Changing authority in the environmental governance of North Sea oil and gas platforms.

The debate on shifts in governance and the changing authority of the state is not only relevant for environmental governance on land, but also for environmental governance of the marine environment. Seas and oceans are transboundary spaces which require international cooperation between states and cooperation between states, market and civil society. Drawing on the work of Rosenau and using the concept sphere of authority, this paper studies the shifts in governance and changing authority of the state in one particular maritime sector, i.e. offshore oil and gas production on platforms. More specifically, oil and gas platforms in the North Sea, one of the busiest seas in the world. In the North Sea, offshore oil and gas production has expanded since the early 1970s. Moreover, platforms have been governed by states through the regional Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic since the late 1970s. However during the 1990s, other spheres of authority within the industry and between the industry and national governments started to emerge. These spheres of authority have not only caused shifts in governance, but also increased sharing of authority between state and private actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]