Environmental problems are increased day by day in the world. In the path of competition of development world's developed country deteriorate the environment in the past days. There are widespread problems in the environment so environmental governance is also very complex. It has several obstacles to reach in the conscious about the environmental problems. Among other problems climate change is emerging as the great environmental problem nowadays. In this context the importance of environmental governance is increased.

Introduction

Nowadays the term governance become the common term in all sectors. We frequently heard and use this term in all sectors. In simple way governance could be defined as the process of decision making and implementation. If we go through the definition there we can find various definition of governance given by the various scientists and institutions. The term "governance" has been defined in many different ways which vary according to the scope of the subject matter. The definition of governance from the humanity aspect could be different from the environmental aspect. In 2000 World Humanity Action Trust defined the governance as the framework of social and economic systems and legal and political structures through which humanity manages itself. Like wise in 2004, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) defines governance as the system of values, policies and institutions by which a society manages its economic, political and social affairs through interactions within and among the state, civil society and private sector.

What is Environmental Governance?

Environmental governance is a very much complex subject matter. It is the process of decision making on the use of environmental resources, and comprises series of elements to be considered such as decision makers, stakeholders’ consultation, participation; democratic rights to fight against corruption and illegal management of the ecosystems and advocacy groups, NGOs, civil society and all the other members of the society are also involved in this process. For acceptable environmental decision, and the process is called environmental governance is needed. It comprises the process and institutions that determine how decisions are made regarding the environmental management. We need environmental governance because we have environmental problems. Environmental problems are worldwide and for solving these problems worldwide effort is needed. In 2000 GEO Report Dr. Toepfer, Executive Director of UNDP stated that "There is a need for more comprehensive, integrated policy making. In itself this call is not new. But it gains urgency in views of the increasingly cross cutting nature of environmental issues. Thus rather than trying to tackle issues such as deforestation and land degradation on a piecemeal basis, these must be integrated and in turn be connected with the needs and aspirations of the people". This statement would clear the need for the global environmental governance. In recent days the importance of global environmental governance is becoming more important as more environmental problems are seen.

Obstacles and Solutions

Governing world's environment is not a easy task. There are several obstacles for the successful environmental governance. Obstacles are genuine problems and we need to solve these problems for the successful environmental governance. The actors in the global environmental governance system rarely specify or define the functions they perform and confusion arise about the roles and responsibilities of the concerned agencies. We need to establish a clear defined linkage between different international actors with their specified roles. Frequent contacts and coordination meeting is also necessary for conducting works without duplication. Increase opportunities for diverse actors to communicate and share ideas. Environmental problems have no boundary and overcoming is also possible when we do not consider the boundaries between two countries while formulating policies. The world should be considered as a family and countries as the members of the family. Lack of accountability and transparency is seeming an enormous challenge for environmental governance so we should given due attention to maintain accountability and transparency by establishing an accountable and transparent institution in consensus. We should link the international norms and policies into local policies. Many countries and organizations work from their side in the environmental issue but there lacks a common vision. Therefore what now needed now is collaborative efforts in the environmental sector. Involve a broader set of actors (including national government legislators and judges, as well as the private sector and civil society) in agenda setting and policy development at the international level for a inclusive and broader policy development. During the policy making and the implementation encourage national governments to promote investments in environment. Abovementioned ideas could be the solution for making complex environmental governance effective.

New addition

Changing climate around globe makes environmental governance more contextual as well as complex. For the poor people it is not important that what causes the climate change but it is obvious that climate change has a great negative impact to sustain their livelihood. Impacts of climate change are vivid in environmental and social areas, including water management, biodiversity conservation, and forest and land management. Effects are seen around globe and integrated and combine effort is needed to fight against the adverse impacts of climate change. Different reports shows that poor are becoming poorer due to climate change as it hampers more to poor than the rich. In this changing climate we all stakeholders needs to be worrying about the vulnerability faced by another stakeholder also. The world leaders should seek the way for both mitigating and adopting the negative impacts of climate change. If it happens, all will realized that the global environmental governance is in right track.