Rules to goals: emergence of new governance strategies for sustainable development

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on climate are the key international agreements to deliver a sustainable future. They are a compromise between the scientifically necessary and politically possible to achieve global sustainability. Agreed in 2015, they constitute a radical departure for international policy with no precedents and are beginning to shape national policy, civil society and business decisions. We argue that these new frameworks represent the most important institutional innovation to emerge in recent years. They mark a shift away from international rule-making towards a system based on goal setting. This reflects a theory of societal steering or what we commonly think of as governance that differs sharply from mainstream regulatory systems by Pauwelyn et al. (Eur J Int Law 24:733-763, 2014). Given that achieving the Paris Agreement and the SDGs will require transformation of societies at all levels, it remains unclear how existing instruments, policies, and even institutions will adapt to this new global governance strategy. The key to success, we argue, will be "action coherence", whereby actions initiated to fulfill individual SDGs are coherent across efforts to achieve the full set of SDGs over the long run.

Advancing research into accounting and the UN Sustainable Development Goals

“…compromise between the scientifically necessary and politically possible … [with the SDGs being] a radical departure for international policy with no precedents and are beginning to shape national policy, civil society and business decisions. (Kanie et al, 2019(Kanie et al, , p. 1745 This approach (in contrast to governance processes where states formalize commitments and these eventually translate into new operating conditions for organizations) is one where organizations individually and in concert will have a significant impact on outcomes. This means that accounting scholars need to know who the 'players' are in this new governance landscape and contribute understanding to those bodies (a point made by O'Dwyer & Unerman, Forthcoming).…”

Regional fisheries management organizations and the new biodiversity agreement: Challenge or opportunity?

“…The agreement on BBNJ will join numerous international agreements, organizations and initiatives, which are addressing issues Achieving SDG 14 will positively reinforce the achievement of other SDGs, such as SDG 1-no poverty and SDG 2-zero hunger (Singh et al, 2017), and will also reduce the impacts of climate change (SDG 13-climate action; Laffoley et al, 2019). Contrary to other initiatives, the SDGs rely not only on the support of nation-states but also on existing intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and industries (Gupta & Nilsson, 2017;Kanie et al, 2019). To achieve SDG 14, a coherent areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) governance framework needs to be in place (UNGA, 2015b).…”

Marine-Related Learning Networks: Shifting the Paradigm Toward Collaborative Ocean Governance

“…In particular, determining network goals is critical given the recent research indicating that environmental governance is undergoing a major change from the dominance of rulebased approaches to goal-based approaches (Kanie et al, 2019). Marine-related learning networks are particularly suitable for goal-based approaches given their potential for collaborative processes involving a broad range of stakeholders that change over time through meetings and continuous discussions (Kanie et al, 2019). Determining the goals of a network is a twofold process that involves considering both the needs of participants in the network as well as the communities they work with and the skills, expertise, and knowledge that the network can provide.…”