Global Environmental Governance and Rights of Nature Discourses in an Age of Deglobalisation

People, Planet, and Power

Bibliographic Data

ID19479656
AuthorsEva‐Maria Nag (0000-0003-0417-406X, Durham University, corresponding author)
Year2026
Publication date2026-06-04
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1674-0750 • E-ISSN: 2198-2600
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s40647-026-00470-x
OpenAlexW7163579324
LanguageEN
References cited59

This paper discusses the gradual but growing convergence of global environmental governance (GEG) with ideational innovations, specifically focusing on the Rights of Nature (RoN) discourses. The first, uncontroversial claim is that the 20th and early 21st century regime of GEG has failed to resolve the most significant environmental crises of our times. Second, deglobalisation as a period of heightened political contestation and counter-current thinking is also marked by increasing awareness and recognition of non-human actors. This context of continuity and change enables the emergence of conceptual and legal innovations such as the RoN that go beyond anthropocentric and growth-focused conceptualisations of sustainability. Third, although the content of these discourses is not uniform across the world, all variations of the RoN speak to the subjectivity and agency of nature while also invoking legal rights as effective tools for resisting domination by extractive elites and institutional power. The analysis of the impact of RoN discourses on GEG draws on Ranajit Guha’s theoretical framework of dominance and hegemony as contingent relations of power. The original framework is developed further to incorporate nature as a new actor alongside suppressed groups who now have greater visibility and influence in an age of pluralism and polycentricity. This analytical lens sheds light on the complexity and fluidity of indeterminate relationships of domination and resistance among elites, subalterns, and nature. Following from this, the fourth claim is that the impact of these discourses on environmental governance is more likely to be meliorative rather than radical. RoN discourses provide a basis for correctives to norms and policies, as well as checks on power instead of creating a new type of global environmental regime. The emergent interconnections between GEG and RoN discourses are thus interpreted as ideational innovation ‘writ small’, though not as ‘rendered ineffective.’

Corporate governance · Environmental governance · Global governance · Hegemony · Politics · Subjectivity · Environmental law and policy · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Human Rights and Development

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