Global Governance

• The term 'global commons' refers to resources that are shared and accessible by all, with no single governing country or power. The main four are the high seas, outer space, the atmosphere and the only commonly shared land mass, Antarctica. This term broadens to include resources like cyberspace, language and science (termed the 'heritage of humanity'). Due to the lack of governing power, these resources are at risk of exploitation, such as the potential oil reserves in Antarctica. As current resources become depleted there will be an increasing reliance on global commons to meet global needs.
• ‘The Global Commons’ is the concept of an area that does not belong to a single country . Rather than belonging to nobody, the commons are supposed to belong to everybody, meaning every country has a right to benefit from the Global Commons.
• The 'global commons' as a concept refers to resource domains/areas that lie outside the jurisdiction of any nation state or political power.
• The global commons include:

  • the High Seas
  • the Atmosphere
  • Outer Space
  • Antarctica

  Due to recent technological advances, cyberspace has been proposed as a fifth global common.
• The "principle of the common heritage of humankind" refers to the idea that some localities belong to all of humanity equally.
• The "tragedy of the commons" is an economic theory of a shared resource system where individual users acting independently behave contrary to the common good of all users by depleting that resource.
• Historically, access to the global commons was highly difficult (e.g. navigating the circumpolar current of Antarctica), however it is easier now due to technological advances.
• Under the pressure from the "Quadruple Squeeze" — population and development pressures; the anthropogenic climate crisis; the anthropogenic ecosystem crisis; and the risk of deleterious tipping points in the Earth system — the degrees of freedom for sustainable human exploitation of planet Earth are severely restrained.
• The planetary squeeze, or the driving forces that explain why we’ve ended up with rising environmental risks, originate from four different areas:

  • population pressure in terms of numbers and affluence
  • human-caused climate change in terms of the concentration of greenhouse gases
  • the inability of the Earth system to buffer the effects of climate change
  • the element of surprise

  The space within which we can operate safely has been reduced - we can no longer exclude abrupt, sudden changes, what are called “tipping points” or “thresholds.”
• The global commons are very beneficial to humanity as they provide untouched environments for research and wildlife growth. Animals can thrive in these environments where humans cannot interact, such as deep sea creatures. Scientific research is also enhanced by these environments, as scientists can gather information about the world without interactions by humans, as well as beyond our world.
• Unfortunately, as the commons do not belong to one country, this can leave the commons vulnerable to exploitation, especially considering these environments are rich in resources (such as oil, wildlife, minerals etc.).

  Countries and companies that exploit the global commons may face fewer consequences, due the the fact that they are ‘owned’ by every country. Therefore, unless an international law is created there are no rules.

  The ‘shared’ nature of the commons has unfortunately left it vulnerable to issues such as mineral exploitation, fossil fuel extraction, overfishing etc.
• The often pristine and untouched nature of the commons is also under threat from human advancements. CO2 levels are causing climate change, which affects the atmosphere, the oceans, and Antarctica.

  Furthermore, technology is, in some cases, threatening these commons as they are becoming more and more explorable every day.

  Therefore, these environments need the proper protection in order to stay a beneficial asset to mankind.
• New ocean exploring technology is constantly being developed, meaning the deepest of oceans can be explored, and new species of sea creatures are found often.

  For example, Newcastle University discovered 3 new species in the Atacama Trench in September 2018.
• Global Institutions have been created to directly manage issues associated with the global commons so that these issues can be solved in a fair and sustainable way.

  For example, between 1973 to 1982 the United Nations developed The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a treaty designed to tackle marine pollution, overfishing and competing territorial claims between states.
• International laws are now effective within the global commons, although these laws are usually set by institutions like the UN. This means any non-member countries will not be prosecuted under these laws.

  There are several treaties in action to protect outer space, including the Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space (Registration Convention), which ensures countries protect outer space by documenting their launchings etc.
• NGOs campaign to protect the commons, by spreading awareness as well as raising money for their protection.
• Although there are protection efforts for the commons, these are hard to police and regulate due to their size and isolated, hard to reach nature.

  It is impossible to monitor the entirety of the commons, meaning they are still left vulnerable to exploitation. In oceans, for example, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing still takes place frequently.

  Many other illegal practices take place, such as numerous reports of ships displaying false flags as an attempt to pose as another country to avoid laws and commit crimes.
• The planetary boundaries identified are:

  • Climate change
  • Change in biosphere integrity (biodiversity loss and species extinction)
  • Stratospheric ozone depletion
  • Ocean acidification
  • Biogeochemical flows (phosphorus and nitrogen cycles)
  • Land-system change (for example deforestation)
  • Freshwater use
  • Atmospheric aerosol loading (microscopic particles in the atmosphere that affect climate and living organisms)
• The accumulation effect refers to the resilience of Earth to withstand anthropogenic behaviour greatly reducing, as issues accumulate until harmless actions suddenly become harmful.

  This links to the surprise dilemma (Quardruple Squeeze).
• We are the first generation informed by science that we may be undermining the stability and ability of planet Earth to support human development
• Transformative change is necessary due to the large planetary risks we are facing
• The planetary risks we face are so large that business as usual is not an option
• The environmental conditions on the planet over the last 100,000 years have been crucial for human development
• The Holocene phase is the only period in the history of the planet that can support human development
• The majority of environmental impacts on the planet have been caused by the rich minority who jumped onto the industrial bandwagon in the mid-18th century
• The climate agenda is a significant pressure on the planet, with the need to stabilize greenhouse gases at 450 ppm to avoid exceeding two degrees in average temperatures
• Ecosystem decline is a major pressure on the planet, with a sharp decline in ecosystem functions and services in the past 50 years
• Systems may tip over rapidly, abruptly, and often irreversibly, posing a human pressure on the planet of momentous scale
• Humans may have entered a new geological era called the Anthropocene, where humans are the predominant driver of change at a planetary level
• The great acceleration of the human enterprise started in the mid-50s, with evidence of accelerated change in various parameters affecting human well-being
• Systems have multiple stable states separated by thresholds, and under pressure, they may tip over to new undesired states
• Coral reef systems and the Arctic are examples of systems that have tipped over due to multiple pressures, leading to undesired states that cannot support economic and social development
• Wetlands, forests, monsoon systems, and rainforests behave in a nonlinear way, showing the potential for catastrophic change for human development
• Identifying planetary boundaries and staying within a safe operating space for humanity is crucial for environmental stewardship
• Nine planetary boundaries have been proposed, including climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, and ocean acidification, that would allow for a safe operating space for humanity
• The three big systems that impact the planet are climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, and ocean acidification
• Scientific evidence shows large-scale thresholds in the paleo-record of the planet's history
• Slow variables that regulate and buffer the resilience of the planet include:

  • Interference of the big nitrogen and phosphorus cycles
  • Land use change
  • Rate of biodiversity loss
  • Freshwater use
  • Functions regulating biomass on the planet
  • Carbon sequestration
  • Diversity
• Two parameters that were not quantified are air pollution (warming gases, air-polluting sulfates and nitrates) and chemical pollution
• These factors guide human development in the Anthropocene, recognizing the planet as a complex self-regulating system