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for: International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics

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Geoengineering and global warming: a strategic perspective

Author(s): Urpelainen J

Published: January, 2012

Publisher: International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics

DOI: 10.1007/s10784-012-9167-0

Tags: Politics, Policy, Governance

URL: http://www.springerlink.com/content/w6307x0p8r9103qh/

Abstract: If major emitters fail to mitigate global warming, they may have to resort to geoengineering techniques that deflect sunlight from planet Earth and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In this article, I develop a strategic theory of geoengineering. I emphasize two key features of geoengineering. First, whereas emissions reductions can be mandated now, geoengineering techniques are only available in the future. Second, major powers can unilaterally implement geoengineering projects that may hurt other countries. My game-theoretic analysis demonstrates that unilateral geoengineering presents a difficult governance problem if it produces negative externalities in foreign countries. Interestingly, countries may be tempted to reduce emissions now, so as to prevent a harmful geoengineering race in the future. The theoretical results can help scholars and policymakers understand the relationship between climate mitigation and geoengineering.


Environmental policy integration and the architecture of global environmental governance

Author(s): Biermann F, Davies O, Grijp N

Published: September, 2009

Publisher: International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics

DOI: 10.1007/s10784-009-9111-0

Tags: Global Environmental Governance

URL: http://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ieaple/v9y2009i4p351-369.html

Abstract: This article discusses environmental policy integration—a concept so far mainly applied to domestic and European politics—at the global level. The article distinguishes between integration of institutions, of organizations, and of their bureaucracies, and it addresses both internal integration (within the environmental policy domain) and external integration (between environmental policies and non-environmental policies). The overall focus is on one set of policy reform proposals that have been salient in the global environmental governance debate for the last decades: the question of whether the creation of a world environment organization would improve the effectiveness, legitimacy, and efficiency of global environmental governance. We revisit this debate and explore the options for organizational change, including clustering, upgrading, streamlining, and hierarchical steering, with a focus on whether the reform proposals can bring about environmental policy integration. We conclude that in the longer term, upgrading of the UN Environment Programme to a UN specialized agency, with additional and increasing streamlining of other institutions and bureaucracies, offers the most potential for environmental policy integration and does not appear to be unrealistic.


The effectiveness of UN environmental institutions

Author(s): Andresen S

Published: September, 2007

Publisher: International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics

DOI: 10.1007/s10784-007-9048-0

Tags: Global Environmental Governance

URL: http://www.springerlink.com/content/y737g21148113427/

Abstract: This is a study of the effectiveness of key UN institutions focussing on environment and sustainable development: the global conferences on development and the environment, the CSD and UNEP, primarily its co-ordinating functions. According to the indicators used to measure effectiveness here, it is concluded that the overall effectiveness of these institutions is quite low. This particularly applies to the CSD. UNEP has been quite effective in creating new institutions but has been less effective in co-ordinating them. As to the global conferences, their significance has been reduced over time.


Developing Countries and Global Environmental Governance: From Contestation to Participation to Engagement

Author(s): Najam A

Published: September, 2005

Publisher: International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics

DOI: 10.1007/s10784-005-3807-6

Tags: Politics, Global Environmental Governance

URL: http://econpapers.repec.org/article/sprieaple/v_3a5_3ay_3a2005_3ai_3a3_3ap_3a303-321.htm

Abstract: Developing countries did not start off as demandeurs of global environmental governance. Although they are still rather skeptical about the global environmental enterprise, they have come a long way from being the vigorous contestants that they were three decades ago. This fascinating evolution has not only changed the views of developing countries but has also transformed the shape of the global environmental discourse, most significantly by turning what used to be global environmental politics into what is now the global politics of sustainable development. This paper charts this evolution by using the twin conceptual lenses of effectiveness and legitimacy and the heuristic markers of the three key global conferences on the global environment (Stockholm 1972; Rio de Janeiro 1992; Johannesburg 2002). The paper argues that the pre-Stockholm era was exemplified by a politics of contestation by the South; the Stockholm-to-Rio period was a period of reluctant participation as a new global compact emerged around the notion of sustainable development; and the post-Rio years have seen the emergence of more meaningful, but still hesitant, engagement by the developing countries in the global environmental project but very much around the promise and potential of actualizing sustainable development.


The Effectiveness and Legitimacy of International Environmental Institutions

Author(s): Andresen S, Hey E

Published: September, 2005

Publisher: International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics

DOI: 10.1007/s10784-005-3804-9

Tags: Governance, Law

URL: http://www.springerlink.com/content/f5g7w02j0jx07l8h/

Abstract: The Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) concluded during the past decades have established complex interlinkages between the institutions established by MEAs and institutions such as UNEP, UNDP and the World Bank and the funds administered by the Bank, in particular the GEF. Questions regarding the effectiveness and legitimacy of this system of global environmental governance have arisen both in practice and in research. This essay explores the manner in which these questions have arisen, how they have been addressed in recent research and provides the context for the subsequent contributions to this special issue.


Biotic Carbon Sequestration and the Kyoto Protocol: The Construction of Global Knowledge by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Author(s): Fogel C

Published: February, 2005

Publisher: International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics

DOI: 10.1007/s10784-005-1749-7

Tags: Afforestation, Uncertainty, Global Environmental Governance

URL: http://www.springerlink.com/content/g671050711717777/

Abstract: This paper explores the dynamics of the production of global knowledge by an international knowledge organization, in this case the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Based on previous notions of international boundary organizations, the idea of international knowledge organizations emphasizes the knowledge generation function of such organizations rather than their convening function. Using the case of controversial Kyoto Protocol biotic carbon sequestration policies, I argue that boundary work and uncertainty management are the essential dynamics in the successful construction of global knowledge by international knowledge organizations. This uncertainty management occurs in a manner broadly, although not completely, in conformance with the institutional preferences of powerful policy actors. Global knowledge can legitimate and help refine global policies, but the process of its construction must be iterative and transparent if it is to be credible for global environmental governance over the long-term.


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