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REDD+ - a mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation - is a quintessential "boundary object", in that it has gained widespread support in the absence of clear operational definition. In particular, ongoing debates over REDD+ "safeguards" highlight widely divergent views regarding the ways in which REDD+ should prioritize a range of conflicting environmental and social forest values. Contestation over the meaning of REDD+ is thus displaced over time and across the many arenas in which REDD+ is being enacted. This paper maps this contestation by following the articulation of social safeguards within various public and private organizations involved in operationalizing REDD+. Our findings reveal that forest carbon-related certification schemes have pioneered the concept of "additionality" of social benefits, while giving varying attention to equity and benefit distribution within communities. In contrast, inter-governmental organizations have pursued a risk-based approach, employing a "do no harm" policy to society's most vulnerable, but lacking binding additionality requirements. Finally, inter-subnational efforts have played a unique role in addressing the nesting of project-level efforts within frameworks at broader scales. Given the uncertainties about whether, when and how REDD+ might transition into a national-level payment scheme in different REDD+ countries, it is difficult to predict the lasting influence of these current efforts. Nevertheless, the findings suggest that the current complexity of actor involvement and safeguard design may explain ongoing support for REDD+ as a boundary object accommodating disparate actors, interests and ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the present paper is to analyze if policies of the Initiative for the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA) - applied to the borderline region between Brazil/Bolivia - include social participation in the decisions about environmental resources exploitation. It was used the followed methods: textual analysis of public policies of IIRSA, photography, maps and interview analysis with experts in the subject of regional integration. The research is based mainly in the theories of David Harvey, Neil Smith, David Held and Bertha Becker. The current paper discusses about: 1) how policies have a "lacunar discurse2" conduced by Brazil. 2) how laws are planed exclusively by the decision makers, often without the vote of the citizens. Consequently, there is a loss of autonomy in the management of natural resources done by the people, and decisions are taken according to the international economic demands. The physical consequence of the policies on the environment is an increase of fragmentation not only ecological but also cultural, both reflecting negatively on the economy of the region involved in integrative policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will take as its departure point the February 2010 UNEP Governing Council's Special Session debating UNEP's role in Global Environmental Governance. The Nusa Dua Declaration has pointed out that the instruments of global environmental governance are complex and fragmented, and that UNEP should make this governance process more effective. I shall then put these recent developments in the context of the 2010 session of the CSD which has also been looking at some of these issues. Finally, I propose to conclude the paper by placing the environmentally sound management of hazardous chemicals and wastes into the interlinked two frameworks of UNEP's efforts regarding International Environmental Governance (the 'Belgrade Process'), and of its Green Economy Initiative. The Geneva-based 'Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management' (SAICM) plays an important role here. UNEP is essential in supporting SAICM by carrying out its secretariat services. SAICM's explicit multistakeholder-approach encompassing IGOs, industry, NGOs, and academia represents a particularly innovative instrument of global environmental governance. The objective of this paper is to make a contribution to the understanding of the dynamics driving the global environmental governance negotiations with a focus on their trade and North-South ramifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The failure of US Congress to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change mitigation has led to renewed scholarly interest in the conditions under which states join international agreements, and in particular multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). We study the effects of two key factors, namely treaty design and domestic legislative hurdles, on the ratification behavior of states with respect to MEAs. Specifically, we are interested in whether (1) strong legalization mandated by a treaty such as demanding obligations, and strong monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, and (2) high domestic institutional hurdles such as requirements for explicit legislative approval and constraints on executive power deter countries from ratifying a treaty. To test our theoretical claim we use a new time-series-cross-sectional dataset that includes information on the ratification behavior of 164 countries with respect to 314 MEAs in 1950 - 2000. We find that treaties that can be characterized as hard law indeed deter ratification. Furthermore, explicit legislative approval requiring supermajority also makes ratification less likely. In contrast to our theoretical expectations countries with a higher number of veto players are more likely to ratify environmental treaties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transnational networks have demonstrated increasing impact on international policy outcomes in various issue areas, as demonstrated by many case studies on international political mobilization or the influence of private actors such as NGOs and multinational corporations on international politics. International climate policymaking in particular has gained growing scholarly interest as an area with important transnational interactions between state actors from different governmental levels and nonstate actors from various societal sectors. However, quantitative assessments of the structures emerging from such interactions, not to mention their impact on policymaking, have been very limited. In this paper, I make a first attempt to measure transnational network structures in international climate policymaking using event data coded from international news wires for the years 2000 to 2010. Event data encode who did what to whom and when based on reported actor interactions and can then be analyzed using techniques from Social Network Analysis. In a further step, I will test if specific characteristics of these network structures can be associated with the progress and regress of the international policy process to establish an effective international climate protection regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is the signature global issue of our time. This is not just because of climatic impacts, but also because of the socio-economic and physical impacts that will result from rising temperatures globally. But fundamentally for scholars of international relations, climate change confronts the policy limitations of sovereignty and its implications in more direct ways than perhaps any other global policy issue. While climate change is truly global, existing global decision-making structures have been severely limited by the impacts of sovereignty in decision-making forums. Hence, policy initiatives to confront climate change must focus on levels below the global, even though economic models suggest that global policy provision is the most efficient way to target the implications of climate change. Thus, this study focuses on the complexity of climate change policy-making as we seek to understand the efficiency of policy provision and the degree of coordination that exists across policy levels from the local to the global. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of religious groups on Global Environmental Politics is significant and largely under examined. Religious views on ecology in relation to human behavior have been studied mainly by sociologists, anthropologists and theologians, primarily focusing on the interpretation of religious texts and surveys of members of various religions' approaches towards the environment. Given the recent rise in activism of groups advocating religious environmentalism and their attribution of religious beliefs towards humanity's role in safeguarding the environment or "creation", a limited understanding is available of the effect of this trend on global governance. This study examines the impact of religious environmental groups (REG) on climate change politic. REG network structure is examined from the perspective of groups based in the US and the EU. The impact of REGs on the environmental movement is evaluated in the context of climate change politics and policy implementation. A comparative assessment is made between REG's political impact on climate change policies in the US and the multilateral level. Networks formed by REGs as an emerging environmental social movement are mapped to trace local, regional, global and transnational dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On February 8, 2009, the decommissioned French carrier Clemenceau was towed into port in Hartlepool, UK, for dismantling. This marked what French officials hoped would be the end to a nearly decade-long controversy surrounding the disposal of a ship labeled "toxic" by environmentalists concerned about the tons of asbestos and other dangerous chemicals it contained. Plans to process the Clemenceau at India's Alang shipbreaking yards in 2006 became the focus of an international debate over the practice of shipbreaking, one made more pointed as shipbreaking activities have shifted from developed to developing countries like India and Bangladesh where environmental and safety regulations are either non-existent or poorly enforced. This paper explores the legal and policy issues posed by the dispute over the Clemenceau. Intersecting several environmental regimes, shipbreaking has attracted the attention of the Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Waste, the International Maritime Organization, the International Labor Organization, and other international and nongovernmental organizations. Reconciling their different perspectives on how to manage this lucrative and important, but highly risky industry represents a serious challenge for international environmental governance. This paper examines that challenge and the steps taken thus far to meet it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most authors in the field today seem committed to the notion that there is something qualitatively different about global politics. In reflection of this, governance experts are beginning to develop increasingly sophisticated models that can sufficiently assess the degree of effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy in emerging governance structures. In particular, embedded models are increasingly being employed as a means to frame and analyze complex macro scale governance problems such as climate change. To illustrate the benefits and weaknesses of these methods, this paper assesses three embedded approaches - network analysis, institutional theory and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) - to show how such models have improved our understanding of climate governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the conditions under which regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) adopt climate actions. I test a series of hypotheses to explain when RFMOs move beyond their classic management approaches - assignment of property rights, catch limits, and gear restrictions - to include climate change in their research and management plans. I introduce a new data set that compares fisheries-climate linkages since 1992 in all available RFMO annual reports and meeting minutes. The analysis reveals a series of patterns surrounding linkage politics in RFMOs. Importantly, this study finds that climate linkages in RFMOs do not simply follow scientific knowledge or regional climate vulnerability. Instead, climate action coincides with member country efforts to avoid catch regulations, and secretariat efforts to exhibit organizational relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of linkage politics in revitalizing the largely ineffective UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). I argue that the UNCCD Secretariat has taken a leadership role in driving a regime linkage agenda that has focused disproportionately on linkages to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). By comparing the UNCCD Secretariat's attempts to build desertification-mitigation and desertification-adaptation linkages, I propose three criteria for predicting whether regime linkages are likely to benefit source regimes (here the UNCCD): the linkage's contribution to source governance goals; the credibility of knowledge presented by the source regime; and the linkage's political feasibility for the target regime. This analysis shows secretariats to be important actors in linkage politics whose actions can lead to both beneficial and harmful outcomes for the regimes they are intended to serve. Finally, by asking whether desertification issues that overlap with climate change might be better addressed under the UNFCCC, I question when regime overlap indicates regime redundancy and warrants regime death. Alexandra Conliffe is a Visiting Research Associate at the University of Oxford, where she obtained a doctorate from the School of Geography. Her research examined the combined impacts of political and environmental change on agricultural livelihoods in Central Asia. She has presented research on approaches to climate change adaptation in post- Soviet contexts. As a consultant to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Conliffe has attended key UN negotiations on desertification and climate change since 2005. Today? the convergence of the attention of leaders of the world is on climate change, the "threat multiplier." Somewhere at its margin, desertification, "the silent killer" is still the underrecognized threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy-making is based on the attempt to control and steer future events. To do that, rationality, mainly in the form of scientific expertise, is required both to anticipate possible events and to bring legitimacy to the whole process. However, no rationality can cross-out the very elementary fact that, concerning future events, policy-making is inherently subjected to uncertainty: as for any activity involving some opportunity-risk, probabilities can be known but the outcome stays unforeseeable. This implies that policy-makers must always be able to assume responsibility for their decisions. The paper will explain that the complexity inherent to the climate change issue severely complicates this very basic truth by de facto asking policy-makers to act upon a kind of rationality that is not that of evidence, but that of choosing among probabilities of errors. Furthermore, starting from the assumption that policymaking is structurally entangled into the tension between a conservative attitude (the preservation of the comfortable symmetry between past and future events to the benefit of individuals) and a pro-active one (trying to improve their future), the paper will demonstrate how scientific complexity imposes that the first goal be abandoned and how this fact creates a serious problem in terms of policy-making legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have been published that use methods of statistical inference to gauge the relationship between environmental stress and armed conflict, and results are inconclusive. This paper makes several contributions. First, we introduce and use a new dataset that tracks violent events on the sub-state level, namely a sub-Saharan Africa subset of the new UCDP Georeferenced Event Dataset (UCDP GED). Second, we test for the effects of environmental stress on a kind of armed conflict events which constitutes a theoretically more appropriate dependent variable, namely so-called 'non-state conflicts'. Third, we test for the effect on non-state conflict of the interactions between soil degradation and population density, and between fresh water availability and population density. We find that extreme soil degradation in areas of extreme population density is strongly related to heightened risk of onset of non-state conflict. Also population growth is associated with onset on non-state conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

So far, the Europeanisation of energy policy has occupied a remote place in the European integration literature. However, current developments such as the Energy Policy for Europe launched in 2007 and the Lisbon Treaty Title XXI on Energy have given greater prominence to this policy area within the integration process. Hence, there are several indications that the Europeanisation of energy policy is already taking place, even though the understanding over this process is still weak. And indeed, European studies are just beginning to shed light on this policy area. Against this backdrop, this article examines the EU environmental performance, supported by the Environmental Policy Integration (EPI), as a driver for the energy governance during the process of Europeanisation. Its main argument is that EPI is not only a variable for explaining the governance changes in the EU level concerning energy - defined here as 'green Europeanisation'-, but also a useful instrument for pursuing coherence within the emergent EU energy policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past three decades have witnessed the spread of automobile emission standards throughout the world. Contrary to fears that global competition would produce a race to the bottom, there appears to be a race to the top, not only among rich countries but also the poor. Using econometric analysis of standard adoption over the past 25 years, I argue that this global diffusion results from countries' efforts to stay competitive in the international market. Due to the pressure from importing countries and from economic competitors that have adopted stringent emission standards, even developing countries have rapidly moved to adopt rich country standards. A country's automobile exports trade value, furthermore, is positively influenced by its adoption of automobile emission standards. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest ecosystems are recognized for their contribution to the stability of the environment and development of local economies. However, today tropical forests are threatened by unsustainable economic development resulting in the irreplaceable loss of these resources. Sustainable forest management (SFM) policy has been identified as a way society can use forest resources while ensuring their regenerative capacity. Suriname is an example of a country with high per square kilometer forest cover that has the potential to resist unsustainable economic exploitation of the forest. While research on sustainable forest management in Suriname has been indentified as an important element of policy, the capacity to enhance effectiveness is not currently available. What is needed is to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of SFM policy is financial support for forest-related research. This analysis suggests that increased funding, improved human capacity, and indigenous engagement will help inform research and add to the effectiveness of current sustainable forest management policy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

U.S. global environmental policy during the Bush administration was widely considered to have fallen short of both global and national needs. Among other actions, critics faulted the administration's disparagement of scientific consensus on climate change and its withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol, its ideological opposition to multilateral population assistance, its failure to exercise leadership on global sustainability initiatives, and a diversity of foreign policy decisions that have cost the United States much needed political support in critical regions of the world. This paper reviews some of the most important of these policy actions and looks ahead to the challenges Barack Obama will face as the 44th U.S. president. In particular, the paper examines the unique opportunities in 2009 and over the next several years for policy reassessment in energy use and climate change, population and development assistance, and sustainable development initiatives. It also considers the key policy actors who will likely play significant roles in the design, adoption, and implementation of a new generation of policies that can better address existing and emerging global environmental and resource problems. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at how sub-national policies in the United States are interacting with policymaking at the national level to address the issue of global climate change by focusing on a coordinated effort to get the national government to fund U.S. cities' efforts to address this issue. It reviews how research has looked at climate change policymaking in the United States, paying particular attention to the ways scholars have looked at climate change policymaking at different scales of governance. On the one hand, there is a large and growing literature that analyzes U.S. climate change politics at the national level, challenges to policymaking at this level, and how national politics contribute to the American position in international negotiations. On the other hand, a smaller literature analyzes climate change policies coming from the local, or sub-national, level. In contrast, I consider how policies at different levels of government interact by presenting research on national legislation to support local efforts to address climate change. Although local climate politics in the U.S. have the potential to scale-up to a meaningful national policy, I argue that a federal U.S. climate policy that has successfully passed through both houses of the U.S. Congress is not imminent. Moreover, without implementing legislation passed by the Congress, the U.S. is unable to be a party on any binding climate change treaty. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the EU's capacity to play a pioneering role in international environmental policy. The objective is to explore the circumstances under which political entities possess the capacity to act as a policy pioneer. It proposes a conceptual framework for policy pioneership and applies these considerations to the EU.One could distinguish three major ways in which the EU influences international environmental policy: international negotiations, the use of coercion and conditionality, and voluntary diffusion of ambitious EU environmental rules. The voluntary diffusion of policy from one political entity to another can be an influential alternative and supplementation to the more traditional mode of global policy-making by nation states through international agreements and coercive measures. Policy diffusion is triggered by globalisation and the increasing interaction between various jurisdictions and other stakeholders. Through policy diffusion, not only nation states but also political entities such as the European Union can play an influential role at the global level. The first section of this paper discusses policy diffusion. The second part outlines the different factors and conditions that determine a political entity's capacity to pioneer policy. In section three, these conceptual considerations are applied to the EU. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of state capacity in environmental treaty implementation, by examining National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) development in five Pacific Island Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The central argument is that variation in the success of NAPA development is dependent on the civil service's ability to coordinate and carry out domestic assessments and on the government's ability to approve the plan, and that this capacity reflects state stability. Consequently, state stability - in terms of maintaining confidence in governments, securing peaceful transitions between governing parties, and in having the ability to enforce the rule of law and carry out the tasks of public goods provision effectively - becomes a condition for implementation success of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in these Pacific Islands.Funding for NAPA development is available from the international community, but accessing these funds involves burdensome and conflictual bureaucratic processes; the creation of the action plans also calls for high levels of public participation and consultation. These tasks require dedicated resources and personnel, including consistency in staff, adequate time allocated to policy development, and assistance from funding agency officers - all of which require an "enabling environment" within the state. Differential policy development success across the five LDC cases supports the hypothesis that, given the difficulty of the bureaucratic processes, political upheaval can compromise the government's ability to maintain effective administrative capacity and thus undermines its capacity to implement international agreements.The conclusions suggest that a focus on additional financing through international funds may not be the most effective mechanism for supporting the creation of adaptation policies; instead, the paper speculates that international agencies should focus on streamlining their bureaucratic demands, and should provide additional support for training programmes to strengthen local capacity and governance. The paper contributes to our understanding of the limitations of global treaties for many environmental concerns, and stresses the role of local institutions in addressing sustainability, adaptation, and vulnerability. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the World Bank’s implementation and modification of environmental and social safeguard policy norms. Initially implemented as a series of ad hoc guidelines, environmental and social policies would become entrenched as appropriate “safe ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines international efforts to address climate change at the local level, through organizations such as ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, and other efforts. The introduction looks at the phenomenon from a historical and global per ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the revision process of the EU emissions trading system (ETS). The ETS has so far operated on the basis of a main directive adopted in 2003 and a 'linking directive' adopted in 2004. In January 2008 the European Commission put forward a formal proposal for a revision of the system and hence new rules for trading in the 2013-20 period. The proposal was debated in the EU decision-making bodies in the course of 2008 and the final revised directive was adopted in December 2008. With the outcome of the process and the significant changes adopted as the dependent variable, the paper discusses three main explanations. First, applying 'intergovernmentalist' lenses, the key determinants for EU policy are found at the level of member states. The member states are the ultimate and main decision-makers, through decisions in the Council. Second, applying the lenses of multi-level governance theory, key determinants for EU policy are (increasingly) found in the positions and actions of the European Commission and the European Parliament. The Commission is the formal agenda-setter in the EU, but has also formal and informal influence in the decision-making phase. The Parliament has become a formal co-decider in the EU. Third, looking through global lenses, key determinants for EU policy may be found in global factors and institutions. Not least, EU policy-making is often embedded in global regimes/institutions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that fiction and literary non-fiction should play an important role in the environmental politics classroom, and explores how such works might best be employed. The paper draws on experience with past, present, and future-oriented liter ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the development of regional greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions trading schemes in North America. Specifically, it focuses on the creation of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), which incl ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes how uncertainty and an unequal distribution of costs across countries affect governments’ preferences towards the timing and design of climate change policies. In choosing and enacting climate change policies, governments have to deal ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of MNCs in conflict environments is a relatively new subject for scholarly and policy-oriented inquiry. The small body of research that does exist approaches the issue from corporate social responsibility, human rights, and environmental policy perspectives. This paper, in contrast, will consider MNCs from a security-studies viewpoint, and examine MNCs as actors in conflict systems. The focus will be on firms in the oil, gas, and mining industriesâ??the so-called "extractive sector." Multinational corporations affect, and are affected by, the violent environments in which they do business. This paper will pay particular attention to efforts by certain firms to promote stability through social development and security measuresâ??in other words, conflict mitigation, conflict transformation, or, more bluntly, "corporate counterinsurgency." ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper develops a methodology for estimating the risks and consequences of possible future increases in tropical cyclone intensities due to climate change that would allow policy makers to relatively quickly evaluate the cost of different mitigation st ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the degree of environmental policy institutionalization among 21 OECD countries from 1960 to 2005. The institutionalization of environmental policy will be analyzed on the one hand, by focusing on the way domestic policy instruments have been applied in OECD countries. On the other hand I will investigate international institutionalization of environmental policy by means of involvement in international treaties and agreements. The paper concludes that highly industrialized societies have institutionalized a high degree of environmental policy over the last decades in both areas. However, environmental institutionalization is clearly divided into a domestic and international realm. Although both areas are linked, different factors explain their respective implementation. Domestic environmental institutionalization is above all determined by domestic political factors (environmental movements, government positions, veto player functions) and international factors (EU membership, diffusion). The analysis is much less successful in explaining international environmental institutionalization. The most robust results of the analysis clearly contradict the findings of earlier studies in this field. International integration does not seem to be a driving force for international participation in environmental treaties among OECD countries. While the paper can answer a great deal of open questions concerning domestic environmental institutionalization, further research is needed in order to explain international environmental institutionalization and why some OECD countries participate in international treaties more often than others. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increased awareness of human pressure on nature led to the development of a ‘governance of nature’. One of the most effective mechanisms was the reinforcement of protected areas, whose number and surface increased rapidly over the past decades. The qu ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "post-materialist" values hypothesis, positing heightened concern for the environment, should predict convergence in environmental policies. Yet variation persists, even when controlling for income levels. This puzzle deserves further scrutiny: is it attitudes, policies, or both that diverge? What, in the end, are the roles of public opinion and political institutions in determining outcomes in environmental policies? Greater understanding into the causal mechanisms linking attitudes to policy outcomes is required. This will be sought by building upon Congleton's (1992, 1996) median-voter model of environmental policy-making, whereby we develop an extension to include voter-information characteristics and test its effects by applying the model to outcomes for various air pollution issues. The results provide evidence for significant voter-information effects and suggest that two critical antecedent conditions are necessary for political-institutional and voter-information variables to have an effect: opportunity for redistribution over time (or across economic sectors), and the presence of a credible framework for addressing collective action problems. The most important implication of this analysis is that relying on democratic reform alone may not suffice to improve environmental policy outcomes if there is a failure to address underlying collective action problems. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]