemented within borders, and due to the practical necessity and lack of foresight for necessary measures to be implemented, if they cannot be realized within domestic borders, it is not possible to be happy with their global realization due to the transnational impacts causing environmental problems. In fact, for solving global environmental problems, there must be global governance, coordination, cooperation, and implementation.

• Unfortunately, in many international decisions, there has been a lack of necessary distance between the actor of governance and the actor of government. As a result, a balanced role has not been given to the people, civil institutions, and governments in the implementation process. Generally, the planned actions have been focused on decisions made by government officials, which is not efficient and effective enough due to the increasing number of regulators, decision-makers, and influencers on the environment. Without the active involvement and presence of actors and non-governmental institutions in government-centered development systems, we cannot hope for the success and achievement of global governance.

• The multiplicity and proliferation of multilateral agreements and related documents is also one of the factors that has led to instability in global environmental governance. This multiplicity, in addition to providing disjointed and inconsistent solutions, has complicated the adoption of domestic policies and often lacks the support of a comprehensive approach. It has also not paid sufficient attention to other norms, especially the financial resources and vastly different economic situations of different countries.

• For the operationalization of documents and agreements that have been approved in various forms and formats and are signed by different countries as global players to address issues, there is a need to take action in the national legal system of each country to comply with treaty provisions. On the other hand, there is a need to anticipate methods for enforcing compliance and operationalization by governments. Only then can an international treaty or agreement be considered effective and impactful. However, unfortunately, what is observed is that the structure of international environmental governance is more focused on creating and producing new commitments and agreements rather than operationalizing and emphasizing their efficiency and effectiveness. This approach of increasing quantity leads to inefficiency, depletes human resources, and reduces financial resources from governments and donors for implementing agreed-upon decisions.

• But perhaps the biggest factor in the failure of global environmental governance is the fact that the attitude towards the environment and its problems has only been partially considered at the international level. It is clear that various economic, developmental, trade, health, security, nutrition, and other factors deeply and extensively affect the environment, yet decisions are made at the international decision-making level without taking the environment into account. The governance approach to the environment is fragmented, while this close relationship between effectiveness and impact necessitates finding solutions to incorporate environmental concerns into other major decision-making processes for development, economy, trade, etc. at the international level.

Solution.

Uncertainty is one of the most important events in the field of environment. Achieving a successful, efficient, influential, extensive and powerful governance system in the global equations is a key to creating such a system within the borders of countries. The challenges and reasons for not achieving such a governance system have been mentioned above. Now, we will briefly discuss solutions that are capable of changing the current system to more effective and better conditions.

• Creating an efficient global environmental governance system in a way that all actors of the global community – especially governments – can be organized under a coherent system, so that under this system, the actors of the global community – and especially governments – can prevent environmental destruction and avoid anti-environmental actions, and effectively respond to environmental pollutants and forces.

• The most important factor in achieving a successful global governance system is cooperation and coordination among the most influential actors, including governments, civil society organizations, and the private sector. In addition, international environmental institutions must be strengthened and given a proper position. It is also necessary to use appropriate tools to compel governments to fulfill their commitments to documents, treaties, and agreements.

• Adopting a good governance approach in the environmental sector with features such as sustainable land management, comprehensive perspective, collaboration between government, civil society and private sector, and increasing social satisfaction.

• Strengthening international environmental structures, particularly the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as a coordinating body for international efforts.

• The expansion of the role of the World Environment Ministers Assembly and the necessity of implementing its decisions.

• Strengthening mechanisms and financial resources for environmental structures is still evident in some international structures. Without a doubt, without strengthening economic and financial mechanisms, many decisions will not have the ability to be implemented.

• “Promoting an environmental approach in other dimensions of global decision-making through their mutual impact on the environment is one of the most important and effective solutions, with one of the most significant being the creation of environmental capacities within the World Trade Organization.”

• One of the requirements for implementing environmental regulations and laws is criminalizing the neglect of environmental destruction and pollution. Considering the long-term and far-reaching effects of such negligence in the environmental sector, the establishment of a global environmental court is highly necessary.

• Attention to environmental security at the international level, considering the expanding security issues caused by environmental problems and depletion of resources in certain regions, is being addressed in the United Nations Security Council by elevating its responsibilities.

• Establishing and developing international cooperation and coordination among actors, including countries, agreements, conventions, protocols, etc., affected by the environment with the expansion of environmental concerns and actions to other areas of policies and international actions.

• Integrating multilateral environmental agreements to prevent implementation complexities.

Environmental Governance in Iran.

According to the 2020 Environmental Performance Index, Iran ranks 67th due to environmental crises that it is facing. This places Iran among countries with poor environmental performance, and it has a relatively long way to go in order to reach desirable standards.

As mentioned above, laws and legal documents are one of the pillars of good governance. In Iran, there are environmental provisions and laws at the highest levels, as well as various environmental policies and rights, but one of the problems is the accumulation of multiple laws, which sometimes leads to complexity in implementation. It should be added that unfortunately, these laws have not been practically integrated with other lower laws or executive regulations of affected and influential environmental sectors.

Another important point is that most existing laws lack appropriate enforcement measures and tools, or there is not enough monitoring or serious determination to address and deal with their non-compliance.

In the absence of strong leadership and policy-making for an environmentally sustainable society based on cooperation and effective coordination, desirable governance and integrated land management, regional and provincial governance through representatives in parliament or ethnic tendencies of some executive officials in the government have resulted in inefficient, random, and unplanned distribution of development, industrial, infrastructural, and even agricultural activities in certain areas of the country. This has caused numerous environmental problems in the short and long term, such as overexploitation of ecosystem capacities or accumulation of waste and garbage in the region. The consequence of this vicious cycle, stemming from a short-term, one-sided perspective, has led to environmental, social, and even security issues.

The loss of desired environmental governance and land management has also paved the way for prioritizing narrow-minded thinking; in a way that each sector (agriculture, industry, oil, etc.) strives towards achieving its own goals without considering the country’s ecological limitations and the sometimes irreparable damages and ecological and social consequences of their own programs.

On the other hand, it is evident that environmental problems are of such a nature that requires cooperation and active participation of international legal entities and active diplomacy to solve them. In this regard, the existence of numerous international sanctions in recent years has led to violations of the right to a healthy environment and the violation of general and specific principles of environmental law in Iran. Among them, the principle of common responsibility and the principle of cooperation can be mentioned. On the other hand, the existence of severe international sanctions has directed the country’s management towards rapid development of technology and infrastructure without considering the short and long-term effects on the environment, and has focused on achieving short-term economic results for resilience and coping with sanctions.

One of the missing links in the decision-making process of managers and officials for land development in different ecosystems is the interaction between government officials and decision-makers with environmental experts and activists. Nowadays, we see that environmentalists do not have a proper place in the rooms of thought and decision-making, and the absence of decision-making experts in the decision-making process of the country causes the effectiveness of their activities to not be very noticeable, despite their efforts to improve the dire environmental situation of the country. In many cases, their efforts are only focused on raising awareness.