The Challenges of the Anthropocene: From International Environmental Politics to Global Governance

What is it about?

This article proposes a reflection on the challenges of global environmental policy in the Anthropocene. Firstly, the inconsistency between the institutions of international environmental policy and the progressive degradation of the planetary boundaries is highlighted. Secondly, it is stated that, since the transition to Anthropocene requires the conscious construction of a new space of safe operation for humanity, it is necessary to radically modify the institutional structure of cooperation, based on international regimes: the transition from environmental politics to global governance. The fundamental milestone of this path is the overcoming of the international system of conservative hegemony, that is, the abandonment of the sovereignist tendencies - egotistical and short-term - on the part of its actors, particularly the great powers. Finally, a series of premises for the governance of the Anthropocene is proposed from the point of view of International Relations, with the post-sovereign transition as the main pillar.

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Why is it important?

The problem identified in this paper is that, while the demands for global governance have deepened significantly, the cooperative capacities developed by international society over the past four decades have increased only marginally. This situation is partly due to the “social dilemma” feature of the Anthropocene problems, which offer negative incentives for cooperation among actors, fueling the attractiveness of “free riding” behaviors.

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