A Review of Global Environmental Governance and Its Influence on Adopted National Water Policies

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Department of Irrigation and Reclamation Engineering, University of Tehran, Karaj, Alborz province, Iran

Abstract

Abstract
Generally, national water policies and politics are already heavily influenced by global environmental governance processes in other areas, e.g. climate change and biodiversity, which offer many opportunities for linking national water policies to global policies aiming at sustainability. Global environmental governance (GEG) is the sum of organizations, policy instruments, financing mechanisms, rules, procedures and norms that regulate the processes of global environmental protection. The efficacy of global environmental governance will ultimately depend on implementation at global and domestic levels. National implementation is the ultimate key. These processes are based on simultaneous interventions of multiple actors on the local, national and global levels. The existence of legally binding global environmental regimes (e.g. the conventions on climate change, biodiversity, and combating desertification), global concepts (e.g. IWRM) and organizations with UN support (e.g. the World Commission on Dams) offer many points of departure for linking national water policies to global policies aiming at sustainability.

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