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The Organization of Global Environmental Governance Gunilla Reischl, 23 February, 2016

Introduction• What has the global community done to tackle environmental problems? • The history of global environmental governance is affected by wider developments in global political economy• …and a history of international cooperation, diplomatic efforts, institutional creation, treaty making and negotiations

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Outline of the lecture• Environment as a political issue• Interstate regimes global governance• Practice and functions of GEG/GEP

1960s and 1970s

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1980s

1990s

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Global conferences (summits)Stockholm 1972

UN Conference on the Human

Environment

•Tension between environment and development –developing countries viewed it as a problem for the developed countries

•Principle of national sovereignty over natural resources

•Creation of UNEP

’Awareness-raising’

Rio de Janeiro 1992UN Conference on Environment and

Development

• End of Cold war –’window of opportunity’

• Environment and development. Developing countries saw opportunities for ODA

• Political success?

Agenda 21 – ’To do list’

Johannesburg 2002World Summit on

Sustainable Development

•Follow up of Rio

•Marked by 11 September – war on terrorism

•Focus on social development -’poverty eradication’

Implementation

Rio de Janeiro 2012UN Conference on

Sustainable Development

Green economy

Institutional framework

Lack of political will

Environmental problem International agreements (e.g.)Climate change UNFCCC (1992)Kyoto Protocol (1997)Depletion of ozone layer Vienna Convention (1985)Montreal Protocol (1987)Biological diversity Convention on Biological Diversity(1992)Cartagena Protocol (2000)CITES (1973)Deforestation IPF (1995-97)IFF (1997-2000)UNFF (2000-)Desertification UNCCD (1994)

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Interstate cooperation and regimes• When the international dimension of environmental problems was first being considered seriously, there was a dominant academic concern: international cooperation as a mean to their solutionThe problem :“Can a fragmented and often highly conflictual political system made up of over 170 sovereign states and numerous other actors achieve the high levels of cooperation and policy coordination needed to manage environmental problems on a global scale?” (Hurren and Kingsbury 1992: 1)

International cooperation • International environmental cooperation: approached from an institutional angle• Political science and IR has focused on the field of regime theory and more recently on the field of global governance• The primacy of states was usually taken for granted• Assumption of international anarchy and the need to provide something comparable to a world government

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International institutions • International institution: Though a range of usages exists, most scholars have come to regard international institutions as sets of rules (explicit and/or implicit)meant to govern international behavior. • International regime: describes principles, norms, rules and decision-making procedures within an issue area. • International organization: international bureaucratic structures connected to norm and rule systems: characterized by: permanent headquarter, secretariat, members, budget.Within international politics the term international institution increasingly is used as an umbrella term for all forms of institutionalized cooperation at international level

International Regimes• Response to the demand of governance in a specific issue area• Institutional frameworks with formal rules and informal practices• Shape and constrain actors behaviour

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International Regimes: definition• International regimes can be defined as sets of implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures around which actors’ expectations converge in a given area of international relations. (Krasner, 1983, p2)

Regime complexes

Keohane and Victor 2010

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Global governanceA key theme in international environmental politics Capture the overarching set of arrangements, which goes beyond individual issue areasConnects IEP to more general patterns of global politicsVariation in how the term global environmental governance is used.

Global governance as characterized: • Multi-actor• New mechanisms of organization alongside the traditional system • Multilevel

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States and GEG• Key actors in GEG: creating many pieces and carrying out many of the activities• Have sovereignty. Set the mandates, create international law and norms and determine the effectiveness through their compliance or failure to comply. • More than 190 states, vary dramatically –different importance in GEG

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Non-state actors• International organizations • Non-governmental organizations• Transnational Corporations • Experts

Who?• Barriers to participation• Who participates?• How do actors participate? Legitimacy, accountability and effectivness

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Actor strategies• States: coalitions• NGOs: networks

Organization of NGOs and sub-national actors, self-organization. Important for implementation , innovative mechanisms such as benchmarking

Negotiations• Negotiations are a mode of decision-making, or management tools in international politics• Are used to identify common interests, bring parties closer together and work out acceptable solutions to a variety of issues• Every negotiation has its own characteristics depending on which area it concerns. • The characteristics relate to the issues being discussed, the actors and the solution or outcome of a negotiation.

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Discussion• Are we capable of securing the planet’s future with the economic and political institutions we currently have at our disposal? • What forms of governance and collective action are possible in a context of globalization?