1 Why Is the Environment a Political Issue?
Environmental degradation and resource use raise deeply political questions: who causes the damage, who pays the price, who is responsible for corrective action, and who gets to use how much of the Earth’s resources. These are all questions of power, which is why environment belongs squarely inside world politics, not just geography.
According to the UNDP’s 2016 Human Development Report, 663 million people in developing countries have no access to safe water, and 2.4 billion have no access to sanitation: resulting in the deaths of more than 3 million children every year.
Environmental awareness became politically significant from the 1960s onwards. The Club of Rome, a global think tank, published Limits to Growth in 1972, warning about resource depletion against rapid population growth. International bodies like the UNEP (UN Environment Programme) began coordinating global responses.
2 The 1992 Earth Summit
The Earth Summit, formally the UN Conference on Environment and Development, was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992. It was attended by 170 states, thousands of NGOs, and many MNCs, and firmly established environmental issues at the political level for the first time.
Five years earlier, the 1987 Brundtland Report (“Our Common Future”) had already warned that traditional patterns of economic growth were not sustainable. The Rio Summit produced conventions on climate change, biodiversity and forestry, and recommended a set of development practices called “Agenda 21”. It built consensus around combining economic growth with ecological responsibility, known as “sustainable development”, though critics say Agenda 21 leaned more toward growth than conservation.
The global North’s priority
- Ozone depletion
- Global warming
The global South’s priority
- The relationship between economic development and environmental management
3 The Global Commons
Global commons (res communis humanitatis) are resources outside any one state’s sovereign jurisdiction, requiring common governance by the international community: the Earth’s atmosphere, Antarctica, the ocean floor, and outer space.
| Fact about Antarctica | Detail |
|---|---|
| Area | 14 million sq km land + 36 million sq km ocean |
| Share of world resources | 26% of world’s wilderness area; 90% of terrestrial ice; 70% of planetary fresh water |
| Ownership dispute | UK, Argentina, Chile, Norway, France, Australia, New Zealand claim sovereign rights; most other states say it is part of the global commons |
| Since 1959 | Activities limited to scientific research, fishing and tourism |
Key agreements protecting the commons: the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, the 1987 Montreal Protocol, and the 1991 Antarctic Environmental Protocol. The ozone hole over Antarctica, discovered in the mid-1980s, showed both the opportunities and dangers in tackling global environmental problems.
4 Common but Differentiated Responsibilities
This principle, from the 1992 Rio Declaration and written into the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), says states act “on the basis of equity and in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities”: developed countries acknowledge greater responsibility given the pressure their societies place on the environment and their greater technological/financial resources.
The Kyoto Protocol (1997, Kyoto, Japan) set binding targets for industrialised countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions. China, India and other developing countries were exempted: their historical contribution to emissions was small and per-capita emissions remained low.
5 Common Property Resources
Common property belongs to a group, not the state or an individual: members have shared rights and duties over its use. Example: sacred groves in India, patches of uncut forest protected for religious reasons and traditionally managed by village communities across South India’s forest belt, though privatisation, agricultural intensification and population growth increasingly threaten them.
6 India’s Stand on Environmental Issues
| Area | India’s position / action |
|---|---|
| Kyoto Protocol | Signed and ratified in August 2002; exempted, with China, from binding cuts |
| Negotiating principle | Relies on historical responsibility: developed countries caused most past/current emissions; developing countries prioritise growth and social development |
| Per-capita emissions | 2000: 0.9 tonnes (predicted 1.6 tonnes by 2030) vs a 2000 world average of 3.8 tonnes |
| Domestic steps | National Auto-fuel Policy; Energy Conservation Act 2001; Electricity Act 2003 (renewables); National Mission on Biodiesel; ratified the Paris Climate Agreement on 2 October 2016; one of the world’s largest renewable-energy programmes |
| Regional stance | Wants SAARC countries to adopt a common position on global environmental issues, for greater collective weight |
7 Environmental Movements: One or Many?
Some of the most significant responses to environmental degradation come not from governments but from grassroots volunteer movements: diverse and powerful, mostly working locally.
Forest movements of the South
Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia, Africa, India: these forests are still inhabited by people, unlike Northern “wilderness” ideas of uninhabited nature.
Wilderness campaigns
Philippines (eagles), India (Bengal tigers), Africa (ivory trade/elephants): many funded by NGOs like WWF.
Anti-dam / pro-river movements
First Northern anti-dam movement: Franklin River campaign, Australia, early 1980s. In India, Narmada Bachao Andolan is the best-known. Shared idea across Indian movements: non-violence.
Anti-mining movements
Philippines campaign against the Western Mining Corporation (Australia-based) is a notable example.
8 Resource Geopolitics
Resource geopolitics is about who gets what, when, where and how. Since the 17th century, naval timber supply mattered for sea power; oil became critical in both World Wars. During the Cold War, Northern industrialised countries secured resource flows through military deployment near resource sites, stockpiling, propping up friendly producer governments, and supporting MNCs.
West Asia (the Gulf) produces about 30% of global oil but holds about 64% of known reserves. Saudi Arabia alone holds roughly a quarter of world reserves and is the largest single producer; Iraq’s known reserves are second only to Saudi Arabia’s. Major consumers, the US, Europe, Japan, India, China, are far from the region, a classic source of political struggle.
Water is a growing source of conflict: a downstream (lower riparian) state can object to an upstream (upper riparian) state’s pollution, irrigation, or dam-building. Examples: Israel–Syria–Jordan disputes over the Jordan/Yarmuk rivers (1950s–60s); Turkey–Syria–Iraq tension over dams on the Euphrates. The term “water wars” describes the possibility of future violent conflict over shared rivers.
9 Indigenous Peoples and Their Rights
The question of indigenous peoples brings environment, resources and politics together. The UN defines indigenous populations as descendants of peoples who inhabited a territory before a different culture or ethnic group arrived and overcame them; they often live more by their own social and cultural customs than by the institutions of the country they are now part of.
Roughly 30 crore indigenous people live worldwide: including 20 lakh Cordillera people (Philippines), 10 lakh Mapuche (Chile), 6 lakh people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (Bangladesh), 35 lakh North American natives, 50,000 Kuna (Panama), and 10 lakh Small Peoples of the Soviet North. Loss of land means loss of their economic resource base: the most obvious threat to survival.
In India, “indigenous people” usually means the Scheduled Tribes (about 8% of the population). They historically had free access to land they cultivated, until British colonial rule subjected their areas to outside forces. Though constitutionally protected in political representation, they are the single largest group displaced by development projects since independence. The World Council of Indigenous Peoples was formed in 1975 and became the first of 11 indigenous NGOs to receive UN consultative status.
- Environment is political: questions of who causes damage, who pays, who decides are questions of power
- Earth Summit, Rio, June 1992: 170 states; produced Agenda 21 and the idea of “sustainable development”
- Global commons = atmosphere, Antarctica, ocean floor, outer space: outside any one state’s jurisdiction
- CBDR from Rio Declaration 1992 + UNFCCC; Kyoto Protocol 1997 exempted developing countries
- India ratified Kyoto in August 2002 and the Paris Agreement on 2 October 2016
- Environmental movements: forest, wilderness, anti-dam (Narmada Bachao Andolan), anti-mining
- Resource geopolitics: oil (Gulf holds 64% of reserves), water conflicts (“water wars”)
- Indigenous peoples: ~30 crore worldwide; in India, Scheduled Tribes, ~8% of the population
- 1 MarkIn which year and city was the Earth Summit held?
- 1 MarkWhat is meant by “global commons”? Name any two.
- 1 MarkIn which year was the Kyoto Protocol signed?
- 1 MarkWhen did India ratify the Kyoto Protocol?
- 1 MarkName India’s best-known anti-dam movement.
- 1 MarkWhat share of world oil reserves does the Gulf region hold?
- 1 MarkIn India, which community is usually described as “indigenous people”?
- 1 MarkWhat is “Agenda 21”?
- 2 MarksWhat is meant by “common property resources”? Give an example.
- 2 MarksWhy were India and China exempted from the Kyoto Protocol’s binding targets?
- 2 MarksWhat is meant by “water wars”?
- 4 MarksWhat is meant by the “global commons”? How are they exploited and polluted?
- 4 MarksWhat is meant by “common but differentiated responsibilities”? How could this idea be implemented?
- 4 MarksWhy have global environmental issues become a priority for states since the 1990s?
- 4 MarksExplain the difference between the environmental priorities of the global North and the global South.
- 6 MarksDiscuss the outcomes of the Rio Earth Summit, 1992.
- 6 MarksExplain India’s stand on environmental issues, with reference to the Kyoto Protocol.
- 6 Marks“Pursuing economic development without causing further damage to the global environment is the most serious challenge before states.” Explain with examples.
- 1 MarkThe Earth Summit was held in:
(a) 1987(b) 1992(c) 1997(d) 2002 - 1 MarkWhich of these is NOT part of the “global commons”?
(a) Antarctica(b) Ocean floor(c) A country’s forests(d) Outer space - 1 MarkThe Kyoto Protocol was agreed in:
(a) 1992(b) 1997(c) 2001(d) 2016 - 1 MarkThe Narmada Bachao Andolan is an example of a:
(a) Wilderness campaign(b) Anti-dam movement(c) Anti-mining movement(d) Indigenous rights movement - 1 MarkIndia ratified the Paris Climate Agreement on:
(a) 2 October 2016(b) 1 January 2017(c) August 2002(d) June 1992
Options: (a) Both true, R correctly explains A · (b) Both true, R does not explain A · (c) A true, R false · (d) A false, R true.
- 1 Mark
Assertion (A): India and China had no binding emission-cut targets under the Kyoto Protocol.
Reason (R): Their historical contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions was small and per-capita emissions remained low. - 1 Mark
Assertion (A): All states agree that the Antarctic belongs exclusively to the countries that have made legal claims to it.
Reason (R): Most states consider Antarctica part of the global commons, not subject to any one state’s jurisdiction.