International Environmental Problems Research Articles

WTO Ministerial Conference in Singapore: Environmental Diversity versus Harmonization

1. IntroductionIn December,1996,a newera of the international trade regime started with the firstWTO Ministerial Conferencein Singapore.Substantialprogress hasbeenachievedin freeing trade in information technology products and a North-South collision oninternational labour standards has been averted. However, these successes over-shadow the apparant stagnation in the area of trade and environment. At last, aftermanyyearsofintensivediscussions,manyhadhopedthatthefirstWTOMinisterialConferencewouldaddressthissensitivepolicyfield.Outofthewiderangeofissuesthat can be dealt with under this heading, two figure prominently: trade measurespursuantto multilateral environmentalagreementsandeco-labellingschemes.Thisnote, firstly, tries to explain why exactly these two issues draw most of the atten-tion of policymakers, and secondly, discusses how these issues can be resolvedagainst the background of established welfare theory. It also tries to make clearwhy the ministers in Singapore pussyfooted around these issues and only decidedthat the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment has to continue its explora-tory work. To come to grisp with these issues, insights from the literature on thetrade-environment interface are first summarized in eight propositions.2. Propositions on Trade and EnvironmentBefore setting forth the propositions,it is good to knowthat in analyticalstudies ontrade and environment, the following distinctions are usually made. First, there areon the one hand local and national environmental problems, and on the other handtransboundary, i.e. international and global environmental problems. The formerrefer to externalities caused by domestic environmental distortions that do notexpell beyond national borders. The latter refer to environmental problems thataffect welfare both in the home country and in one or more foreign countries,

The Use and Effectiveness of Nonbinding Instruments in the Management of Complex International Environmental Problems

The Use and Effectiveness of Nonbinding Instruments in the Management of Complex International Environmental Problems

The Fruitfulness of Various Models in the Study of International Environmental Politics

The unitary rational actor (URA) model enjoys a strong position in the study of international politics. I argue that it is far from obvious that the URA model is the most fruitful point of departure in the study of international environmental politics compared to more complex models of bureaucratic politics and the role of interest groups. The argument is based on a brief description of international environmental problems and politics and various criteria of fruitfulness. Particular attention is devoted to the principle of methodological individualism as one criterion of fruitfulness. The discussion is illustrated by applying the models to explain the development of EU climate policy.

Compliance with International Treaties: Lessons from Intentional Oil Pollution

When public concern about an international environmental problem is strong enough to require action, governments often respond by negotiating a treaty. More than 120 multilateral treaties have been negotiated to address to address such problems, along with hundreds of regional and bilateral ones. Yet nations regularly violate even relatively low-cost transporting requirements and ignore more substantive provisions in many environmental treaties. Why doesn`t compliance follow automatically from a nation`s signature? A recent study of compliance with international treaties regulating intentional oil pollution by tankers may offer some insights into this discrepancy. By comparing the different regulatory strategies within those treaties, it was possible to identify those that have had the most success in inducing compliance and causing the intended behavioral changes. This, in turn, suggested a number of policy prescriptions regarding the types of rules that should be imposed and the ways in which new environmental accords should be drafted to elicit higher compliance. Policymakers succeeded when they ensured that those responsible for complying, monitoring, or enforcing a treaty provision were placed in a strategic triangle in which they had the incentives, the ability, and the authority to perform those functions.

The Greenhouse Effect and the Resource Management Act, as Related to Oil and Gas Exploration and Production

The release of CO2 into the atmosphere - and more specifically its consequential effect on global temperature – is now more-or-less universally acknowledged as a significant international environmental problem. Known colloquially as the Greenhouse Effect, it is the subject of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. That convention commits its signatories to specific actions directed at stabilising emissions of greenhouse gases (including CO2) at 1990 levels. It was signed at the UN Conference on Environment & Development (the “Earth Summit” which was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992) by 153 countries including New Zealand. New Zealand has now officially ratified the Convention and has thus effectively committed itself to participate in international programmes of CO2 emission reduction. The Resource Management Act 1991 requires regulatory authorities to consider the environmental effects of activities in their jurisdiction. Carbon dioxide is now considered to be a “contaminant” as defined in the Act and it therefore becomes contingent upon local authorities to determine a suitable response to the problem of CO2 emissions. Regional and district policy statements and plans are required to be consistent with the national policy statement. Although a national policy statement on CO2 emissions does not yet exist it can be expected that eventually the approval of resource consents for oil and gas exploration and production activities typically will require specific actions relating to the release of CO2. The increase of CO2 in the atmosphere is almost entirely the direct result of two fundamental and worldwide activities: the combustion of fossil fuels and the removal of forest cover. When burned, hydrocarbons add large quantities of CO2 to the atmosphere. The removal of forest cover reduces the ability of the ecosystem to extract CO2 from the atmosphere by photosynthesis. The oil and gas industry is, of course, the source of a large proportion of the hydrocarbons used for energy and other purposes. It can therefore be expected that governments (including New Zealand) will focus on various aspects of the industry in their efforts to meet the reduction goal. Until recently the central Government approach to CO2 emission reduction was to implement the so-called no regrets policies which are desirable goals (e.g. increased energy efficiency) which have the positive spin-off effect of reducing CO2 emissions. By themselves such policies are likely to be inadequate to meet the internationally accepted reduction target. The Government must therefore implement more stringent measures. As the matter now stands the Government is investigating a diverse range of methods for reducing CO2 emissions. Because CO2 emissions and energy use are inextricably linked, reducing CO2 emissions can clearly have a detrimental effect on economic development. The 'holy grail' of policy development in this area is to reduce CO2 emissions without producing harmful effects on the economy. Several options (and myriad variations on the theme) have been put forward including, for example, carbon taxes and tradeable quotas. These options and others are now being assessed by Government officials. The industry should be alert to the distinct possibility that policy will focus directly on oil and gas production. From a regulatory point of view such an approach has an enticing simplicity but the effect on the oil and gas industry may prove to be less than desirable.

Interconnected games and international environmental problems, II

Some features of international environmental problems are considered. A basic problem is to induce countries to adopt a cooperative approach. One of the instruments to induce countries to cooperate is an exchange of concessions in fields of relative strengths, such as swapping trade concessions for cooperation on international environmental problems. This instrument will be modelled in this paper with tensor games. Both tradeoff and non-tradeoff tensor games will be addressed, with emphasis on tradeoff tensor games with linear strict weights. The relationship between the Pareto equilibria of a non-tradeoff tensor game and the Nash equilibria of the associated tradeoff tensor games will be studied. Due to structural similarities between tensor games and repeated multiple objective games, some attention will also be paid to the latter. Relationships between objects related to Folk theorems for the tradeoff tensor game with completely additive weights and the corresponding objects for its constituting isolated games will be studied. Since many international environmental problems have prisoners' dilemma characteristics, it is analyzed how interconnection may enhance cooperation in prisoners' dilemma games.

The interest-based explanation of international environmental policy

Despite growing international environmental interdependence, the international system lacks a central authority to foster environmental protection. As a consequence, countries have adopted different policies to reduce international environmental problems. More specifically, costly regulations are not universally supported. In order to explain the success and failure of international environmental regulation, it is necessary to systematically focus on the factors that shape the environmental foreign policy of sovereign states. Since such an approach is missing from the literature, we develop an interest-based explanation of support for international environmental regulation and postulate what impact it should have on state preferences for international environmental regulation. Specifically we apply our framework to two prominent cases of negotiations on atmospheric pollution control, namely, efforts to protect the stratospheric ozone layer and the regulation of transboundary acidification (“acid rain”) in Europe.

Interconnected games and international environmental problems

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of interconnected games and to show its relevance for modeling international environmental problems. It is argued that an interconnected game approach to international environmental problems may enhance cooperation and provide an alternative to the use of financial side payments to induce countries to cooperate. Two types of interconnected games are distinguished in this paper, i.e. direct sum games and tensor games. In the former all the constituting isolated games are games in strategic form and in the latter they are repeated games. In both cases the interconnected game can be interpreted as a multiple objective game, but only the setting where a trade-off is made for the vector-payoffs is considered. In addition to the formal definition of these types of interconnected games, some elementary results concerning Nash equilibria of such games are derived.

Game Theory and the Politics of the Global Commons

I assume that politicians maximize domestic political support subject to a political feasibility constraint set by the relationship between environmental quality and some politically desirable economic performance indicator. Because pollution flows across national frontiers, the political feasibility frontier depends on other nations' environmental policies. Depending on the nature of domestic political pressures and the environmental spillovers between the countries, various game structures are possible. Knowledge of the structure of the game is helpful when addressing policy issues and the question of how to design international institutions in order to overcome international environmental collective action problems.

Environmental economics and international aid

AbstractIn recent years concern over environmental issues have moved high up the political agenda. This has accelerated particularly in the run up to the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development. Two sets of concerns have dominated attention: the problem of degrading environments within developing countries and global issues such as climate change and ozone depletion. The prime focus of attention in the developing countries has traditionally been on the former. Concerns over the latter originated primarily in the industrialised world but the issue is now recognised to have important implications also for the developing countries. New aid mechanisms are being formed to assist these countries address global environmental issues. This paper discusses economic approaches to assessing environmental impacts and attempts to examine the trade‐offs which developing countries face in addressing national as compared international environmental problems.

Political Science 523 Environmental Politics and Public Policy

INTRODUCTION: In this course we will examine the political problems of natural resource use and the maintenance of environmental quality. We will give particular attention to theoretical foundations for environmental policy and its evaluation, the political context of environmental policy, principles of administering environmental policies. We will not attempt a comprehensive survey of local state, national, or international environmental problems, institutions, or laws, but we will look briefly at a few to provide practical examples of general points and to illustrate the breadth and complexity of policy making in this area.

Acid politics: environmental and energy policies in Britain and Germany

This book is a case study of the efforts made during the 1980s to resolve a major international environmental problem, acid rain, in two West European countries, the UK and the Federal Republic of Germany. The acid rain problem itself has been the subject of many publications. This book differs from many of those previously published in that it is concerned almost exclusively with the social, political, administrative and economic pressures which led to policy-making taking the particular course that it did. It is not the primary concern to describe the science of acid rain or the technical means for reducing it. The policy-making processes themselves in the UK and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) are the focus of attention. (author).

Soviet Academic Theories on International Conflict and Negotiation

The influence of Soviet international relations scholars on Soviet foreign policy has grown markedly in recent years. The ideas about international conflict and cooperation that Mikhail Gorbachev has expressed in his writings and speeches reflect the views of those scholars, and as individuals they have been drawn directly into the policy-making process. This article summarizes the emerging Soviet academic consensus about the need for joint, peaceful solutions to international environmental and security problems, and then discusses five particularly interesting theoretical approaches taken by subgroups of Soviet scholars to the problem of international conflict resolution. The author concludes that, while debates over specific theoretical approaches and state policies continue among Soviet scholars, they have adopted a new common framework for analyzing international conflict and cooperation; the old framework of class struggle has been replaced by a worldview that recognizes the importance of shared interests.

INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

A simple taxonomy of international environmental problems is developed, based on economic considerations. The unidirectional externalities are illustrated by the case of one upstream and one downstream country. The main problem in this case is an informational one. The analysis of regional reciprocal externalities is illustrated by the acid rains in Europe. It is shown that an efficient solution could be achieved by transferable export rights. Finally, global external problems are discussed with reference to greenhouse effects and extinction of species. Copyright 1990 by Oxford University Press.

International environmental problems and international organisations

A cross comparison of environmental programmes of major International Organisations reveals a convergent tendency. A relatively small number of priority areas for action have been identified, in the domain of pollution prevention and control, natural resource management, and quality of life in human settlements. Policy development in each of the priority areas requires specific scientific research efforts. The dialogue between policy-makers and scientists raises some problem, relative, inter alia, to the independence of science and to the practical need to act before various environmental threats become irretrievable. A rational sharing of tasks between International Organisations could work towards greater effectiveness.

Environmental Quality 1984:The Fifteenth Annual Report of the Council on Environmental Quality

Section 201 of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 requires that the president transmit an annual environmental quality report to the US Congress. This year's report by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has more than 700 pages of fine print with appendixes. It is comprehensive in the sense that it not only concerns itself with environmental quality (air, water, hazardous chemicals) and natural resources (land, fish, wildlife, water, energy, minerals), but also deals with current issues in the area (environmental science, international environmental problems, national environmental policy). In addition, there are special reports on risk assessment, risk management, and the public benefits of private conservation. The text is buttressed by three appendixes, one an extensive statistical compendium. Since it is the single most comprehensive statement on the condition of the environment, the report commands more than the usual amount of attention and deserves to be taken seriously. While it provides valuable information on the state of the environment, the interpretation of the data and discussions of environmental policy are sometimes enlightening, often disturbing, and at times misleading. This paper the problems associated with this report.

National Recourses for International Pollution: Towards a United States, Canada Solution

The most prominent transboundary concern is, of course, acid rain, caused by the long-range transport of industrial and automotive pollution. But long-range air pollution transport also results in several other serious but less publicized transboundary problems such as the movement across national boundaries of oxidant pollution, which is impairing agricultural productivity in southern Ontario and elsewhere, and the transboundary flow of toxic air pollutants, a phenomenon which may already be affecting the Great Lakes. The Environmental Law Institute has conducted a series of studies of the institutional framework governing control of international pollution problems. A major conclusion of this research effort is that current national and international legal structures are poorly suited to the effective control of transboundary pollution. The international legal structure offers useful principles of environmental responsibility, but they are neither sufficiently defined nor sufficiently enforceable to support effective application to specific controversies. Despite the recent increase in the number and severity of international environmental problems, governments continue to make energy policy, pollution control, and land use decisions without explicit consideration of transboundary impact. There are forward-looking provisions in the Clean Air Acts of both the U.S. and Canada requiring control of emissions causing transboundary problems (U.S. Cleanmore » Air Act Section 115 and Canadian Clean Air Act Section 21.1). A recently completed ELI study focused on a new approach which would make the largely ignored U.S. and Canadian Clean Air Act provisions for control of international air pollution work more effectively, and in concert.« less

International cooperation and acid rain pollution: establishing the framework for control

Acid rain pollution has been receiving considerable attention as an international environmental problem. However, as of yet there has not been a great deal of development in the international legal principles and institutions to address this problem. The international legal principles on State responsibility for environmental damage are still unsettled and substantial procedural and evidentiary obstacles exist to the enforcement of these principles. Regional arrangements that provide a framework for the prevention and control of acid rain offer a promising solution to the problem. An initial step in this regard in the 1979 draft Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution.

Japan's Handling of International Environmental Problems: Contradictions with the Domestic Record

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International Environmental Problems: Systems Approach Used to Identify Scientific and Political Perceptions and Responses

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate how a systems approach can be used to contribute to the identification and solution of environmental problems by governments acting individually and collectively. In approaching complex environmental problems one must be concerned with far more than the sciences of environmental degredation and the technologies of pollution control; one must also understand the problems of development, national priorities and the cultures of the peoples of the world. The huge amount of data submitted for the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was analysed and organized into a meaningful form for decision making by considering the technical, philosophical, ethical, political and emotional issues involved in preserving the environment. Before discussing the details of the analysis, a summary view of the U.N. Conference process will be presented.