Policy options: regional summary

This book chapter from the Global Environment Outlook: Environment for the future we want (GEO-5) provides a regional summary of policy options for addressing environmental degradation and sustainable development, highlighting common priorities and the principles behind successful policy implementation.

• Freshwater, climate change, and environmental governance were identified as priorities across all regions, with climate change noted for exerting extreme pressure on ecological systems and exacerbating water supply and demand issues.
• Successful policies across different regions often utilize common tools, including integrated water resources and coastal zone management, marine protected areas, cross-boundary biodiversity conservation, renewable energy, and the removal of environmentally harmful subsidies, particularly carbon taxes and those on fossil fuels.
• The effectiveness of environmental policies depends on a foundation of formal, robust, and well-established governance structures at all levels, as well as principles such as addressing drivers of degradation, investing in monitoring and evaluation, and ensuring multi-stakeholder participation.
• Reversing environmental degradation and unsustainable resource use requires improved environmental governance, which includes strong compliance mechanisms, adequate legal frameworks, enhanced institutional capacity, financial sustainability, and public awareness.
• Transboundary cooperation is essential for shared natural areas to facilitate knowledge transfer and collective responses to common problems.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2012). Policy options: regional summary. https://www.sei.org/publications/geo-5-chapter-15-policy-options-regional-summary/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Policy options: regional summary. 2012. https://www.sei.org/publications/geo-5-chapter-15-policy-options-regional-summary/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Policy options: regional summary |date=6 June 2012 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/geo-5-chapter-15-policy-options-regional-summary/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2012policy, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Policy options: regional summary}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2012}, month = jun, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/geo-5-chapter-15-policy-options-regional-summary/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }