They have increased in number substantially in recent decades and now occupy a significant position of influence not only with the higher levels of the international bureaucracy as lobbying groups but also with a more grassroots level of inspiring awareness and action among individuals who may, in turn, influence their respective national governments.
Perhaps it will be this non-bureaucratic movement that will eventually be the most influential in terms of changing international environmental policies. NGOs are an almost surefire way to encourage the bureaucracy to affect change; the "are indirect means of influencing industry's [or the bureaucracy's] environmental performance." Perhaps it will be these organizations' informing the public, depicting the consequences of a lack of regulation, and teaching individuals how to organize for change that will eventually influence the gridlocked bureaucracy of government and international organizations with regard to environmental regulations.
Bureaucracies serve a range of purposes, whether in the form of individual national governments or international organizations like the UN. They provide uniform standards of behavior and regulation with regard to a variety of issues, from nuclear proliferation to rules of war to environmental regulations. The potential of an independent audit or inspection from an outside agency is often enough to inspire a nation that might not otherwise comply with a certain treaty to do so; the court of public opinion as portrayed by NGOs also influences these nations to comply with what is perceived as important to its citizens. The bureaucratic method of enforcement and regulation-setting mutually agreeable rules, creating an independent inspection process, and establishing enforceable procedures for noncompliance-is really the only plausible way to regulate behavior between nations in the global community.
International organizations have taken significant steps toward a more active role in environmental regulation in recent years-"new institutions such as the Global Environment Facility and the Commission for Sustainable Development have been created in the 1990s, while many existing institutions, such as the
Despite the inherent drawbacks of bureaucratic regulation, it still remains the best -- and possibly only-method of global regulation of standards to protect the global ecosystem.
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