global commons pool resources

Common pool resources (CPR) that have a global nature, such as the atmosphere, the oceans, global species diversity, migratory species, global biogeochemical processes, among others. It does not refer to property rights, such as a common property system. In general, CPR include natural and human‐ constructed resources in which (i) exploitation by one user reduces resource availability for others, and (ii) exclusion of beneficiaries through physical and institutional means is especially costly. These two characteristics ‐ difficulty of exclusion and subtractability ‐ create potential CPR dilemmas in which people following their own short‐term interests produce outcomes that are not in anyone’s long‐term interest.

Global commons are resources at a planetary scale that are outside national jurisdictions. International law identifies four global commons: the high seas; the atmosphere; Antarctica; and outer space, which are recognized as the common heritage of humankind (UNEP Division of Environmental Law and Conventions).