Our energy (in) security

Energy issues have long been at the heart of human security concerns. At one level, we humans have always needed food energy and heat energy to survive and thrive. Yet, with the industrial revolution and our discoveries of the tremendous utility of fossils fuels like coal and oil, the security concerns related to human energy demands have expanded dramatically as our demand for energy accelerated rapidly. My proposed Discovery Dialogue essay begins by noting the eternal human need for energy supplies of various kinds. It then focuses attention on the contemporary links between energy and security at three levels of political scale: global, national and local

Global poverty & global politics

In recent years, many policymakers and scholars supportive of globalization – but opposed to many things done in the name of globalization – have begun to draw lessons from policymaking, statistical analysis and the lives of everyday citizens about what can be done to meet the challenge of global poverty. This proposed discovery dialogue essay will attempt to outline some of their conclusions, and explain how they arrived at these lessons

EU Environmental Policy Making and Implementation: Changing Processes and Mixed Outcomes

The European Union (EU) is an influential actor in environmental politics and policy-making across its 28 member states, around its periphery, and globally. Building on a diverse literature, this article examines European environmental policy-making and implementation since the 1970s. The first section discusses the evolution of the EU legal basis through treaty reforms for making environmental policy and seeking sustainable development. This is followed by a review of main actors in EU environmental politics and discussion of EU environmental policymaking and implementation. Subsequent sections assess EU environmental politics in the context of membership enlargements and examine EU international engagement with multilateral fora and other countries. The article presents data on environmental policy and ecological impacts within and outside the EU and summarizes main arguments about environmental policy in European integration and sustainable development, providing suggestions for future research

Capacity Development for the Environment: Broadening the Scope

The notion of capacity development is very much in vogue as an integral element of environmental management in developing countries. We contend that current capacity development for the environment (CDE) efforts are limited in focus, emphasizing mainly implementation while paying insufficient attention to problem recognition and analysis as well as designing and assessing potential management strategies. At the same time, CDE programs and practitioners tend to assume that improving the environment in developing countries (or globally) requires building capacity in these countries, and not in their industrialized counterparts. This view overlooks the role of Northern consumption patterns with significant global footprints and Northern policies (such as agricultural subsidies) that drive unsustainable practices around the world. We suggest that "turning the lens around" and building capacity to examine and re-shape relevant Northern policies and institutions might correct this lacuna. Such a broadened scope can be expected to increase the effectiveness of CDE efforts and programs. Copyright (c) 2005 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.