UNEP in Global Environmental Governance: Design, Leadership, Location

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Ivanova
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
United Nations Environment Programme ◽  
Global Environmental Governance ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Subsequent Performance ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Systematic Methodology ◽  
Nations Environment ◽  
Environment Programme

As debates on reform of global environmental governance intensify, the future of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has come into acute political focus. Many argue that the organization has faltered in its role as the UN's leading agency for the environment. In this article, I use historical institutional analysis in combination with current international relations and management theory to explain UNEP's creation and evolution. Having described how the creators of UNEP envisioned the nascent organization, I analyze its subsequent performance, identifying the key factors that have shaped its record. I argue that the original vision for UNEP was ambitious but fundamentally pragmatic, and that the organization's mixed performance over the years can be explained by analysis of three factors: its design, leadership, and location. Thus, this article clarifies the record on UNEP's intended function, and lays the foundation for a systematic methodology for evaluating international organizations.

scholarly journals Private Environmental Governance and International Relations: Exploring the Links

2003 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Falkner
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Environmental Politics ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
International Negotiations ◽  
Global Environmental Governance ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Private Governance ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Global Environmental

This article discusses private environmental governance at the global level. It is widely acknowledged that corporations play an increasing role in global environmental politics, not only as lobbyists in international negotiations or agents of implementation, but also as actors creating private institutional arrangements that perform environmental governance functions. The rise of such private forms of global governance raises a number of questions for the study of global environmental politics: How does private governance interact with state-centric governance? In what ways are the roles/capacities of states and nonstate actors affected by private governance? Does the rise of private governance signify a shift in the ideological underpinnings of global environmental governance? This article explores these questions, seeking a better understanding of the significance of private environmental governance for International Relations.

The Emerging Debate on the Need for a World Environment Organization: A Commentary

2001 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Biermann
Keyword(s):  
Current System ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
United Nations Environment Programme ◽  
Environmental Regimes ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
World Environment ◽  
Nations Environment ◽  
Environment Programme

The debate on institutional reform of international environmental policy-making has gained momentum. This article discusses whether the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) should be replaced with a stronger world environment organization. First, it outlines different models of a world environment organization. It argues that the best option for the next decade would be to upgrade UNEP to a full-fledged international organization while maintaining the current system of decentralized, issue-specific international environmental regimes. In the long run, however, a world environment organization should lead to a closer integration and coordination of the myriad environmental treaties in the same manner in which the World Trade Organization has integrated the major trade agreements. Second, the article comments on the writings of both advocates and opponents of a world environment organization, with a focus on the contributions to this inaugural issue of Global Environmental Politics.

Making Influence Visible: Innovating Ethnography at the Paris Climate Summit

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly R. Marion Suiseeya ◽  
Laura Zanotti
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Politics Of Representation ◽  
Global Environmental Governance ◽  
Environmental Challenges ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Power And Influence

Although Indigenous Peoples make significant contributions to global environmental governance and were prominent actors at the 2015 Paris Climate Summit, COP21, they remain largely invisible in conventional, mainstream, and academic accounts of COP21. In this article, we adopt feminist collaborative event ethnography to draw attention to often marginalized and unrecognized actors and help make visible processes that are often invisible in the study of power and influence at sites of global environmental governance. Specifically, we integrate current approaches to power from international relations and political ecology scholarship to investigate how Indigenous Peoples, critical actors for solving global environmental challenges, access, navigate, and cultivate power at COP21 to shape global environmental governance. Through conceptual and methodological innovations that illuminate how Indigenous Peoples overcome structural and spatial barriers to engagement, this article demonstrates how attention to the politics of representation through pluralistic approaches to power can help expand the repertoire of possibilities for advancing global environmental governance.

scholarly journals Introduction: The Institutional Fragmentation of Global Environmental Governance: Causes, Consequences, and Responses

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fariborz Zelli ◽  
Harro van Asselt
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Global Environmental Governance ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Research Themes ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Governance Architecture ◽  
Institutional Fragmentation

This article introduces a special issue on the expanding research agenda on institutional fragmentation. The term refers to the growing diversity and challenges to coordination among private and public norms, treaties, and organizations that address a given issue area of international politics. International relations scholars increasingly address this phenomenon, framing it with alternative concepts like regime complexes or polycentricity. A considerable part of the existing debate remains focused on whether a centralized or polycentric governance architecture is preferable. Instead, as this special issue shows, domains of global environmental governance—like climate change, biological diversity, renewable energy, and forestry—are already fragmented. It is time to address new, more pertinent questions and help advance institutionalist research on this phenomenon. We introduce four major research themes for analyzing the fragmentation of different domains of global environmental governance: taking stock, causes, consequences, and responses.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document