International Environmental Negotiations Research Articles

Transboundary fine dust pollution in China and Korea: How has international politics impeded environmental negotiations?

AbstractTransboundary fine dust has been a leading cause of dispute between China and Korea since the mid‐2010s. This study observes that transboundary fine dust is not purely an environmental issue, but rather mixed with political and diplomatic challenges. Despite the emerging bilateral and multilateral efforts to tackle this issue, this research sheds light on how political and diplomatic factors have undermined the outcomes of environmental negotiations between China and Korea. We highlight three dimensions of policy‐based studies: scientific joint research on source‐receptor relationships, interstate environmental negotiations, and multilateral environmental institutions in Northeast Asia. This study argues that transboundary fine dust cooperation has been extensively entangled with national political interests and proceeded via diplomatic channels, leading to the current absence of binding agreements and policy commitments. Therefore, a steady process of de‐linking environmental cooperation and diplomatic fluctuations would be the best direction to proceed in a long‐term perspective.

The EU’s strategic approaches in international environmental negotiations

Cet article étudie l'approche stratégique de l'UE dans les négociations environnementales internationales. En analysant les approches argumentatives, de marchandage et de résolution de problèmes, cet article répond à la question suivante : comment différents facteurs expliquent-ils l'approche stratégique que l'UE applique ? À travers l’analyse d’entretiens avec des délégués, de documents officiels et de rapports, l’article souligne qu’une ambition élevée, une saillance élevée et des négociations en phase finale conduisent l’UE à utiliser des stratégies argumentatives ou de marchandage. Une ambition et une saillance faibles et des négociations à un stade précoce conduisent l’UE à utiliser la résolution de problèmes.

How Australia’s Middle Power Identity Has Informed Its Behaviour at the BBNJ Negotiations

Abstract The negotiations for a new international legally binding instrument to conserve and sustainably utilise marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) have been the subject of much analysis and commentary since their commencement. Yet there is still relatively little consideration of what can be learnt about state behaviour from the BBNJ negotiations. This article engages in an analysis of Australia’s behaviour as a case study of the often-overlooked category of middle power states. Hence, this article is envisioned as an exploratory study into middle powers in international environmental negotiations, with the goal of prompting further exploration of both the BBNJ negotiations specifically, as well as the role of different kinds of states in the creation of international environmental law. The overarching question being asked here is “How has Australia’s middle power identity informed its behaviour at the BBNJ negotiations?”

Growing Apart: China and India at the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol

Abstract Developing countries are growing apart on environmental issues. International environmental negotiations are no longer characterized merely by the North–South conflict. Rising powers have come to divide the Global South and redefine the Common-But-Differentiated Responsibilities principle. This article explains the divergence of China and India at the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, one of the first global environmental agreements to differentiate obligations between developing countries. China and India, the world’s two largest hydrofluorocarbon producers, ended decades of collaboration and split the rest of the developing world behind them. I argue that developmental strategy and political institutions shape the preferences and influences of industrial, governmental, and social stakeholders, thereby explaining their negotiation behavior and outcome. This article explains why China moved faster and further than India on negotiations for hydrofluorocarbon regulation. It has important implications for the two rising powers’ implementation of the Kigali Amendment and for their position formulations on other environmental issues.

Redefining Development: The Extraordinary Genesis of the Sustainable Development Goals

How do states who are not typically leaders in multilateral negotiations change this role and become leaders in shaping negotiation outcomes? The book Redefining Development: The Extraordinary Genesis of the Sustainable Development Goals provides an in-depth look into the role that Colombia played in the negotiations that made the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) the key outcome of the Rio + 20 Conference in 2012. Paula Caballero, with Patti Londoño, provides the inside account of how Colombia spearheaded the idea, built initial coalitions with Guatemala and others, convinced major players both of the idea and specific aspects, and pushed the idea relentlessly through preparatory meetings. The inside look into the process provides an insightful story into international environmental negotiations and provides a unique perspective on how changes can occur in multilateral negotiations. The 88 pages of appendices, the majority of which are key documents from the negotiation process, are of particular interest for researchers of the SDGs process.

Persuasive innovators for environmental policy: green business influence through technology-based arguing

ABSTRACT Green industries and companies provide crucial political support for ambitious environmental policy. In this article, I examine through which mechanisms green business interests influence international environmental negotiations. I theorize technology-based arguing as an influence mechanism that builds on combined technological and discursive power and can outstrip relational and structural business power rooted in material resources. I probe these propositions in a process-tracing case study of new wastewater regulations for ships in the Baltic Sea negotiated in the Helsinki Commission and International Maritime Organization. I find that green business built, expanded, and sustained state support for ambitious nutrient removal standards by persuasively arguing that advanced treatment was feasible. Provision of tangible evidence of technology development, availability, and uptake undermined the influence of reluctant and materially superior business interests. I conclude that even small green business actors can facilitate ambitious environmental policy when communication channels between innovators and policymakers are strong.

Is it only about science and policy? The 'intergovernmental epistemologies' of global environmental governance.

Although international actors operating under the United Nations umbrella put much faith in the possibility of bridging science and policy through various institutional arrangements, research in the Science and Technology Studies (STS) tradition suggests that different civic epistemologies revolve around environmental degradation issues. Civic epistemologies, which imply peculiar understandings of knowledge across cultures, are not easily bridged. This paper contends that conflicting (civic) epistemologies inevitably emerge in epistemic debates at the intergovernmental level, with strong implications for how science and knowledge are dealt with and understood in environmental negotiations. Drawing on the experience of global soil and land governance and building on the idiom of civic epistemologies, the concept of intergovernmental epistemologies is introduced as an analytical tool to capture the diverging ways of appreciating and validating knowledge in intergovernmental settings. Placing state actors and their perspectives center stage, intergovernmental epistemologies account for the tensions, contestations and politicisation processes of international institutional settings dealing with environmental issues. The paper concludes discussing the consequences of intergovernmental epistemologies for the study of global environmental governance: it cautions about overreliance on approaches based on learning and all-encompassing discourses, emphasizing the value of using STS-derived concepts to investigate the complexity of international environmental negotiations.

Interests, Institutions, and the Environment: An Examination of Fisheries Subsidies

Abstract Protecting the environment has emerged as one of the major challenges in international relations. In international environmental negotiations, countries hold divergent positions because of domestic politics and specifically the interaction of interests and institutions. Domestic political institutions privilege the interests of some groups over others, depending on their geographic distribution. This observation matters for global environmental cooperation because groups with varied interests in protecting the environment often exhibit different geographic patterns, as illustrated in negotiations over fisheries subsidies at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The fishing industry tends to be concentrated in geographic space because of its reliance on a geographically specific natural resource. The industry’s geographic concentration gives it relatively more political clout in countries with plurality electoral systems. Environmentalists, who tend to be more diffuse geographically, enjoy greater political influence in countries with proportional representation systems and party-centered electoral competition. These political dynamics, as well as the electoral success of Green political parties, influence governments’ spending priorities as well as states’ positions in international environmental negotiations.

Explaining EU influence in international environmental negotiations

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.

Embodied CO2 in China’s trade of harvested wood products based on an MRIO model

International trade of goods is also flows of CO2. As a key exporter of harvested wood products (HWPs), China emits a large amount of CO2 to meet the consumption of other countries. This article uses an MRIO model to quantify the embodied CO2 emissions of China’s HWP sectors in international trade based on the WIOD database. China’s CO2 emissions from a production perspective were 121.25 Mt, more than four times those from a consumption perspective. China was a net exporter for embodied CO2 in HWP sectors, while the US was China’s largest importer. In addition, the furniture sector exported more embodied CO2 by international trade than those from the wood and paper sectors. Based on the unbalances of exports and imports, establishing a common international standard to share the responsibility for CO2 emissions is of great urgency in HWP sectors. This article facilitates promoting CO2 emission reduction in HWP sectors and references China’s future participation in international trade and environmental negotiations.

Germplasm exchange is critical to conservation of biodiversity and global food security

AbstractGlobal food security depends on the continual improvement of a relatively small number of food and feed crops. Today's food supply is heavily dependent on the movement of seed and other forms of plant germplasm for these crops across national and regional borders. As occurred during the Green Revolution, facilitated and widespread exchange of the major food crops is critical for food security. Plant breeders, molecular biologists, and agronomists, using scientifically guided processes and working collaboratively around the world, are achieving greater gains in crop yields and quality in shorter times than in the past. However, newer policies emerging from international environmental negotiations are giving rise to restrictions that are limiting access and exchange of germplasm and threatening food security. We argue that these evolving policies and practices are having far‐reaching and negative impacts on plant breeding, agriculture, and food security. We provide some ideas on how to steer future policy negotiations to encourage germplasm exchange and thereby support food security and other important environmental objectives.

Voluntary Participation in International Environmental Agreements and Authority Structures in a Federation: A Note

We examine how a voluntary participation decision in international environmental negotiations affects the endogenous authority structure in a federation. In our model, the federal government of each country decides whether to delegate both the decision to participate in a negotiation that determines the abatement level of pollution (the level of the public good), and the negotiation itself, to a regional government of the polluter region. We show that there exists a subgame perfect equilibrium in which none of the federal governments chooses delegation, which is quite different from the authority structure in the absence of a voluntary participation decision. The main contribution is to explain why the federal government has an incentive not to delegate decisions to a regional government

Ego versus Alter: Internal and External Perceptions of the EU's Role in Global Environmental Negotiations

AbstractThis paper compares how European and non‐European participants in international environmental negotiations perceive the EU's role in such negotiations. Three dimensions of the EU's role (environmental ambition, diplomatic activity and influence) are assessed in three UN‐wide environmental forums (the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions on chemicals, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the United Nations Environment Assembly). The paper presents original data collected through an online survey with 659 delegates who participated in the negotiations in the three forums in the period 2018–19. Comparing the ego perception of delegates from the EU with the alter view of delegates from non‐EU countries, the paper finds that the ego and alter perceptions of the EU's ambition, diplomatic activities and influence are largely similar. Both ego and alter see the EU as a highly ambitious, active and influential actor in global environmental negotiations.

New alliances in global environmental governance: how intergovernmental treaty secretariats interact with non-state actors to address transboundary environmental problems

The past few years have witnessed a growing interest among scholars and policy-makers in the interplay of international bureaucracies with civil society organizations, non-profit entities, and the private sector. Authors concerned with global environmental politics have made considerable progress in capturing this phenomenon. Nevertheless, we still lack in-depth empirical knowledge on the precise nature of such institutional interlinkages across governance levels and scales. Building upon the concept of orchestration, this article focuses on the relationship between specific types of international bureaucracies and actors other than the nation-state. In particular, we investigate how the secretariats of the three Rio Conventions reach out to non-state actors in order to exert influence on the outcome of international environmental negotiations. Our analysis demonstrates that the three intergovernmental treaty secretariats utilize various styles of orchestration in their relation to non-state actors and seek to push the global responses to the respective transboundary environmental problems forward. This article points to a recent trend towards a direct collaboration between these secretariats and non-state actors which gives rise to the idea that new alliances between these actors are emerging in global environmental governance.

Discourses of FLEGT and REDD + Regimes in Cameroon: A Nongovernmental Organization and International Development Agency Perspectives

This paper applies the international environmental negotiations framework (IENF) and the multiple streams framework (MSF) to analyze the influence of Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) and International Development Agencies (IDAs) in the development and implementation of the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade agreement (FLEGT) and the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) regimes in Cameroon. Deforestation, forest degradation, and illegal logging are critical issues in forest management in many forest-rich countries around the world. In attempt to curtail illegal logging, global forest governance in the past few years has witnessed the development of a number of timber legality regimes including FLEGT. In the same light, the international community has recently seen the emergence of the REDD+ regime to fight against global warming and climate change. Based on sixty-eight interviews in Cameroon with representatives of NGOs and IDAs, government officials, the timber industry, and members of forest communities, as well as eleven informal conversations, and more than sixty documents, the paper finds that NGO and IDA influence on the FLEGT and REDD+ regimes in Cameroon has been growing in three areas: stakeholder participation, project development, and institutional development. Thus, the increasing influence of NGOs and IDAs will pave the way for future interventions on social, cultural, economic, and environmental issues, including land tenure, carbon rights, benefit distribution, equity, Free, Prior and Informed consent, legality, and stakeholder process, related to the FLEGT and REDD+ regimes in Cameroon.

Voluntary Participation in International Environmental Agreements and Authority Structures in a Federation

We examine how the voluntary participation decision in international environmental negotiations affects negotiation outcomes when every country is a federation. Each country consists of two autonomous regions: one is a polluter region and the other is a nonpolluter region. In the model, each country can freely decide whether to participate in a negotiation, which determines the abatement level of pollution (the level of public goods). The participation decision of a country and the negotiation (if the country decides to participate) are either conducted by the federal government of the country or are delegated to the regional government of the polluter region. We show that in combination with the voluntary participation decision, the endogenous choice of authority by the federal governments has a coordination-game property; that is, there are at least two equilibria and one equilibrium provides a higher welfare than the other.

Inside international environmental organizations. Negotiating the greening of international politics

From the late 1960s and early 1970s onwards, environmental politics were not only put increasingly on domestic agendas, but also dealt with in international regimes and organizations (IOs). The rise of environmental IOs has led to the expectation of a greening of international politics and a corresponding contribution to improved environmental standards around the globe. This paper opens the black box of environmental negotiations in IOs and examines how active the various IO member states participate in the process of deciding upon international environmental rules and norms. This reveals two interesting empirical puzzles that the paper examines in a theory-guided methodological sound manner. First, many states joined environmental IOs and contribute to them through membership fees, but nevertheless often fail to make use of their formal right to voice positions in international environmental negotiations. Second, some states are considerably more outspoken than others, although articulating one’s position is important for the chances to influence international environmental policies. The paper argues that the former is due to lack of capabilities, while the latter is due to differences in the saliency of environmental topics across states.

Deliberative Ecologies: Complexity and Social–Ecological Dynamics in International Environmental Negotiations

Theories of complex systems can yield valuable insights for understanding the increasingly intricate networks of actors, institutions, and discourses involved in international environmental negotiations. While analysis of regimes and regime complexes has shed light on macro-level structures and relationships in global environmental politics, systemic analysis has gained less traction in making sense of micro-level interactions—such as communicative exchanges among participants—that occur within the sites of negotiation and how those interactions shape (and are shaped by) the broader dynamics of governance systems. This article shows how the conceptual lens of “deliberative ecologies” can bridge these levels of analysis by integrating theories of deliberative systems with ideas from complexity theory and social–ecological systems analysis. Drawing on evidence from United Nations climate change and biodiversity conferences between 2009 and 2018, I show how methods such as discourse analysis and process tracing can help to apply a deliberative ecologies perspective and thereby advance understanding of how discourses and deliberative practices diffuse through negotiating sites and how deliberation interacts with the social–ecological dynamics of those sites.

Investigating the Influence of Non-state Actors on Amendments to the CITES Appendices

Non-state actors are playing an increasing role in global environmental governance. Elucidating the modalities and implications of this engagement is important to understanding international policy-making processes. CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, is the primary mechanism for regulating international wildlife trade. It functions by listing species in its Appendices with corresponding trade controls. Accurately listing species in the Appendices is therefore fundamental to the Convention’s effectiveness. We investigate the influence of non-state actors on amending the CITES Appendices using an established framework for assessing NGO influence in international environmental negotiations. We find that non-state actors have been successful in issue framing and agenda setting, and in influencing the position of other actors and final decisions. We also find evidence that NGOs have sought to abuse CITES in pursuit of “campaign” victories, including claiming unwarranted victories, thus undermining NGO legitimacy and accountability. We recommend that the CITES parties seek the most robust science to inform decision-making on proposed amendments to the appendices, which should be broadened to include socioeconomic and economic considerations in order that proposals are evaluated in their real-world context. We further recommend that NGOs should seek to fully understand decision-making in the Convention in order to maximise their legitimate contribution to CITES. Further research is needed to fully elucidate the influence of non-state actors in CITES.

Deliberative multi-actor dialogues as opportunities for transformative social learning and conflict resolution in international environmental negotiations

The format for formal international negotiations on environment and development sometimes prevents negotiators from truly listening to each other and adapt pre-existing positions to realize constructive conflict resolution. In this paper we present and analyse “Multi-Actor Dialogue Seminars” (MADS) as an approach to contribute to transformative social learning and conflict resolution, and the contribution to tangible and intangible outcomes in formal negotiations. Unlike negotiations, the objective of MADS is not to agree on a text, but to identify areas of agreement and disagreement, build trust and understanding and identify policy options that are tailored to different cultural-political and value systems. As a case study we use the breakdown of the negotiations at the formal Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Conference in 2010 regarding “innovative financial mechanisms,” and subsequent two international Quito Dialogues using the MADS approach. Through a composite of methods this article reveals the effects of the Quito Dialogues on formal CBD negotiations. The Quito Dialogues contributed to bringing actors out of their deadlock and thereby paving the way for constructive results in the formal CBD negotiations, evident by references in CBD Decisions adopted by 196 CBD Parties. We discuss key design and implementation factors which were decisive for these effects including the importance of a bridging organization, trust building, exploration of both convergences and divergences, involvement of participants with diverse and conflicting views early in the planning, promotion of active listening and addressing diverse knowledge systems and power asymmetries.