Governance and Environmental Democracy: a Global Policy

In legal terms, and through the late decades sustainable development has transformed from an economic development theory to a public policy obligation that in turn has also translated in practice into concrete rights and obligations in legal systems throughout the world. These rights and obligations apply both to individuals and governments through constitutional, civil, administrative, commercial and even criminal legal rules. Environmental law has become an essential tool for governance and administration of sustainable development while environmental democracy and its elements are becoming essential for a safe and sound planetary cohabitation. Environmental democracy provides the basis for the policies and government actions that may ensure that the use of natural resources is equitable and sustainable at a time. Based on environmental problems of global dimensions such as climate change, environmental degradation, and energy crisis, the proposal of efficient means of assuring peaceful wellbeing of humanity is necessary. Even though it is not exclusively a legal nor a political problem, world governance will strongly rely on coherent and efficient implementation of environmental democracy throughout the current century. This paper will explore and identify the role of environmental law and environmental democracy in particular, for the achievement of governance and democracy in general, trying to ensure sustainable development considering global environmental issues. This will be done through the analysis of elements contained in traditional soft law instruments, as well as those contained under economical and political international instruments influenced by sustainable development policies, trying to identify and propose the possibility of current innovative environmental governance policies