A global guardian to address the ecological crisis

Abstract

The current global ecological crisis poses an existential threat to humanity. It is characterised by complexity, urgency, inertia and irreversibility, and has serious implications for future generations. The thesis develops the case for a global guardian – a constitutionally limited, legitimate coercive global authority – to secure ecological sustainability. The case is made on the basis of a theoretical framework that is firmly rooted in normative political philosophy and that draws on contractarianism, liberalism, republicanism and deliberative democracy, among others. Through this theoretical lens, I have argued that there is a legitimate case for the development of a globally-binding legal framework that provides effective protection to the global ecological commons as a global public good. A refined conceptual understanding of the global ecological commons is developed to refer to goods that are necessary for the maintenance of Holocene-like conditions on Earth. I have also elaborated three ethical principles of distributive justice that would serve to guide the fair distribution of access to the global ecological commons among states. Finally, the concept of global guardianship is linked to four principles of good governance which are presented as necessary conditions for legitimate global governance. These are sufficiency, subsidiarity, democracy and solidarity. The thesis develops the normative case for global guardianship as a realistic utopia and identifies conditions that are necessary for its realisation.