Governance: The Planet is Pressuring Us To Be The Change

I would just like to comment on some of the issues raised below. What I see is the planet pressuring the peoples of the world to take action. It is raised in the press release at how quickly the world took action after World War II. It seems to me there was a shift in world governance from the British to the United States. Moreover, the global corporations could see opportunities in rebuilding Europe. This strategy boosted US trade and reorganised the world trading system. The current system was an economic system whereas the challenge today is far greater, we are going to have to shift from the economic system. There is no contingency plan in place, hence the high degree of denial and delay. People do not know how to step into a new way, that is why a new consciousness is arising. The statements ‘we are one’ are not pie in the sky, it is infact a recognition of our oneness with nature. As we come into alignment with nature, the natural systems will rebalance. In truth the planet is not threatened, it is the human species that is challenged here. I look with great interest to see if self interest transforms into best interest. That is planet’s test for us.

So can we govern differently. We may have the tools but do we have the universal values? Traditionally we have seen governance as the male domain which is cool and all knowing, why not make it a community domain, open it up to all who are affected. The Parliaments are often run by lawyers and professionals, hardly representative of the collective intelligence that exists in the world. Believe me, there are extraordinary people who are never asked. Imagine (reminds me of someone) a governance system truly representative of the people. I love Lao Tzu (chinese sage) and his wise book the Dao De Jing which sees the best governance as staying below (ego) and allowing the people to feel empowered, to know they did it. Today we have very visible leaders who are in mindsets that are not open to change, this is a different script they face and they don’t see how disconnected they are from the natural order. The real issue is can they change their thinking or indeed consciousness enough to question themselves and find harmony with the planet?

I would equate the magnitude of the shift at the personal level, to a moment of insight when I was in France WWOOFing (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) near Toulouse. I remember sitting on the patio of a permaculture small holding and plot and nextdoor was a monoculture agricultural field where the fields had been harvested and lay fallow. I noticed the butterflies swarming around the bushes at the place I was in. Yet the monoculture field had no life and was dusty. In the permaculture place, the owner was a Environmental Engineer and had consulted to the Indonesian Government. She physically built her house out of wood and made the place sustainable. She followed Bill Mollison’s principles and designed a permaculture garden so she could live off the land. She had companion planted shrubs in harmony with nature, she had herb spirals (take up less space), chicken tractors (scratch soil and enrich) and the silence of a composting toilet (aah) and a water tank (fresh). She lived off her land in harmony. When I looked at the harvested land nextdoor, I was suddenly struck by the distance we have to travel. I saw the monoculture as out of step with nature. I saw self sufficiency very clearly. We have to shift from that to this was my thought. This is the governance on an individual level that just gets on with changing lifestyle without a revolution, just evolution of consciousness that chooses to live in harmony with the planet, because we love it and want our children to be happy.

I think the economic system is clear in what it inspires. A lot of paper being generated without real personal change, that is the pressure nature is putting on everyone. Stretching human limits, which of course, are psychological. I feel we are changing, I feel it will work out. Hang in there folks, enjoy the ride.

Enjoy the article. People care about what is happening.

http://www.igbp.net/5.20d892f132f30b443080002717.html

Governance experts warn U.N. overhaul required to govern Earth system

Press release

Reducing the risk of potential global environmental disaster requires a “constitutional moment” comparable in scale and importance to the reform of international governance that followed World War II, say experts preparing the largest scientific conference leading up to next June’s Rio+20 Earth Summit.

Stark increases in natural disasters, food and water security problems and biodiversity loss are just part of the evidence that humanity may be crossing planetary boundaries and approaching dangerous tipping points. An effective environmental governance system needs to be instituted soon, according to independent experts commissioned by organizers of the huge “Planet Under Pressure” conference in London March 26-29, 2012.

As policy-makers gather in Durban, South Africa, for the 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Planet Under Pressure consortium today released the first five of nine policy briefs on key issues. The briefs deal with biodiversity and ecosystem services, food and water security, interconnected risks and solutions, and a topic common to all: reforming environmental governance from the local to the global level.

Prof. Frank Biermann of VU University Amsterdam in The Netherlands, director of the Earth System Governance Project of the International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP) wrote the policy brief on institutional reform with 29 fellow social scientists and governance experts around the world.

Says Dr. Biermann: “Societies must change course to steer away from critical tipping points that lead to rapid and irreversible change. This requires a fundamental transformation of existing practices. The international governance system must change.”

“In the 1940s, large parts of the world lay in ruins amid fears of further political conflict. International systems were inadequate to deal with the global challenges then. Decision-makers created in very short time new organizations and global standards, including the U.N., the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (later the World Trade Organization), and others.”

“The current destruction of the Earth’s natural systems warrants today a similar ‘constitutional moment’ to revise and transform the architecture of global governance.”

Says IHDP executive director Anantha Duraiappah: “The governance systems created post-war have helped resolve conflict, promote globalization and spur unprecedented economic growth. Many societies have progressed in the past decades with an increase in well-being. The magic question is can this continue? As the world continues to become ever more interdependent we need new forms of governance.”

Improving international co-ordination is essential to deal not only with global-scale environmental and consequent security problems but to regulate proposed technological fixes, including nanotechnology, biotechnology and climate engineering.

Global-scale geo-engineering proposals to address climate change are too far-reaching and potentially dangerous to be left to the discretion of national governments or corporations, Dr. Biermann says. Multilateral frameworks are instead urgently needed.

“Tinkering with the existing international governance system is unlikely to improve matters sufficiently,” he says. “Fundamental reform is required for effective Earth-system governance.”

Among several recommendations:

Strengthen the system of international organizations for sustainable development by, for example:

Upgrading the UN Commission on Sustainable Development to a Council of the UN General Assembly, to handle emerging issues such as water, climate, energy and food security, natural disasters and the linkages among these issues;

Elevating the Nairobi-based UN Environment Programme to the status of the World Health Organization and International Labour Organization – a step that would give it greater authority, more secure funding and facilitate the creation and enforcement of international regulations and standards;

Create special majority voting in decision-making systems when earth-system concerns are at stake.

Also recommended:

Strengthening national accountability and legitimacy with, for example, mandatory disclosure of accessible, comprehensible and comparable data about government and corporate sustainability performance; and

Allowing discrimination in world trade law between products on the basis of production processes to encourage investments in cleaner products and services. Such discrimination should be based on multilateral agreement to prevent protectionism.

Tools available

“We have tools to address our challenges effectively, but we’re quickly running out of time to put them in place,” says Planet Under Pressure conference co-chair Dr Mark Stafford Smith, science director of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization’s Climate Adaptation Flagship, in Canberra, Australia.

The international Planet Under Pressure conference will be the largest gathering of global change and sustainability scientists prior to the Rio+20 Earth Summit next June in Rio de Janeiro. The 3,000 global experts expected at the London conference will provide a “State of the Planet” assessment, discuss concepts for planetary stewardship and societal and economic transformation, and prescribe a recommended route to global sustainability.

Sponsored by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the conference is being organized by a consortium of four leading global research programmes: International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, DIVERSITAS-the international programme on biodiversity science, International Human Dimensions Programme on global environmental change, the World Climate Research Programme — collectively known as the Earth System Science Partnership.

Despite more than 900 environmental treaties coming into force in the past 40 years, human-induced environmental degradation continues, reaching levels that prompted ICSU’s blunt warning in 2010 that “humanity has reached a point in history at which a prerequisite for development – the continued functioning of the Earth system as we know it – is at risk.”

Authors of the policy briefs note recently published contentions that humanity has already pushed Earth past limits on climate change, biodiversity loss and nitrogen use — three of nine proposed “planetary boundaries” that must be respected for societies to grow and prosper.

Biodiversity

The brief on biodiversity and ecosystem services notes that despite recent efforts to reduce the rate of loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, the number of plant and animal species threatened with extinction continues to rise, forests and mangrove swamps are in sharp decline, and vast areas are increasingly dominated by a few successful species.

The brief offers new information detailing the fast-growing number of pollution-related oxygen depletion zones killing fish in coastal marine ecosystems — now more than 500 worldwide.

Consequences include the diminished ability of ecosystems to act as a buffer against extreme events such as floods, fires, disease outbreaks and storm surges. “If the global community continues on its current path, the declines in biodiversity and ecosystem services will impede future efforts towards sustainable development pathways,” the authors warn.

They call for a stronger inclusion of the multiple values of biodiversity and ecosystems into policy and management decisions, e.g. by measuring progress beyond traditional indicators such as the GDP. The concept of ‘inclusive wealth’ includes all forms of capital – natural (land, water, soil, biodiversity and ecosystem services), social (institutions, social networks) and human (education, health, skills) — as well as financial and manufactured.

“While current trends in biodiversity and ecosystem services are sharply and dangerously negative, the right actions — developed and implemented promptly — can restore a biologically rich and ecologically viable planet.” stresses Dr. Anne Larigauderie, executive director of DIVERSITAS and co-author of the brief.
Food security

Led by Oxford University Prof. John Ingram, authors of the food security brief say that despite a marked increase in global food production over the past half century, nearly one billion people still have too little to eat, and a further billion lack adequate nutrition. It showcases a new indicator of food security — children under the age of five suffer stunted growth due to inadequate food — and offers a map showing that in much of the world, the problem affects 40 per cent or more of children.

While the brief calls for the urgent development of policies and technologies for increasing food production in a more sustainable manner, it highlights the need for a food system that recognizes that improving access to food is the key issue to reduce food insecurity, rather than concentrating solely on increasing production.

“The challenge of feeding the world efficiently and equitably is considerable, but not insurmountable,” the authors say.

“Institutions operating effectively at multiple levels will be at the centre of sustainable food systems; these will need to be flexible, promote appropriate use of innovative technologies and policies, and recognize the increasingly important role of non-state actors in enhancing food systems. Above all, there is need for a strong focus on resilience, equity and sustainability.”

Water security

As global population has tripled in the past century, water use has increased six-fold, and the quality of water resources has been degraded through human activities such as excessive use of agriculture-related chemicals and the release of untreated sewage and industrial wastewater.

Combined with growing economies and poor water management, unprecedented pressure is being placed on freshwater resources.

The policy document recommends that water be given high priority in international decision-making, and that compromises between use and preservation be made on the basis of science rather than political or economic lobbying. It also calls for laws and financial mechanisms to ensure sustainable water supplies.

“We simply cannot continue to use water as wastefully as we have in the past,” says lead author Janos Bogardi, Executive Officer of the Joint ESSP Global Water Systems Project. “Water must be given the prominence it deserves on the global agenda; decisions should be considered through a ‘water lens’.”
Interconnected risks and solutions

The financial crisis highlights our vulnerability as a direct result of our growing interconnectivity. The brief on interconnected risks and solutions underlines underlines the requirement for an integrated approach to a suite of urgent global challenges: poverty alleviation; the financial crisis; economic development; political stability; pollution; food, water and energy security; health; wellbeing; climate change; ocean acidification; and loss of biodiversity to name just some.

Systemic risk management should be a priority for international organizations.

The experts call for an end to the fragmented approach to interconnected global challenges and suggest establishing an international high-level consultative body on global sustainability. Beneath this, they suggest an Intergovernmental Panel on Sustainable Development to ensure scientific coherence and build on existing assessments for example the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, and to ensure scientific coherence. This would produce a regular ‘State of the Planet’ assessment that includes socio-economic indicators.

They also call on societies to “build resilience and prepare for unavoidable changes.”

Professor Sybil Seitzinger, Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme say, “The great acceleration in human activity, seen largely since the 1950s, has committed the Earth system to substantial change, not only this century but also for hundreds and even thousands of years to come.”

Lidia Brito, Director of Division, Natural Science Sector, UNESCO, and co-chair of the Planet Under Pressure conference concludes: “The need for a new way of approaching our common environmental challenges is increasingly obvious. Last year the world endured some 950 natural catastrophes, almost all of them weather-related, according to insurance industry figures — a record some 50 per cent above the annual average for such events for the previous three decades.”

“We can no longer view the global economic system and the political systems that shape it in isolation from the Earth system. The time has arrived for people to become planetary stewards.”

Future policy briefs will offer insights and recommendations on the green economy, energy security, health, and human well-being.
Planet Under Pressure

www.planetunderpressure2012.netexternal link, opens in new window

The Planet Under Pressure conference’s chief scientific advisor, Elinor Ostrom, has commissioned a series of policy briefs relevant to Rio+20. These policy briefs have been independently produced by the academic community and will be supported by white papers to be published for the Planet Under Pressure conference. The conference provides a platform for independent, impartial research. The views and the recommendations expressed in the policy briefs should not be taken to reflect the views of all programme sponsors.

Conference structure:

Monday March 26:
State of the Planet: latest knowledge about the pressures on the planet

Tuesday March 27:
Options and opportunities: exchanging knowledge about ways of reducing the pressures on the planet, promoting transformative changes for a sustainable future and adapting to changes in the global system

Wednesday March 29:
Challenges to progress: clarifying what is preventing or slowing humanity from implementing potential solutions

Thursday March 30:
Ways ahead: a vision for 2050 and beyond, and exploring new partnerships and pathways towards global sustainability

Themes:

Meeting global needs: food, energy, water and other ecosystem services
Transforming our way of living: development pathways under global environmental change
Governing across scales: innovative stewardship of the Earth system

For more details:
www.planetunderpressure2012.net/themes.aspexternal link, opens in new window

Conference sessions:
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Mailing list:
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Registration for journalists: 1 December 2011 www.planetunderpressure2012.netexternal link, opens in new window