Protection of the environment as a global requirement is a post-industrialization revelation. Deforestation, industrial pollution, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, ozone depletion, global warming and rising sea levels need immediate intervention. This chapter covers the multilateral environmental conferences, India's stand, indigenous peoples and their rights, the right to development and Globalisation with reference to India.
1. Protection of the Global Environment
- In 1982, the UN General Assembly, through its "World Charter for Nature", underscored that the entire humanity is a part of nature, and life depends on nature.
- The UN continues to be the lynchpin in global environmental governance.
- Top ten carbon emitters: 1. China, 2. The US, 3. The EU, 4. India, 5. Russia, 6. Japan, 7. Germany, 8. Iran, 9. Saudi Arabia, 10. South Korea.
Genesis of Institutional Protection
- Institutional environmental thought dates back to 1872, when a non-governmental congress of private citizens was formed for the protection of nature. It led to a consultative commission at Berne; after World War II this became the first intergovernmental body, with legal recognition, for environmental protection.
- The Brunnen Conference for Protection of Nature (1947), sponsored by the Swiss League, adopted a draft constitution for the International Union for the Protection of Nature.
- In the UN, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is the only organ which directly works on environmental policies.
- UNESCO (1945) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) (1948) lifted the global environmental narrative.
- Environmental law is a collection of agreements, treaties, conventions, declarations, principles, opinions of jurists and practices on mutual rights and obligations among states.