COPing with Consent: Law-Making Under Multilateral Environmental Agreements

2002 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jutta Brunnée
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Environmental Agreements ◽  
Multilateral Environmental Agreements ◽  
Global Environmental Problems ◽  
International Environmental Governance ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Interactional Processes ◽  
Legislative Processes ◽  
Law Making

The growing sense of urgency regarding various global environmental problems has prompted calls for global legislative processes that could produce binding outcomes. However, as law-making gravitates into international forums, questions are raised regarding the legitimacy of international environmental governance. Much law-making today occurs under multilateral environmental agreements (‘MEAs’), such as the Climate Change Convention and its Kyoto Protocol. The article examines the role of Conferences of the Parties (‘COPs’) in MEA-based law-making. It juxtaposes the standard conception of international law-making and an alternative account, which sees law-making not simply as crystallized in formal consent procedures but as continuous interactional processes. The interactional account can help build the foundations for legitimate international environmental governance, and can provide important guidance to law-makers, even as they, even as they continue to operate within a formal, consent-based framework.

Environment and Sustainable Development

2019 ◽  
pp. 200-228
Author(s):  
Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger ◽  
Alexandra Harrington
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Agreements ◽  
International Governance ◽  
Multilateral Environmental Agreements ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Global Environmental Problems ◽  
System P ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Development Goals

This chapter considers the UN contributions to treaty-making in practice on the environment and sustainable development. It begins with a brief survey of the crafting and “clustering” of multilateral environmental agreements as international responses to emerging global environmental problems. Specifically, this chapter considers the role of the UN in this process, focusing on successive waves of treaty-making over recent decades. It suggests that the UN has played a very important role in negotiations in this field, and continues to serve as a crucial and valuable actor in the implementation and refinement of these treaties and the broader problem-based clusters, in spite of very limited resources. This chapter identifies several key treaties that address a selection of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs,) leading to a concluding consideration of how international accords in this field are, in turn, contributing to the UN Charter. It suggests that, without the UN-facilitated treaties, many SDGs could be considered “hollow,” dependent on voluntary collaborations, and devoid of reliable regimes to achieve their targets. Not all relationships are equally integrated. Fragmentation, duplication, unintended overlapping of obligations or even conflicts may exist. As international governance becomes more sophisticated and complex, these interrelated instruments can be negotiated, implemented, and interactionally refined across multiple nested levels. To this end, this chapter argues that adoption of the SDGs may support greater coherence across the UN system.

Trends in Global Environmental Governance: The Emergence of a Mutual Supportiveness Approach to Achieve Sustainable Development

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 16-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mukul Sanwal
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Large Degree ◽  
Environmental Agreements ◽  
Global Environmental Governance ◽  
Multilateral Environmental Agreements ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Environmental Negotiations ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Development Objectives

The experience of the last ten years of global environmental negotiations suggests that a new and different approach to international cooperation is required if we are to achieve sustainable development. While multilateral environmental agreements have provided a valuable framework for building a consensus on broad objectives, their implementation requires a focus on the underlying activities that cause environmental degradation. Moreover, globalization encourages the development and use of innovative technologies, leading to a large degree of overlap between global environmental concerns and national sustainable development objectives. These shifts require wholly new perspectives that are based less on determining responsibilities and more on supporting mutually reinforcing transformations. The new approach also looks beyond the state to other stakeholders as contributors to achieving sustainable development.

Measuring the Negotiation Burden of Multilateral Environmental Agreements

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miquel Muñoz ◽  
Rachel Thrasher ◽  
Adil Najam
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Environmental Agreements ◽  
Global Environmental Governance ◽  
Multilateral Environmental Agreements ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Environment And Development ◽  
Quantitative Indicators ◽  
Over Time

The Global Environmental Governance (GEG) system has grown significantly since the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. In this paper we analyze ten leading Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), reviewing various quantitative indicators (related to time, resources and commitment) to chart their evolution and to measure the “negotiation burden” that the burgeoning GEG system is imposing on states and secretariats. We find that these representative MEAs have not only grown in size but also have become busier over time, although there are indications that as the GEG system “matures,” it may also be stabilizing. Among other things, we find that the reported budget for these ten MEA secretariats has grown nine-fold in sixteen years, from US$ 8.18 million in 1992 to US$ 75.83 million in 2007. Counting only the most important of meetings, and using the number of meeting days as an indicator of the “negotiation load,” we find that the negotiation load for the leading MEAs has stabilized, averaging around 115 meeting days per year. Decisions also seem to plateau at about 185 per year.

scholarly journals China’s National Plan on Implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals: from the Perspective of National Performance of Multilateral Environmental Agreements

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-66
Author(s):  
Qin Tianbao ◽  
Hou Fang
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
National Level ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Coordination Mechanism ◽  
Environmental Agreements ◽  
Multilateral Environmental Agreements ◽  
International Environmental Governance ◽  
Development Goals

In terms of the implementation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements, the implementation of the agreements has gradually shifted from the institutional construction of the international level to the implementation of the national level. Since the Millennium Development Goals did not reach the goal of sustainable development in the year of 2015, 2030 Sustainable Development Goals had drew the lessons, put forward the goals of economic, social and environmental, and required all countries to provide their own country’s plan. As the largest developing country, China plays a decisive role in the international environmental governance. At home, China has formulated the domestic environmental governance norms for the implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, and established an inter ministerial coordination mechanism for implementing the Sustainable Development Agenda composed of 43 government departments. China is also actively participating in international environmental governance, participating and promoting the conclusion and effectiveness of treaties on environmental protection at the international and regional levels, earnestly implementing and helping other countries to implement treaties, and expanding the global partnership through various formal and informal meetings and other channels.

The Chinese Government's Role in Implementing Multilateral Environmental Agreements: The Case of the Montreal Protocol

2003 ◽  
Vol 175 ◽  
pp. 708-725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jimin Zhao ◽  
Leonard Ortolano
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Policy ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Montreal Protocol ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Environmental Agreements ◽  
Multilateral Environmental Agreements ◽  
Administrative Capacity ◽  
Global Environmental Problems ◽  
Environmental Policy Instruments ◽  
Global Environmental

The Multilateral Fund created by amendments to the Montreal Protocol played a key role in motivating the Chinese government to ratify and comply with the Protocol. Two other factors have affected China's actions in meeting the Protocol's requirements: the nation's desire to appear as a responsible and co-operative actor in solving global environmental problems, and the interest of China's principal implementing agency in expanding its responsibilities and authorities. Three factors have had significant roles in enhancing the national government's ability to implement the Protocol: expanded administrative capacity, participation of local government units with capability to enforce regulations, and the employment of market-based environmental policy instruments.

Part VI Actors, Ch.39 Sub-National Actors

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osofsky Hari M
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Voluntary Agreements ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
International Environmental Governance ◽  
Nation States ◽  
International Environmental Problems ◽  
Law Making

This chapter explores the evolving role of sub-national actors in international environmental law. As a matter of formal law, international environmental law is formed among sovereign nation-states; sub-national actors are treated as sub-units of their nation-states. However, sub-national actors, through transnational networks, are playing a growing role in international environmental governance. The chapter focuses on three aspects of sub-national actors' participation in international environmental law. First, it considers why including sub-national actors is crucial to solving international environmental problems. Second, it examines the emergence of networks interacting with international environmental law-making and each other at transnational, national, and sub-national scales. Third, it analyses how those networks interact directly with the formal processes of international environmental law-making and develop the parallel voluntary agreements in which sub-national actors pledge to uphold commitments made by nation-states.

Globalization of the Environmental Issues

2011 ◽  
pp. 147-165
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Abdel Gelil
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Governance System ◽  
Multilateral Environmental Agreements ◽  
Global Environmental Problems ◽  
Global Environmental

Environment is now considered the “common heritage of mankind,” and addressing global environmental problems are increasingly topping the international development policy agenda because of their cross-border effects. Since the Rio Conference in 1992, the world has witnessed a proliferation of multilateral environmental agreements, which aim to protect the global environment. This has put extra burdens on the institutional setup in the Arab countries, which already suffers from weak capacity, lack of resources, and power struggle in the national policy arena. This chapter portrays the evolution of the global environmental governance system and the development of a parallel legislative and institutional framework in the Arab region to respond to global environmental problems. Challenges faced by Arab countries while meeting its obligation in the MEAs include inadequate financing; low public awareness; limited negotiation capacity; and marginal involvement of civil society and the private sector. The effects of these barriers on the level of implementation by the Arab countries of different MEAs are reviewed.

Rethinking Private Authority

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica F. Green
Keyword(s):  
Green Building ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Multilateral Environmental Agreements ◽  
The Past ◽  
Delegation Of Authority ◽  
Private Authority ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Private Actors ◽  
Treaty Implementation

This book examines the role of nonstate actors in global environmental politics, arguing that a fuller understanding of their role requires a new way of conceptualizing private authority. It identifies two distinct forms of private authority—one in which states delegate authority to private actors, and another in which entrepreneurial actors generate their own rules, persuading others to adopt them. Drawing on a wealth of empirical evidence spanning a century of environmental rule making, the book shows how the delegation of authority to private actors has played a small but consistent role in multilateral environmental agreements over the past fifty years, largely in the area of treaty implementation. This contrasts with entrepreneurial authority, where most private environmental rules have been created in the past two decades. The book traces how this dynamic and fast-growing form of private authority is becoming increasingly common in areas ranging from organic food to green building practices to sustainable tourism. It persuasively argues that the configuration of state preferences and the existing institutional landscape are paramount to explaining why private authority emerges and assumes the form that it does. In-depth cases on climate change provide evidence for the book's arguments. The book demonstrates that authority in world politics is diffused across multiple levels and diverse actors, and it offers a more complete picture of how private actors are helping to shape our response to today's most pressing environmental problems.

Science Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century: Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 002200942110067
Author(s):  
Soenke Kunkel
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Special Section ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
Global Environmental Problems ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Science Diplomacy ◽  
The Cold War

Setting the stage for the special forum, this introduction points to the centrality of science diplomacy activities within many current foreign policy concepts around the world. It also points to the lack of historical perspective within many current academic debates about science diplomacy. Suggesting the value of such a perspective, the introduction then draws attention to a number of fruitful contributions that histories of science diplomacy may make to contemporary history. These include: a better understanding of how entanglements between science, foreign policy, and international relations evolved over the twentieth century; a refined understanding of the workings of foreign relations and diplomacy that sheds light on the role of science as an arena of foreign relations; new insights into the Cold War; a globalizing of perspectives in the writing of contemporary history; a new international focus on widely under-researched actors like universities, science movements, science organizations, and science academies; a focus on new themes that range from global environmental problems to issues like cultural heritage. The remainder of the introduction then delineates some of the shared assumptions and findings of the essays and then briefly introduces each contribution to the special section.

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