This volume examines the environmental issues currently under debate in the international arena. The text approaches the topic at a conceptual level, and from an interdisciplinary viewpoint. It analyses the roles of key players in environmental policy, the nation state, non-governmental organizations and the business community. It continues with an examination of the importance of international relations (trade, east, west, north, south), and goes on to consider the prospects for sustainable development and social changes required for sustainable development to become a reality.

Volume two considers major environmental issues using individual case studies from around the world as illustrations. These case studies explore the causes of international environmental issues and investigate the conflicts that hamper these solutions. The case studies address such problems as intensive farming, overpopulation, deforestation, climate change and waste disposal. Each case study also looks at policy and management of these international environmental issues. The case studies span the globe, encompassing the Western world as well as the former Eastern Bloc and developing countries in Africa and South East Asia. - A critical and analytical look at contemporary environmental issues - Aimed to provide a body of knowledge to social and natural scientists - A multi-disciplinary approach

A set of three volumes, each examining the environmental issues currently under debate in the international arena. The first volume looks at perspectives on environmental problems, the second discusses conflicts of interest, and the third looks at prospects for environmental change.

The three volumes of Environmental Policy in an International Context have been developed by the Dutch and UK Open Universities as part of the International Environmental Series. They accompany a workbook and six videos. The first volume takes a critical and analytical look at contemporary environmental issues built around the key questions - what are international and environmental problems; and why have they become important politically? These questions are examined from a variety of viewpoints - science, sociology, politics, law and economics. A multi-disciplinary approach is emphasised and it shows how both technical and scientific solutions need to be sought alongside

This second and fully revised edition brings together some of the most influential work on the theory and practice of contemporary EU environmental policy. Comprising five comprehensive parts, it includes in-depth case studies of contemporary policy issues such as climate change, genetically modified organisms and trans-Atlantic relations, as well as an assessment of how well the EU is responding to new challenges such as enlargement, environmental policy integration and sustainability. The book's aim is to look forward and ask whether the EU is prepared or even able to respond to the 'new' governance challenges posed by the perceived need to use 'new' policy instruments and processes to 'mainstream' environmental thinking in all EU policy sectors.

Published to coincide with the Fourth United Nations Environmental Assembly, UN Environment's sixth Global Environment Outlook calls on decision makers to take bold and urgent action to address pressing environmental issues in order to protect the planet and human health. By bringing together hundreds of scientists, peer reviewers and collaborating institutions and partners, the GEO reports build on sound scientific knowledge to provide governments, local authorities, businesses and individual citizens with the information needed to guide societies to a truly sustainable world by 2050. GEO-6 outlines the current state of the environment, illustrates possible future environmental trends and analyses the effectiveness of policies. This flagship report shows how governments can put us on the path to a truly sustainable future - emphasising that urgent and inclusive action is needed to achieve a healthy planet with healthy people. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

This reader brings together material from ecological thought, environmental policy, environmental philosophy, social and political thought, historical sociology and cultural studies. The extracts tell the story of the way the natural environment has been understood in the modern world and how this has recently been questioned as contemporary societies are seen as characterised by uncertainty and complexity. The literature guides the reader through the conventiaonal grounds for thinking about rights and obligations in relation to future generations, non-human animals and the biotic commununities, bringing each into question. This then leads into a critical examination of social and political theories and their capacity for drawing on ecological thought. Each of the seven sections of readings is introduced by the editor who locates the set of readings within the specific themes and issues at the heart of each section. This broad-reaching and thought-provoking set of readings stresses the diversity of response to environmental problems both within and between anthropocentric and ecocentric approaches and will encourage the reader to examine how they are manifested in the areas of environmental ethics, policy analysis and social and political theory.