Environment and Natural Resources in Global Politics (Part - 1)

Environment and Natural Resources in Global Politics

Environmental Concerns in Global Politics and the Emergence of Global Environmental Governance

1. Expansion of the Meaning of World Politics

• Earlier understanding of world politics centred on wars, treaties, state power, and intergovernmental relations.

• Later expansion incorporated poverty, epidemics, and governance responsibilities.

• Environmental degradation now compels inclusion within world politics because:

  • Many problems transcend national boundaries.

  • No single government can solve them independently.

  • Questions of causation, responsibility, and resource distribution are inherently political.

2. Global Environmental Crisis: Nature, Scale, and Consequences

• Declining cultivable land fertility, overgrazed grasslands, depleted fisheries, polluted water bodies.

• Massive deprivation:

  • 663 million without safe water.

  • 2.4 billion without sanitation, causing millions of child deaths annually.

• Deforestation leading to climate instability, biodiversity loss, and displacement.

• Ozone layer depletion threatening ecosystems and human health.

• Rising coastal pollution due to land-based human activity.→ Demonstrates that environmental issues are systemic, global, and political.

3. Rise of Environmentalism in International Politics

• Awareness intensified from the 1960s onward with concern over consequences of economic growth.

• Limits to Growth (1972) highlighted resource depletion linked to population growth.

• International institutional response:

  • Creation of UNEP and global environmental conferences.

• Culmination at Rio Earth Summit (1992):

  • Participation of 170 states, NGOs, and multinational corporations.

  • Influenced by Brundtland Report (1987) warning of unsustainable growth.→ Marked the consolidation of the environment as a central issue in global politics.

4. North–South Divide in Environmental Politics

• Global North priorities: Ozone depletion, global warming, ecological conservation.

• Global South priorities: Relationship between development and environmental management.

• Rio outcomes: Climate change, biodiversity, forestry conventions. Agenda 21 promoting sustainable development.

• Continuing disagreement on how to balance growth with ecology.

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Global Commons, Differentiated Responsibilities, and India’s Environmental Position

1. Concept of Global Commons

• Resources outside sovereign jurisdiction requiring collective governance: Atmosphere, Antarctica, ocean floor, outer space.

• Governance challenges: Difficulty achieving scientific consensus and political agreement.

• Key agreements: Antarctic Treaty (1959), Montreal Protocol (1987), Antarctic Environmental Protocol (1991).

• North–South inequality shapes access, technology, and benefits from commons exploitation.

2. Principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR)

• Core conflict: North seeks equal responsibility for conservation. South argues historical responsibility of industrialised countries.

• Rio Declaration recognition: States share responsibility, but developed countries bear greater burden due to:

  • Historical emissions.

  • Greater technological and financial capacity.

• Institutionalisation in: UNFCCC., Kyoto Protocol (1997) imposing emission targets mainly on industrialised states.

3. Common Property Resources and Community Traditions

• Defined by shared rights and duties within communities.

• Decline caused by: Privatisation, agricultural intensification, population growth, ecosystem degradation.

• Example: Sacred groves in India as community-based conservation rooted in spiritual reverence.→ Illustrates local ecological governance traditions.

4. India’s Stand in Global Environmental Negotiations

• Ratified Kyoto Protocol (2002); exempt due to low historical emissions.

• Emphasises: Per capita emissions inequality.

  • Historical responsibility of developed nations.

  • Priority of economic and social development.

• Domestic initiatives: Clean fuel policy, Energy Conservation Act (2001), Electricity Act (2003), renewable energy expansion, Paris Agreement ratification (2016).

• Demand for: Financial resources and clean technology transfer from developed countries.

Environmental Movements, Resource Geopolitics, Water Conflicts, and Indigenous Rights

1. Environmental Movements as Political Forces

• Often driven by civil society rather than governments.

• Among the most vibrant global social movements generating new political visions.

• Major strands:

  • Forest movements in the Global South resisting deforestation.

  • Anti-mining struggles against displacement, pollution, and MNC activity.

  • Anti-dam and pro-river movements (e.g., non-violent struggles in India).→ Demonstrate grassroots environmental politics.

2. Resource Geopolitics

• Concerned with who gets what, when, where, and how.

• Historically linked to:

  • European expansion, trade, war, and sea power.

  • Strategic importance of oil and minerals.

• Oil as central geopolitical resource:

  • Gulf region holds majority of global reserves.

  • Generates conflict, intervention, and strategic rivalry.

• Water emerging as future conflict driver:

  • Disputes over shared rivers, dams, pollution, and diversion.

  • Examples of military tensions over river systems.

3. Indigenous Peoples in World Politics

• Defined as descendants of original inhabitants prior to external domination.

• Share:

  • Cultural continuity.

  • Close relationship with land and ecological systems.

• Major concerns:

  • Loss of land and displacement, especially due to development projects.

  • Marginalisation despite constitutional or political recognition.

• Political mobilisation since 1970s international networking and UN engagement.→ Integrates environment, rights, and global justice.

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