Privatizing Environmental Resources: The Need for Supervision of Clean Development Mechanism Contracts?

Abstract

This article argues that a current trend in global sustainable development governance is actively to engage the private sector in participating in the process of implementing global and national policy goals. This trend is based on the notion that the private sector has the ideas, technologies and resources at its disposal that can be channelled to addressing global environmental challenges. This new trend does not, however, take into account the past and present implications of private sector investment in fields such as mining and forestry. Nor does it closely examine how private sector rules will subsequently infiltrate and govern environmental management. On the basis of an examination of current policy developments and contracts in the area of environmental management and their implications for developing countries, this article argues in favour of establishing an authority that oversees the legitimacy and legality of these new contracts, especially in, but not limited to, the area of climate change.

Global climate change and global groundwater law: their independent and pluralistic evolution and potential challenges

“…While a stable climate is generally seen as a public good, maintaining the hydrological cycle or preventing excessive discharge from non-recharging aquifers that could contribute to sea-level rise is not yet defined as a public good. Both areas are also affected by the growing neoliberal capitalist approaches that allow the privatization of and trade in water resources and carbon credits (Bernasconi-Osterwalder & Brown Weiss, 2005;Klijn, Gupta, & Nijboer, 2009). (3) There are also key differences in the way sovereigntythe right to sustainable development, equity, and environmental harmis dealt with.…”

Global climate change and global groundwater law: their independent and pluralistic evolution and potential challenges

“…While a stable climate is generally seen as a public good, maintaining the hydrological cycle or preventing excessive discharge from non-recharging aquifers that could contribute to sea-level rise is not yet defined as a public good. Both areas are also affected by the growing neoliberal capitalist approaches that allow the privatization of and trade in water resources and carbon credits (Bernasconi-Osterwalder & Brown Weiss, 2005;Klijn, Gupta, & Nijboer, 2009). (3) There are also key differences in the way sovereignty -the right to sustainable development, equity, and environmental harm -is dealt with.…”

Thinking about the future of global water governance

“…The question is, however, whether water resources or other environmental public goods are suitable for market solutions (Rothfeder 2001, Barlow and Clarke 2002, Dellapenna 2008. Furthermore, markets can lead to private confidential contracts not subject to public scrutiny that are often subject to secret arbitration proceedings under international investment law http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol18/iss3/art28/ when the contract fails, which puts developing countries at risk in international litigation (Tecco 2008, Klijn et al 2009.…”