THE EVOLUTION OF THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE: THE TRANSITION TO POLITICS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The environment is not being governed by only the nation states anymore. Indeed, environmental governance is a holistic discourse in which various actors engage. The 21 st century has been witnessing an ever incessant environmental impairment and there is more need for cooperation. The natural resources are depleted; air, water and land are getting more contaminated. The human being is heedlessly terminating the environment and shaping the global environmental discourse within an economical basis. The economic and industrial competition between developing (Southern) and developed (Northern) countries is metamorphosing the whole global environmental governance into something that seems to be for the cause of environment but which actually is after struggle in order to gain more. This being the core context of the discussion herein, the article will both investigate the evolution of the global environmental governance system and trace back how the environment has been left behind the stage and within the framework of development.