La gobernanza ambiental internacional y el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente

In this essay, Jorge Laguna Celis introduces the reader to the concept of international environmental governance and discusses progress made over the last decade by international forums like the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Essentially a working term used in the sphere of international politics, international environmental governance refers to the efficient management of existing environmental structures. The author points out the obstacles to a complete overhaul of our international environmental architecture, namely ambiguity as regards the role environmental conservation agencies and programs should be playing in the context of sustainable development, and differing opinions as to how pressing an issue this is or if, in fact, existing international structures should be altered at all. According to Laguna Celis, only radical, ambitious change on an institutional level can check and revert the rapid deterioration of the environment, while another challenge facing the international community in the area of international environmental governance is to define more precisely the role the UNEP should be playing within the context of the United Nations System on the one hand and sustainable development on the other.