Explaining EU influence in international environmental negotiations

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to explain variation in the EU’s influence on specific issues negotiated in international environmental forums. Analysing twelve issues in the United Nations Environment Assembly, the Convention on Biological Diversity as well as the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, the paper identifies combinations of conditions that explain the EU’s level of influence. Through a qualitative comparative analysis, it studies the impact of the EU’s ambition, flexibility and isolation on the EU’s influence. It finds a high ambition combined with a low isolation as a key explanation of the EU’s high influence. For the EU’s low level of influence, a variety of causal paths are possible, such as a low ambition combined with a low degree of flexibility. The paper’s primary data source are interviews with EU delegates, who were closely involved in the negotiations.