Planet Earth/ Photo credit: Getty images
On April 22, 2015 The World Federalist Movement- Institute for Global Policy (WFM-IGP) commemorated Earth Day. WFM-IGP believes that fundamental issues relating to the development of international democracy and global governance are inextricably tied to issues of global governance for sustainable development and the environment. Protecting the world environment is a critical foundation of sustainable development. Two-thirds of the earth is beyond the territorial sovereignty of UN member states; it is truly the ‘global commons’.
The ocean of the world’s atmosphere is equally borderless; and its pollution, warming and disintegration are transnational threats. The international community must govern the global commons. To avoid devastating exploitation of our common, indispensable global environment, the protection and preservation of the global commons must be placed under the governance of the UN. Accordingly, WFM-IGP advocates for the establishment of a World Environment Organization (WEO).
WFM-IGP’s Executive Director William R. Pace stated, “WFM stands for the principle that humanity must make peace not only with each other but with our planet- time is running out.”
In order for environmental and social issues to be adequately addressed in the international legal order, they will have to be given equitable legal and institutional authority. WFM-IGP therefore believes that the solution is the creation of a WEO or a ‘Sustainable Development Organization’ that could counterbalance the powerful finance and trade institutions. A WEO would be a designated and empowered advocate for adequate response to environmental management and sustainable development and thus provide a more balance, effective and accountable system of global governance.
