Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development

The world is facing a mounting crisis. In recent years we have experienced a combination of a global financial crisis, a food crisis, volatile oil prices, accelerating ecosystem degradation and an increasing number of climate-induced extreme weather events. These multiple and inter-related crises call into question the ability of a growing human population to live peacefully and sustainably on this planet, and demand the urgent attention governments and citizens around the world.

Earth Summit 2012 will be the fourth Summit of its kind and represents another milestone in ongoing international efforts to accelerate progress towards achieving sustainable development globally. This background section provides information on the following areas

Thought Leadership

As part of the SDG2012 programme Stakeholder Forum wrote and commissioned a series of think pieces on sustainable development governance. The think pieces focus on a range of issues, including:
• The global institutional framework for sustainable development - including the role of the Commission for Sustainable Development, the management of sustainable development across the UN system, the status of sustainable development within ECOSOC, and other issues.
•Reform of International Environmental Governance - the role of UNEP in advancing the environmental pillar of sustainable development globally, the relationship between environment and trade,
•Global finance and sustainable development - the mainstreaming of sustainable development into International Finance Institutions (IFIs), the role of IFIs in advancing environmental objectives
•National, regional and local governance for sustainable development - the role of National Sustainable Development Councils, the role of local governance in advancing sustainable development
•Civil society - the role of civil society in the governance of sustainable development , in enhancing accountability, in monitoring and in implementing
•Corporate Accountability for sustainable development - the role of corporate accountability in advancing sustainable development, and the relative merits of voluntary methods vs regulation

•Compliance and Enforcement - the need for global mechanisms to better ensure compliance to global agreements relating to sustainable development

• New: Sustainable Development Council: A better Rio+20 outcome than reforming ECOSOC? -By Jan-Gustav Strandenaes
  
• Sustainable Development Councils at National and Sub-National Levels Stimulating Informed Debate:
  Stocktaking - By Ingeborg Niestroy
  
• SCP Governance, Sustainable Consumption and Production Governance: A Guide towards Rio+20-By Uchita de Zoysa
  
• A Preliminary Examination of the Possibilities for the Institutional Representation of the Interest of Future Generations and Environmental Protection within the System of the United Nations - By Horváth Luca Kornélia, Office for the Hungarian Parliamentary Commissioner
  
• Lessons from GATT/WTO for enhancing UNEP - Alejo Etchart, Environmental Consultant and Advisor to Stakeholder Forum
  
• Sustainable Development Governance and a Sustainable Development Board - Mohammed T. El Ashry, Senior Fellow UN Foundation
  
• Ombudspersons for Future Generations as Sustainability Implementation Units - Dr. Maja Göpel, Director Future Justice, World Future Council
  
• A Council for Sustainable Development: A possible outcome of the Rio+20 Process - Jan Gustav Strandeneas
  
• Enabling a Flourishing Earth: Challenges for the Green Economy, Opportunities for Global Governance - Klauss Bosselmann, Peter Brown and Brendan Mackey
  
• Breaking the International Environmental Governance Deadlock: Lessons from Other Regimes - Johannah Berstein

• Global Governance in the 21st Century: Rethinking the Environmental Pillar - Dr. Maria Ivanova, UMASS
  
• Sustainable Development Governance Towards Rio+20: Framing the Debate - Jan Gustav Strandeneas
• Greening the International Financial Institutions (IFIs): Finance for the next decades sustainable development - Kirk Herbertson, WRI
  
• Environmental Institutions for the 21st Century - An International Environmental Court - ICE Coalition
  
• Enhancing Science-Policy Links for Global Sustainability - Peter Bates PhD and Gisbert Glaser PhD
  
• Reforming Global Environmental Governance: The Case for a United Nations Environment Organisation - Frank Biermann
  
• Transforming the International Monetary System: A crucial "new and emerging challenge" for the Rio 2012 Earth Summit - Frans Verhagen
  
• A Brief Thought Piece: An evolutionary perspective on Sustainable Development Governance - Tom Jacob
  
• Embarking on Global Governance: Thoughts on the inclusion of local - Konrad Otto-Zimmermann
  
• Moving from Principles to Rights - David Banisar, Article 19, Lalanath de Silva and Carole Excell, The Access Initiative, WRI