Campaign for Sustainability: Department of State
Sustainability at the Department of State
"A world in crisis goes well beyond the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink. It is at once an environmental, economic, energy and national security issue with grave implications for America's and the world's future." - Secretary Hillary Clinton, Earth Day 2009
The Department of State is the federal government's primary institution for developing policies and addressing global problems and challenges, and interacting with the international community.
For years the State Department has advanced the idea of sustainable development as one of its international policy priorities. However, the question remains how much of a priority is sustainability and what other priorities supercede it? Another important question is how "sustainability" is defined and understood in practice by State Department staff and programs.
The official mission of the Department of State is to
Advance freedom for the benefit of the American people and the international community by helping to build and sustain a more democratic, secure, and prosperous world composed of well-governed states that respond to the needs of their people, reduce widespread poverty, and act responsibly within the international system.Here the concept of "sustainability" is linked to "a more democratic, secure and prosperous world" but without highlighting the need for this prosperity to be in harmony with the global ecosystem. Nevertheless, the State Department does consider environmental protection to be part of the policy mix in economic development and governance.
It is the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES), reporting to the Undersecretary of Democracy and Foreign Affairs, which states as its mission
to advance sustainable development internationally through leadership in oceans, environment, science and health.
The "environmental diplomacy" efforts of OES include
negotiating effective science-based global treaties and promoting their enforcement, developing international initiatives with key countries to harness market forces to the cause of sustainable development, and creating a foreign policy framework in which innovative public-private partnerships involving US interests can flourish in developed and developing countries worldwide.
While sometimes it may seem that it is sustainable development which is harnessed to market forces, nevertheless it is OES which mostly takes the lead in US delegations addressing global sustainability issues and agreements. OES is the focal point within interagency delegations to the UN Commission on Sustainable Development as well as with the UN Environment Programme, OECD and other international bodies negotiating or discussing sustainable development questions and challenges.
