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At root the water crisis was seen as a governance crisis … Stakeholder voice and transparency are important ingredients in effective decision-making on water allocations.
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Water consultation, final report, p14
The severely degraded environment of Sudan, together with the unresolved land issues, poses enormous challenges for livelihood, economic security and development. The non-sustainable nature of the Sudanese environment is essentially the result of weakened environmental governance involving the policy, legal and institutional frameworks for environment and natural resource management.
National consultation, Sudan
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Successful advances in any sustainable development undertaking require good governance, rule of law and transparency with engagement of civil society.
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Participant, Environmental Sustainability consultation
In the interest of fairness and equity, governments need to agree on an international regulatory framework that would establish minimum social and environmental standards, ensure that corporations pay their fair share of taxes, and prevent companies becoming so large that they have a monopoly position and are more powerful than governments or too big to fail.
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Representative from International Environment Forum, Environmental Sustainability e-discussion
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The lack of effective international governance, and the weakness of national governments, allow these human activities destructive to the environment to far outweigh those that respect national laws and principles of environmental responsibility.
Environment Sustainability consultation
the shift towards decoupling economic activity from resource use by introducing innovative processes and technologies, since the savings of such measures will not only state a clear business case to transform corporate production, but also support policymakers in justifying the investments needed. Both the Environmental Sustainability and Governance consultations pointed to the potential benefits of more opportunities for participation by communities in
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managing local ecosystems and natural resources, and of more conscious efforts to make linkages between the local and global levels. Participants in the Environmental Sustainability consultation called for legal empowerment of local communities by establishing local environmental courts where companies or individuals can be brought to trial over the negative environmental impacts of their actions. Examples of these green courts and tribunals
28 A M i l l i o n V o i c e s: The World We Wan t | A Sus tain able Fu t ure w it h Digni t y f or All
already operate in China and India. Finally, it is recognized that the lack of effective regulatory frameworks, justice systems and incentives can mean that the private sector may undermine efforts to improve environmental sustainability. But the reverse is also true: governments have a role to play in providing an enabling environment — through appropriate design of taxes, subsidies and public procurement — to harness private-sector contributions to a more environmentally