GLOBAL REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS

The regulatory frameworks around important issues, such as environmental issues, currently are national, despite the efforts of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).  This is the major reason they are not working.  They will need to be global. This requires a major shift in our worldviews and a major shift for global leaders.

They need to be global because the effects are global and not just restricted to a particular nation. In one way or another they affect us all.  With the Japanese earthquake and tsunami and the resultant explosion at one of their nuclear energy plants we are reminded of this.  The nuclear disaster at Chernobyl has once again surfaced as an example of how other nations are affected. Economists remind us of the economic effects these humanitarian crises’s have globally.

What is of interest is the responses to disasters of this magnitude are global, they are human to human responses.  Of the 2011 natural disasters in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and elsewhere the global community has responded well.  We are good reactively but poor proactively.

Can we learn from this? Without a shift from national environmental regulatory framework to a global environmental regulatory framework these problems will continue.