Nature protection policy and environmental measures within development and international cooperation play a central role in conflicts over resources. Since the mid-nineties, the topic of globalization was making all the headlines. Since September 2001, global security has dominated the international agenda. Against the background of this development, a special meaning is given to global environmental governance as well as the development of the concept of sustainability. A paper by Sascha Müller-Kraenner and Uwe Brendle.

The World Summit at Johannesburg suffered not only because of differing interests between the North and the South, and the substantial complexity and deficits of international governance structures in the areas of environment and development, but also because of the programmatic weakening of the sustainability debate.