Policies and legal aspects of environmental management

Abstract

Environment is one of the key components of sustainable development of human race. Therefore, to protect human civilisation, environment must be conserved. The world today is facing many environmental challenges posed by unregulated human activities. These include air pollution and worsening of air quality, water pollution and depletion of water resources, noise pollution and associated problems, soil pollution and contamination of soil, depletion of water table, climate change, depletion of forests, loss of biodiversity, depletion of ozone layer, problems associated with mounting garbage and wastes including hazardous and toxic wastes. To prevent deterioration of environment, proper environment management plans should be adopted. But to chalk out appropriate management plan, an environmental policy should be framed. The word policy is defined as a course of action, which has been proposed or adopted by any government, organisation or an individual. An environmental policy is course of action for the protection of environment, wildlife and natural resources. In a developing country like India, an environmental policy is especially required because there is a consistent need for balancing between environment on one side and the needs of human development on the other, considering the public opinion representing the views of both the elite expert and lay public. A good environmental policy is a precursor for ensuring sustainable development. Policy formulation becomes indispensable because policy is an instrument of transformation or a board guideline for planners and administrators to convert a given environment into a preferred environment. It is through a policy that we can precisely identify the problems; fix priority to form alternative approaches and solutions; make a choice among alternatives on the basis of comprehensive analysis of benefits and costs; articulate the choice in terms of goals expressed; provide organisation, personnel and resources to ensure effective implementation and to lay down a mechanism for continuous monitoring of the policy (Shandilya, 2015). The policy is the overall environmental intention and direction, forming the backbone and skeletal framework, from which all other environmental components such as environmental management systems, audits, assessments and reports are connected (Sharathchandran, 2005). The goals of the environmental policies may cover several environmental issues such as pollution of water, air and soil, land degradation, industrialisation, urbanisation, depletion of natural resources, human health protection, conservation of wild life, preservation of historic monuments etc. Though environmental policies and laws play a very crucial and important role in regulating the use of natural resources and in protecting the environment, success of environmental legislations mainly depends on the way they are enforced. Legislation also serves as a valuable tool for educating masses about their responsibility in maintaining healthy environment. Many international initiatives and legislations have already been put forth at national and international levels. Some of the important international conventions related to environment and climate are discussed briefly in the next section to get an overall idea of the initiatives taken to protect environment and reduce the impact of climate change.