GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE IN THE TRUMP ERA

Abstract

Global Environmental Governance is the sum of the many ways in which individuals and institutions, both public and private, manage their shared environmental affairs. It constitutes an instrument and tool for finding solutions, triggering processes that involve not only state actors but also civil society, the scientific community, businesses, and subnational entities, breaking with the logic of realism that characterizes the traditional subjects of International Law. With the establishment of multilateralism and its formation through governance bodies, and the existence of Global Agendas that promote local actions, this participation has evolved, establishing a new, maximalist, and solidaristic paradigm. However, a reaction to this globalist vision is evident, with the renationalization of the discourse. Within this scenario, the Trump Era exemplifies the shaking of the structures of Global Environmental Governance, on the one hand, by attacking multilateralism and its regimes; and on the other, by undermining Global Agendas through deregulation and the loosening of domestic environmental standards. These more permissive and flexible regulations engender scenarios of regression, both for these factors of international relations, international politics, and international law, and for the undoing of five decades of progress. Ultimately, this article, from a perspective that recognizes the current American isolationism, presents an alternative scenario, understanding that, despite being shaken, Global Environmental Governance tends to be restructured on new foundations, shaped by its own already achieved complexity, as well as by the influence of transnational powers, which, as a network, benefit from globalism and the already consolidated globalization.