Understanding Environmental Policy After Covid-19

Authors Contributing to the Book

Elif Acuner: Asst. Prof., Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Ardeşen Tourism Faculty, elif.acuner@erdogan.edu.tr, ORCID: 0000-0002-7769-8705

Sıla Turaç Baykara: Assist. Prof. Dr., Izmir Demokrasi University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of International Relations, silaturac.baykara@idu.edu.tr

Muhammed Yunus Bilgili: Asst. Prof. Dr., Karadeniz Technical University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Public Administration, mybilgili@ktu.edu.tr, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6062-8858

Hatice Çelik: Asst. Prof. Dr., Social Sciences University of Ankara, Institute for Area Studies, Department of Asian Studies, hatice.celik@asbu.edu.tr, ORCID: 0000-0003-1409-8865

Emre Cengiz: Asst. Prof. Dr., Gümüşhane University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Gunushane/Turkey, emrecengiz_58@hotmail.com

Kadir Caner Doğan: Assoc. Prof. Dr., Gümüşhane University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Gunushane/Turkey, kadircanerdogan@gumushane.edu.tr

Nisa Erdem: Res. Asst., Karadeniz Technical University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Public Administration, asenhu5@gmail.com

Pelin Pınar Giritlioğlu: Assoc. Prof. Dr., Istanbul University, Faculty of Political Sciences Department of Political Sciences and Public Administration Urbanization and Environmental Problems Branch, pinozden@istanbul.edu.tr

Kamber Güler: Dr., Post Doc Researcher, Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies, University of Neuchâtel, kamberguler@gmail.com

Suna Ersavaş Kavanoz: Asst. Prof. Dr., Karadeniz Technical University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Public Administration, sunaersavas@hotmail.com

Merve Suna Özel Özcan: Asst. Prof. Dr., Kırıkkale University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of International Relations, mervesuna@yahoo.com

Candan Yılmaz Ugur: Asst. Prof. Dr., Gumushane University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Public Finance, candanyilmaz@hotmail.com

Omer Ugur: Assoc. Prof. Dr., Gümüşhane University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Gunushane/Turkey, omerugur@gumushane.edu.tr

Gökhan Zengin: Asst. Prof. Dr., Trakya University, Economic and Administrative Sciences, Public Administration Department, g_zengin@yahoo.com

Understanding Environmental Policy After Covid-19: An Introduction

Human beings have been interacting with the environment since the moment they appeared on the stage of history and they have continued their life by taking advantage of the blessings offered by the environment.

Looking at the process until the industrial revolution, the damage caused by humanity to the environment did not exceed the ability of the environment to renew itself, and even if there was pollution, the environment was able to absorb a large part of this pollution. When the environmental pollution in the early 1900s and the environmental pollution in the 1970s are compared, the pollution increased 2.7 times in the last 70 years (Turner, 2008: 407). With the industrial revolution, the pressure on the environment has started to increase. All components of nature have begun to face the process of being negatively affected by this situation. The increase in production has increased the pressure on natural resources, and the increase in population has accelerated the transformation of agricultural areas into residential areas. As a natural consequence of this situation, environmental problems have started to occur, which is well above the rate of renewal of the environment/nature.

Tab. 1 shows the real-time population of the world population from 1950 to 2020 and the probable projection population until 2100. The table reveals how high the world population growth rate is.

It would not be wrong to say that the necessary perception about the environment was not formed in the world until the 1970s. The economic policies followed during the process have also been of a nature to prevent the formation of this perception. As a matter of fact, when we look at the economic policies of classical and Keynesian economists, we see that the issues of increase in production, prevention of unemployment and development are intensively covered. As for the environment, there is a prevailing opinion that “damages to the environment are the result of development and this situation is bearable”. Again, in the process until the 1970s, environmental problems were considered on a local scale and a policy of treating after pollution was adopted (Uğur and Doğan, 2015: 46). However, by the 1970s, we can see that there is a transformation of thought about the environment in the world. Ecological problems experienced also demonstrate that environmental problems do not affect a single state or a ←9 | 10→single society anymore, on the contrary, each action that have cross-border effects independent from their origins and that is taken by a society or a state, gains a global dimension in the sense of affecting other societies and states seriously. As a result of this, the treatment policy for the emerging environmental pollution has also changed and took the form of prediction and prevention (Yildız and Yılmaz, 2015: 103). On the other hand, these years are also crucial in terms of addressing and attracting the attention of the world public to environmental problems. Cross-border effects of environmental problems, mutual interdependence between states and the necessity to fight against environmental problems collectively made reconciliation of mutual interdependence of states’ independence and environment. The great shock after the report “Limits to Growth” published by the Club of Rome in 1972 is an indicator of this. The report, which was prepared in 5 sections, includes the following sections;

Despite the fact that after 1970’s it started to be discussed among the states that there is a close relationship between environment and economy, and it is necessary to generate an absolute compliance between environment protection efforts ←11 | 12→and development initiatives in order to eliminate the environmental threats arising in consequence of aforementioned relationship, they were not able to obtain significant results until 1990’s. Certainly the reason of this situation is as also expressed by Giddens (2013) closely related with the fact that the hazards generated by environmental problems are substantial, urgent and prominent in daily life (Giddens, 2013: 12). However, in 1990’s environmental problems, which emerged at global level, started to affect economic, political and social structures directly and generated the collapse indisputably, necessitates to take environmental issues into consideration more seriously. In this process, global climate change, which initiated the emergence of many environmental hazards as a direct consequence of basic production and consumption system and which affects all the relevant and irrelevant states and societies, generated the field that states wish to cooperate in the most during the establishment stage of international environment regime (Axelrod et al., 2005; Orhan et al., 2017; Susskind, 1994). This kind of desire was arisen because climate change both causes many global environmental problems and also because the increasing demand on natural resources that are gradually become more limited generate the risk of conflict between states (Swanson, 1999: 212; Yılmaz and Çiftçi, 2013: 3). And since complicated environmental problem is composed of problems that have ←12 | 13→no borders nor nations and that are connected with each other, states’ addressing these problems within the framework of global cooperation creates a balance both in solution of problems that they are not able to solve by themselves and also between the conflicting economic and political interest of the states and therefore, initiated to find a fair solution. At this point, in spite of a fragmented and generally conflicting international system, which comprises of a large number of sovereign states, states constituted international cooperation and political coordination in the matter of solving problems of a global scale and that are affecting them or have a potential to affect them and therefore, enabled environmental issues to become a significant title in global politics (Vig., 2005: 4).

Fig. 1: Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity. Source: Ecological Footprint, https://theanthropocenedashboard.com/2019/08/02/ecological-footprint/

In this context, many conferences have been organized by the United Nations since 1972 to solve the environmental problems in the world (Tab. 2). Another important conference was held in Rio de Jenario in 1992. The Summit Agenda includes the following 4 main topics (For detailed information, see Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Vol. 1, United Nations, New York, 1993).

– Rio Declaration,

– Climate Change Convention,

– Convention on Biological Diversity,

– Agenda 21

After ensuring that environmental issues become a significant title of global politics and that sustainable development is important for the future of the world in solving the problem; it was emphasized that countries should act in accordance with the basic principles adopted in line with the UN Conferences. It has been mentioned that development is substantial, but that it should be created by paying attention to the concept of sustainability while implementing development policies and that countries should fulfill their responsibilities. It has been stated as an action that especially developed countries’ transfer of resources and technological aids to developing and least developed countries will offer important solutions to the environmental problems of the world. In addition, it was emphasized that global warming, climate change and the protection of biodiversity have emerged as the most essential problems of the world in the last 30 years and the necessity of finding solutions to them (Şahin and Yılmaz, 2017: 51).

Although providing the cooperation necessary for international climate regime, mobilized the states in the last period, due to a number of conflicts of interest dilemmas and complicated and problematical nature of the process itself, it does not come to fruition easily. Particularly the fact that negotiation of conflicting interests of so many states is virtually impossible and also the ←13 | 14→insufficiency of scientific knowledge and technological infrastructure affects the process negatively. Nevertheless, states and other actors enable the continuation of the process by reaching an agreement on least common denominator against the fact of climate change. However, at this point, agreeing on least common denominator or acting accordingly will not be enough to overcome the rapidly increasing environmental problems. This, on the other hand, will bring economic, social and political problems in the global sense and lead ←14 | 15→to the emergence of greater problems. Indeed, the Covid-19 outbreak that we are experiencing today – which we can say is narrower when compared to environmental problems – has caused serious social, economic and political problems in the world and has brought about a great chaos in the world, albeit temporarily. Considering this situation, it can be said that increasing environmental problems and the economic, social and political problems it will cause will bring about more irreversible destruction in the world than the Covid-19 outbreak process. As a matter of fact, it is seen that the recent climate change and events related to global warming, beyond affecting all developed and least developed nations and societies, cause serious damages and losses.