COMMON BUT DIFFERENTIATED RESPONSIBILITIES: ITS SCOPE AND CHALLENGES IN GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT ADMINISTRATION

Earth’s environment is the fountainhead of life on this planet, like the other elements of water, soil, fire and space which have helped in sustainability, improvement and development of all living things. The concept of protection of environment came much after the post-Independence era because right after independence people were more concerned in setting up industries, markets, factories, employment generation for development of our country.

While it is becoming increasingly evident that environmental problems such as climate change and global warming constitute existential threats to human societies, these problems will very likely persist and even intensify unless governments enact effective and potentially costly environmental policies. However, government policies and spending ultimately rely on public support, thus underscoring the need to increase present knowledge about the processes underlying citizens' policy attitudes. There is a relationship between citizens' normative views about government responsibility and their support for government spending on the environment. While people who think that ,as a general principle it ought to be the government's responsibility to protect the environment should be more likely to support increasing government spending on the environment, we argue that this relationship is dependent on the quality of the government too.

The prospects for governments to increase their efforts to protect the environment ultimately rely on public support, as wavering support might impose substantial constraints on governments' environmental policy ambitions. To facilitate the conditions under which effective and potentially costly environmental policies can successfully be enacted, it is therefore crucial to have a good understanding about the processes underlying citizens' support for environmental policy.

Public support for environmental policies should ultimately depend on the extent to which citizens think that, as a general principle, it ought to be the government's responsibility to protect the environment. However, the translation of such normative views about government responsibility into concrete policy attitudes does not occur in a social and institutional vacuum. Apart from governments , citizens should also contribute in protecting the environment, just like a governed citizen should support the government practising few norms as follows :

CONSUME LESS

Curbing consumption can have a huge impact on the environment. The three "R's", reduce, reuse and recycle get a lot of attention, but the planet could benefit from some focus on the most important and most underrepresented "R" :  Refuse.

When you refuse, you say "no," which is not always easy. Freebies at events, cheap goods on clearance, the hot new children's toys or the latest gadgets that promise to make your life better, none of these are essential. And they almost always end up either in the trash or forgotten in the back of a cupboard . Next time you’re tempted to purchase or accept a non-essential item, think about whether it would truly improve your life. If not, it's ok to just say, "No, thanks!"Another “R” that doesn’t get much attention but has important environmental implications is “Rot.” As in, let your food and yard waste rot naturally in the soil instead of sending it to the landfill. 

COMPOST

Composting your food scraps and yard waste offers double rewards, it keeps an incredible amount of trash out of the waste stream, and it produces free, rich soil to use in your garden. Some cities now pick up organic waste alongside regular trash and recycling pick ups. If your area doesn’t offer this service, you can set up a low-maintenance compost pile in your backyard.

RECYLE AND RE-USE

There are so many people who drink beverages from disposable cups or disposable bottles, sipping from disposable straws, carrying disposable grocery bags, eating from disposable plates or containers and using disposable utensils. All that single-use plastic has to go somewhere, and it’s had a devastating effect on our soil, oceans and marine life. Switch to reusable items and make a commitment to use them as often as possible. You’ll have less trash piling up at your curb, and you’ll be helping to protect the environment in a major way.

If you can’t refuse it…and you can’t rot it…and you can’t reduce it…and or reuse it…then it’s time to turn to the final “R”, Recycling. Educate yourself on what can and cannot be recycled in your bins at home. Throwing the wrong items in the recycle bin can result in an entire load being rejected, which means … back to the landfill.

One can easily find out how to recycle special items such as electronics, batteries and appliances, by checking with local municipality for drop-off sites, and make an effort to get your items to the proper disposal sites.

Not only The Government and its citizens , but the Judiciary has also played an active role in environment protection. The Judiciary has pronounced various judgements in relation to this matter . The Supreme Court on 4th November, 2019 passed a stringent order stating that all the government officials in all levels will be held responsible for hesitating to prevent  halting of polluting activities such as stubble burning, open burning of waste in the states of New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Haryana. There are various doctrines that have been laid by the Judiciary in promoting the right to clean air, like The Doctrine of Public Trust in the case of M.C. Mehta v. Kamal Nath . In this case the The Supreme Court applied this doctrine for the first time in India to an environmental problem of breathing clean air. According to the Supreme Court, the public trust doctrine primarily rests on the principle that certain resources like air, sea , water bodies  and forests have such a great importance to the people as a whole that it would be wholly unjustified to make them a subject of private ownership. The Doctrine of Sustainable Development was established in the case of Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum v. Union of India, where the Supreme Court was of the opinion that the traditional concept that development and ecology are opposed to each other, is no longer acceptable and that sustainable development is the answer.