Environmental law functions within the legal system to set legally binding standards and rules for activities concerning the environment. Environmental law is a powerful tool to implement environmental policy by adhering parties to abide to legal environmental policy, and applying disincentive penalties such as sanctions if those laws are broken. Environmental policy and sustainability can be further facilitated by establishing a comprehensive environmental law system.
This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.
Agenda 21 recommends that governments, with the support of competent international organizations where appropriate, should regularly assess laws and regulations enacted and related institutional/administrative machinery established at the national/state and local/municipal level in the field of environment and sustainable development, with a view to rendering them effective in practice. Programmes for this purpose could include the promotion of public awareness, preparation and distribution of guidance material, and specialized training, including workshops, seminars, education programmes and conferences, for public officials who design, implement, monitor and enforce laws and regulations.
It also recommends that new and environmentally sound development-oriented land-use policies should be developed and adopted through appropriate national legislation, and introduced institutionally.