Dictionary and Introduction to Global Environmental Governance

This unique dictionary and introduction to Global Environmental Governance (GEG), written and compiled by two veterans of the international stage, provides a compilation of over 5000 terms, organizations and acronyms, drawn from hundreds of official sources. An introductory essay frames the major issues in GEG and outlines the pitfalls of talking past one another when discussing the most critical of issues facing the planet. It challenges those who are concerned with the management of our planet and its inhabitants to understand and accept a vocabulary common to the often-opposing objectives sought in the many GEG instruments.

This fully revised and updated edition contains over 500 new entries and acronyms on global environmental governance, as well as a new introductory section on global water governance, one of the most pressing environmental issues in our era of climate change, growing populations and food shortages.

Mary Rumsey - Library Journal

Formerly with the Organization of American States, the authors of this revised 5000-entry dictionary of terms, organizations, and acronyms bring years of experience in negotiating and administering international environmental agreements to the task of clarifying and standardizing the vocabulary of global environmental governance. (The first edition was published in 2004 under the title C.H.A.O.S.S.: An Essay and Glossary for Students and Practitioners of Global Environmental Governance.) While dictionaries of environmental terms abound, this volume adds the vocabulary of international law and diplomacy. Unlike U.S.-focused dictionaries of environmental law, this one takes as its primary audience policy makers who create and interpret instruments that govern global environmental issues. The introductory essay explains the need for common definitions: "What good is an instrument that contains all the right words if the parties that agreed to them understand them in mutually exclusive ways?" Additional material includes a list of definition sources, selected agreements, and principles and a separate list of acronyms and abbreviations.

Richard E. Saunier was Senior Environmental Management Advisor in the Department of Regional Development and Environment of the Organization of American States (1975–1996).

Richard A. Meganck is the Director of the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in Delft, the Netherlands and former Director of Sustainable Development and Environment at the Organization of American States.