Many governments continue to create policies concerned with environmental, economic, and social matters as separate issues. As a result,strategies for economic development often ignore the need to maintain the ecosystem on which long-term development depends.The environmental governance system we
have today reflects both the successes and failures of this development.
There is great awareness of environmental threats and numerous
efforts have emerged to address them globally. At the same time—and
partly because of the rather spectacular growth in awareness and initiatives—the
GEG system has outgrown its original design and intent.
The system’s high maintenance needs, its internal redundancies and its
inherent inefficiencies have combined to have the perverse effect of distracting
from the most important GEG goal of all—improved environmental
performance.