United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992)
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992). Protocols, etc., 1997 Dec. 11.
Climatic changes -- Environmental aspects.
Climatic changes -- Political aspects.
Abstract:
Promoting learning among participants is a key function commonly attributed to international regimes. Such learning, however, cannot always be guaranteed, and regimes may sometimes descend into ossification. In contrast to a learning regime, an ossifying regime is one that is unable to process new information, facilitate the free-flow of new ideas, or foster understanding and trust among negotiators. Evidence from the recent history of the climate change regime suggests it is suffering from ossification. Dragging forces contributing to this include the institutionalization of the "north/south divide," complexity of the process, fragile conditions for effective communication, onerous decision-making rules, activities of obstructionists, absence of the US, and weak implementation. Pockets of learning on climate change are, however, still active, especially outside the regime itself. To reinvigorate the negotiations, meaningful progress is needed on domestic and regional implementation, including ensuring the success of the Protocol's market mechanisms.
Environmental protection -- International cooperation.
Environmental protection -- Political aspects.
Abstract:
Although a number of scholars acknowledge the relevance of intergovernmental bureaucracies in world politics, International Relations research still lacks theoretical distinction and empirical scrutiny in understanding their influence in the international arena. In this article I explore the role of intergovernmental treaty secretariats as authoritative bureaucratic actors in global environmental politics. I employ organizational theories and sociological institutionalism for comparative qualitative case study research that traces variances at the outcome level of two environmental treaty secretariats, the secretariats to the Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol ("Ozone Secretariat") and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification ("Desertification Secretariat"). While the organizational design of both secretariats is similar, their institutional histories and outcomes differ markedly. Looking for possible explanations for these differences I focus on the activities of both secretariats and how they relate to the authority they enjoy vis-à-vis the parties they serve.
Bäckstrand, Karin.
Lövbrand, Eva.
Planting Trees to Mitigate Climate Change: Contested Discourses of Ecological Modernization, Green Governmentality and Civic Environmentalism [Access article in HTML][Access article in PDF] Subject Headings:
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992)
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992). Protocols, etc., 1997 Dec. 11.
Climatic changes -- Environmental aspects.
Tree planting -- Environmental aspects.
Nature conservation -- Political aspects.
Abstract:
Forest plantations or so-called carbon sinks have played a critical role in the climate change negotiations and constitute a central element in the scheme to limit atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations set out by the Kyoto Protocol. This paper examines dominant discursive framings of forest plantation projects in the climate regime. A central proposition is that these projects represent a microcosm of competing and overlapping discourses that are mirrored in debates of global environmental governance. While the win-win discourse of ecological modernization has legitimized the inclusion of sink projects in the Kyoto Protocol, a green governmentality discourse has provided the scientific rationale necessary to turn tropical tree-plantation projects operational on the emerging carbon market. A critical civic environmentalism discourse has contested forest sink projects depicting them as unjust and environmentally unsound strategies to mitigate climate change. The article examines the articulation and institutionalization of these discourses in the climate negotiation process as well as the wider implications for environmental governance.
Environmental skepticism denies the reality and importance of mainstream global environmental problems. However, its most important challenges are in its civic claims which receive much less attention. These civic claims defend the basis of ethical authority of the dominant social paradigm. The article explains how political values determine what skeptics count as a problem. One such value described is "deep anthropocentrism," or the attempt to split human society from non-human nature and reject ecology as a legitimate field of ethical concern. This bias frames what skeptics consider legitimate knowledge. The paper then argues that the contemporary conservative countermovement has marshaled environmental skepticism to function as a rearguard for a maladaptive set of core values that resist public efforts to address global environmental sustainability. As such, the paper normatively argues that environmental skepticism is a significant threat to efforts to achieve sustainability faced by human societies in a globalizing world.
This article examines the role of the WTO in addressing trade and environment issues and considers how NGO and industry activities could complement this role. I interviewed over seventy experts and analyzed the responses using a grounded theory methodology, and present the findings within the context of existing literature on trade and environment issues. This approach allowed for an interdisciplinary and qualitative analysis of the underlying factors that have contributed to past successes and challenges in dealing with environmental issues within the WTO, as well as assessing current opportunities for progress and identifying misperceptions that could foster increased expectations of what the WTO is able to achieve. I conclude that the role the WTO plays in addressing trade and environment issues will be tested by the outcomes from the Doha round of negotiations, and by the willingness of WTO members to examine past work and identify a way forward. Survey results suggest that increased consideration of NGO perspectives and industry strategies would provide insight into ways of moving forward that are not hindered by political constraints.
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