Beyond Confrontation: International Law for the Post-Cold War Era

of the oceans, protection and management of freshwater and land resources, environmentally sound management of wastes, biological diversity, etc.).

Secondly, it needs self-adjusting law-making techniques and devices adequate to respond to the ever-growing understanding of environmental problems and responses. As discussed above, these techniques may include, inter alia, flexible framework conventions and implementing protocols, procedures for quickly updating international agreements (such as opt-out or tacit acceptance of technical amendments and annexes), bridges of the gap between signature and entry into force (declarations of voluntary compliance, provisional application of certain provisions), and the use of non-binding commitments or standard-setting by international organizations.⁶⁹

Finally, it requires strict observance and compliance of states with their obligations as well as maximum widening of the number of states covered by the existing legal framework. A radical improvement in the present legal machinery is needed in order to control and to stimulate the participation of all states in environmental protection measures and even to force them to comply with the regulations when necessary.

International organizations, and the United Nations first and foremost, can play a key role in obtaining global environmental security. Various suggestions have been made in this regard.⁷⁰ The role and authority of the Commission on Sustainable Development will undoubtedly be central to this effort. Similarly, strong participation by non-governmental organizations, including the Earth Council formed after UNCED, will be essential to realizing global environmental security.

The environmental crisis is a challenge to the human race and a test of its ability to provide for the well-being of present and future generations. The end of the Cold War presents new opportunities, but it also presents new risks. From an environmental perspective, it is useful to recall, as then-Senator Tun Wirth put it, that "Earth is the only superpower." Under these circumstances, the achievement of environmental security for each and all depends on the united efforts of the whole international community.

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