Calling in the Heavyweights: Why the World Bank Established the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, and What It Might Achieve

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jørgen Wettestad ◽  
Lars H Gulbrandsen ◽  
Steinar Andresen
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Carbon Market ◽  
State Behavior ◽  
Carbon Pricing ◽  
International Climate Policy ◽  
International Environment ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Explicit Request

Abstract The initial key international climate policy and carbon market hub was the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Over time several international organizations and networks have been added to the “international carbon market web,” such as several World Bank (WB) initiatives. As to the latter, the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC) was launched in 2015. A key question then becomes: considering an increasingly dense international environment, why was the Coalition formed? Our analysis shows the importance of taking into account institutional pathways in the Bank itself and the character of previous WB-internal initiatives. However, it is particularly important to note interaction with a strong external pull, stemming both from more “systemic” developments such as the collapse of the Clean Development Mechanism system and the explicit request for new initiatives from key actors, such as UN General Secretary Ban-Ki Moon. We suggest seeing entrepreneurship from the bureaucracies of international organizations as conditional on member-state behavior or a conducive institutional environment (or both). We also discuss main prospects ahead, both for the Coalition and the more general organizational set-up in this issue-area. Here we draw attention to the role of the WB as an international “heavyweight” and CPLC and Bank meetings held back to back.

Angling for Influence: Institutional Proliferation in Development Banking

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyler Pratt
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Market Failures ◽  
Multilateral Development Banks ◽  
Institutional Control ◽  
Bretton Woods ◽  
Global Power ◽  
Identification Strategy

Abstract Why do states build new international organizations (IOs) in issue areas where many institutions already exist? Prevailing theories of institutional creation emphasize their ability to resolve market failures, but adding new IOs can increase uncertainty and rule inconsistency. I argue that institutional proliferation occurs when existing IOs fail to adapt to shifts in state power. Member states expect decision-making rules to reflect their underlying power; when it does not, they demand greater influence in the organization. Subsequent bargaining over the redistribution of IO influence often fails due to credibility and information problems. As a result, under-represented states construct new organizations that provide them with greater institutional control. To test this argument, I examine the proliferation of multilateral development banks since 1944. I leverage a novel identification strategy rooted in the allocation of World Bank votes at Bretton Woods to show that the probability of institutional proliferation is higher when power is misaligned in existing institutions. My results suggest that conflict over shifts in global power contribute to the fragmentation of global governance.

The autonomy of international organizations? The analysis of major powers’ influence over the World Bank’s aid policies

2021 ◽  
pp. 223386592110248
Author(s):  
Yooneui Kim ◽  
Youngwan Kim
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Development Assistance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Official Development Assistance ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Major Powers ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World

Are international organizations autonomous actors in global politics? This paper investigates whether and how major powers influence the World Bank’s official development assistance policies. Despite the World Bank’s attempts to maintain independence from its member states, we argue that major powers are still influential. Testing this expectation with the data of official development assistance provisions between 1981 and 2017, we find that the World Bank provides a higher amount of official development assistance to the recipient countries that receive a higher amount of such assistance from the major powers such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan. In addition, the World Bank is prone to provide a higher amount of official development assistance to the recipients that have a similar preference to the major powers. This study sheds light on the relations between major powers and international organizations.

Why Does Aid Not Target the Poorest?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan C Briggs
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Aid ◽  
World Bank ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Team Leaders ◽  
Donor Side ◽  
Local Effects ◽  
Remote Areas ◽  
Incentive Structures ◽  
Task Team

Abstract Foreign-aid projects typically have local effects, so they need to be placed close to the poor if they are to reduce poverty. I show that, conditional on local population levels, World Bank (WB) project aid targets richer parts of countries. This relationship holds over time and across world regions. I test five donor-side explanations for pro-rich targeting using a pre-registered conjoint experiment on WB Task Team Leaders (TTLs). TTLs perceive aid-receiving governments as most interested in targeting aid politically and controlling implementation. They also believe that aid works better in poorer or more remote areas, but that implementation in these areas is uniquely difficult. These results speak to debates in distributive politics, international bargaining over aid, and principal-agent issues in international organizations. The results also suggest that tweaks to WB incentive structures to make ease of project implementation less important may encourage aid to flow to poorer parts of countries.

Recognized and Violated by International Law: The Human Rights of the Global Poor

2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 717-745 ◽  
Author(s):  
THOMAS POGGE
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
World Bank ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
The World

Various human rights are widely recognized in codified and customary international law. These human rights promise all human beings protection against specific severe harms that might be inflicted on them domestically or by foreigners. Yet international law also establishes and maintains institutional structures that greatly contribute to violations of these human rights: fundamental components of international law systematically obstruct the aspirations of poor populations for democratic self-government, civil rights, and minimal economic sufficiency. And central international organizations, such as the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank, are designed so that they systematically contribute to the persistence of severe poverty.

Problematizing the Privatization of Water

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Gamero
Keyword(s):  
Private Sector ◽  
World Bank ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Special Interest Groups ◽  
Trade Policies ◽  
Safe Drinking Water ◽  
Human Right ◽  
The World ◽  
Precious Resource ◽  
The Cost

This presentation will focus on the issue of the privatization of water. The privatization of water is currently being facilitated by the growth of trade liberalization and the free trade policies of international organizations like the IMF and World Bank. It is also growing due to the neoliberal policies of states and because of the increasing power of the private sector (including well- funded lobby and special interest groups) over the policies of governments. The principal arguments and viewpoints of those who both support and oppose the privatization of water will be examined and evaluated. In particular, arguments concerning the cost and accessibility of water for people will be studied. The effects and implications of privatization in highly diverse communities in both developed and developing countries will be discussed. An example from the community of Cochabamba in Bolivia will be analyzed, showing many of the drawbacks that can come with the privatization of water. This presentation will argue that water is a precious resource which ought not to be treated as a commodity. Instead, it should be treated as a human right that no individual or corporation should make a monetary profit from. Governments ought to provide safe drinking water for their citizens, rather than leaving this duty to the private sector as is happening in many parts of the world.

scholarly journals Activities of Non-Governmental Organisations Aimed at Conflict Settlement in Post-Soviet States

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Nikitin ◽  
Irina Bolgova ◽  
Yulia Nikitina
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
The State ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Public Interests ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
International Environment ◽  
International Projects ◽  
The Government ◽  
Public Organisations ◽  
Set Up

This article analyses the peace-making activities of Soviet/Russian nongovernmental public organisations (NGOs) with reference to the Federation for Peace and Conciliation, the successor of the Soviet Peace Committee. NGOs were formed at the initiative of the state and party organs of the Soviet system but were transformed into independent NGOs after the collapse of the USSR with their own active strategy of assistance in conflict resolution. This study is based upon unique archive materials and the personal experience of one of the authors, who used to work for such organisations. The study focuses on the ethnopolitical conflicts which took place between the collapse of the USSR and the mid‑1990s. There is a widespread opinion in academic literature that so-called non-governmental organisations set up by the government do not have their own identity, especially during social crises, and passively follow the government’s political line. However, the study of their activities demonstrates that during the first years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, these organisations initiated a significant number of practical and political projects with the participation of high-ranked representatives of the governments, parliaments, and political parties of both post-Soviet and foreign states and international organisations, including the UN, OSCE, NATO, CIS, etc. This, in turn, played a role as a substantial supplement to classical interstate diplomacy and practically promoted the settlement of certain ethnopolitical conflicts. The archive materials analysed prove that in the early post-Soviet period, a certain inversion in the direction of political and ideological impulses took place, and a number of non-governmental organisations that used to transmit the interests of the Communist Party and state organs to the international environment were able to create new international projects and consultations in the form of “track one-and-a-half” diplomacy, i. e. the informal interaction of officials in the capacity of unofficial experts. And in such cases, it was NGOs which shaped the agenda and transmitted public interests to the state structures of Russia and the CIS states, mediating between fighting sides and amongst representatives of various states, practically assisting the settlement of ethnopolitical conflicts.

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