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Global Challenges and Global Governance

Promoting economic growth with environmental and human health safeguards in place seems to be the path forward for most governments. Decades of environmental mismanagement have led to several negative consequences, making the global governance on ethical framework to be adopted for sustainable development inevitable.

There are major challenges that are being forced by economies around the world, in the path of sustainable development at no cost on environmental quality. The climate change is one of the most disquieting issues for the environmentalists and governments; one of the causes for this climatic change is the Emissions of carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas. Major initiatives like the Kyoto protocol in 1997, were taken for stabilization & reduction of greenhouse gas emission, but were in vain. The huge tasks that lie in store for the governments are determining how to clean up legacy problems, restore natural resources; and designing strategies to allow for future growth, while protecting the environment, maintaining biodiversity, thereby safeguarding human health, and preserving cultural/ social values. Another challenge for the countries of the globe is the pattern of consumption of energy sources. Consumption of all types of energy has increased, with development, & the highest being consumption of fossil fuels, with not much growth in creation of renewable energy.

Global Governance has thus become the key for acquiring sustainability and facing these challenges effectively. The inter-dependence of nations, in terms of resources and environment is strong and the synergy that can be reaped is critical, there is a requirement to promote coherent policies and implement on them. Among the different fields of global governance, environmental management is the most wanting in urgent answers to the crisis in the form of collective actions by the whole of the human community. Climate change, ocean and air pollution, recycling and reuse pattern, energy efficiency, nuclear risks and those related to genetic manipulation, the reduction and extinction of resources and biodiversity, and above all a development model that remains largely unquestioned globally are all among the various manifestations of this accelerated and probably irreversible impact of human activities on nature.


One of the main goals of the Earth Charter Initiative is to achieve recognition of the Earth Charter by the United Nations General Assembly and to demonstrate the relevance of the Earth Charter’s values and principles to global governance. This workshop on global challenges and global governance will provide an opportunity to discuss the global challenges & explore the ethical dimensions of these challenges and look at their global governance implications. Come and become the part of the workshops for further deliberations, and feel free to share your opinions here.


-Shraddha Ganwani