Global environmental governance after liberal environmentalism

Global environmental governance has long been predicated on a normative compromise, commonly referred to as ‘liberal environmentalism’, which posits that addressing global environmental challenges requires the promotion and maintenance of a liberal economic order. Today, however, the global economy is fragmenting across its material, ideational, and institutional dimensions due to renewed geopolitical rivalry and the resurgence of state capitalism. This commentary explores what the fraying of the liberal basis of the world economy means for global environmental governance. Across global climate, food, and plastics governance, we identify a disjuncture: Institutions produced by the compromise of liberal environmentalism are increasingly out of step with a post-liberal global economy being reconfigured along statist and geopolitical lines. We reflect on the implications of this disjuncture for the future of global environmental governance and for social forces committed to environmental equity and justice.