Transcript Document

EM410 Unit 5
Global Regimes & Compliance with
Philosophy,
Structure, Methods, andPolicy
Challenges
Global Environmental
M. Eileen O’Hara, Ph.D.
Unit 5 Midterm Assignment
ANY QUESTIONS?
Due at the end of this Unit – Tuesday at 11:59PM
Seminar Overview
 Unit 5 Outcomes
 Regimes and Global Environmental Policy
 What are they?
 Obstacles to their effective use
 Implementation and non-compliance with global
environmental policy
 First look at the Mock Summit!
Unit 5 Outcomes
 Key elements and features of a global regime, in the context of
international environmental policy
 How a global environmental regime operates, through studying
working examples of these regimes in global politics
 Some of the major obstacles to creating and implementing wellfunctioning global environmental regimes
 Factors that influence compliance or noncompliance with
environmental agreements
 Methods to solve problems of noncompliance with environmental
agreements
Global Regimes
 “An international regime is a set of integrated principles,
norms, rules, procedures, and institutions that actors create
or accept to regulate and coordinate action in a particular
area of international relations.”
 “Regimes can thus be seen as dynamic, sector-specific
regulatory and administrative systems”
 “When effective, regimes, through their principles, help to
sharpen international goals in an issue area; shape
international behavior toward a common goal through their
rules and norms; manage state interactions; augments
policy coordination and collaboration; reduce conflict; and
facilitate the making of further agreements.”
5 Elements of Global Regimes
 Principles are beliefs of fact, causation, and integrity
 Norms are standards of behavior
 HINT: Parties “should” or “are requested to” indicates
attempts to create norms
 Rules are specific prescriptions or proscriptions for action
 HINT: Parties “shall” indicates a rule
 Procedures are the prevailing practices, including those for
making and implementing collective choice
 Institutions are mechanisms and organizations for
implementing, operating, evaluating, and expanding the regime
and regime policy
Examples of Global Regimes
 Ozone Regime
 Climate Change
 Hazardous Waste Regime
 Toxic Chemical Regime
 Global Biodiversity Regime
 Others?
Detailed Example: Ozone Regime
 Principles
 Norms
 Rules
 Procedures
 Institutions
Obstacles to Effective Policy
 Systemic Obstacles
 Procedural Obstacles
 Lack of necessary and sufficient conditions
 Obstacles characteristic of international environmental
issues
Systemic Obstacles
 Double crossing, free rider, positional advantages, abuse of
common-pool resources, misperceptions, and market failure
 Lack of a global government with recognized authority
to punish violators and maintain order
 States prefer independence over interdependence
 Ecological systems know no boundaries
 Principle 21 from the Stockholm conference read that
states have the right to exploit their own resources yet
effective policy requires the opposite.
Procedural Obstacles
 Lowest common denominator
 Countries most interested in addressing a problem must gain
the cooperation of countries with less, little, or even no interest.
 Policy often represents the lowest common denominator
measures that the relevant countries are willing to accept.
 Time-lag problems
 Neither an easy nor a quick process to create and implement
global policy
 Years, even decades, required by the global policymaking
process
Lack of Necessary and Sufficient Conditions
 Concern: government concern must be sufficiently
high to prompt states to devote scarce resources to
solving a problem
 Contractual Environment: states must be able to
make credible commitments, to enact joint rules with
reasonable ease, and to monitor each other’s
behavior at moderate costs
 Capacity: states must possess the political and
administrative capacity necessary for the
implementation of international norms, principles and
rules
Obstacles Specific to International
Environmental Issues
 Scientific complexity and uncertainty
 Linked economic and political interests
 Environmental issues exist because of economic and political
activities and interests
 Unequal adjustment costs
 Solving a common problem does not mean there will be
common costs for each country
 Extended time horizons and time horizon conflicts
 Nonlinear Patterns of Change
 Large number problems
 Large numbers present significant incentives for free riding
 Different Core Beliefs
 Capacity problems
Discussion Threads on Global Regimes
What suggestions do you have to
improve implementation of global
environmental policy?
Discussion Threads on Compliance Issues
What suggestions do you have to
improve compliance with international
environmental agreements?
Possible Solutions
 Increasing financial resources available to developing nations;
 Offering compliance incentives of various types;
 Imposing sanctions (such as trade sanctions) and penalties on
non-compliant nations;
 Improving the coordination and facilitation of regime
functioning;
 Requiring national reporting and monitoring;
 Solutions to improve implementation might include:
 Creation of incentives for individual nations such as
forgiving debt in exchange for policy reforms
 Taxation of the relevant, environmentally harmful or
resource-consuming activities such as industrial activity that
creates air pollution
Mock Environmental Summit
 Purpose
 Units 6, 7, 8
 Learning Space in each week
 Use the Wiki to collaborate during Unit 6
 Unit 7 seminar time will be spent in the group chat
rooms.
 I will have each of the rooms open and I will be available
 Unit 8 is the Summit!
Then here
Click Here…
o Ministers click on your
Wiki page
o Climate change delegates
will do their work on the
main Team page
o All members of the team
can comment and edit
each other’s page
o Work collaboratively
Click Here
Deliverables
 Each student in the role of a "minister" will research,
write, and post to the wiki 1-2 pages that comments on
that minister's assigned feature.
 In particular, the report should provide concise
comments on how that feature would likely impact the
country's long- and short-term decisions on emissions
and on participation in global treaties such as the
UNFCCC/Kyoto Protocol.
Example
 In other words, an economic minister would prepare a report examining
and discussing his/her assigned country's economic situation:
 Is it a developed country?
 Is it a developing country?
 Is the country dependent on a particular trade or industry?
 The economic minister's report would gather information about the real
and potential impacts of greenhouse gas emissions on the country's
economy, and industry as well as the impacts of measures to control
emissions, and recommendations as to emissions reductions goals. (For
example, would the minister advocate for allowing the country's
emissions to continue to increase? Keeping its emissions stagnant at
their current level? Reducing emissions to 1990 levels by 2050? Halving
current emissions by 2050? Etc.)
 Be sure to examine any relevant effects of climate change (such as the
effect of rising sea levels on a country with large coastal regions).
Role of Climate Change Delegate
 After the conclusion of the Unit 7 seminar, the student assigned
the role of climate change delegate will prepare three or, at most,
four wiki pages outlining his/her assigned country's position on
greenhouse gas emissions allowances and reductions (both longterm and short-term; and both country-specific and global) and the
reasons supporting that position.
 I need this summary completed in the Wiki Team Page by the end
of the day the Friday of Unit 8.
 I will be summarizing them for the Unit 8 seminar, so be prepared
to support your position.
What happens during the Summit?
 At the beginning of the Unit 8 seminar, each climate change
delegate will present his or her wiki to the class, summarizing
his/her assigned country's position and views on each of the
ministries' feature areas, as well as the country's overall position
on long- and short-term emission reductions.
 The class will then critique the positions of each country and
discuss possible features to a future agreement that could further
the goals of both (1) reducing GHG emissions globally and (2)
respecting the needs of the representative countries.
What happens during the Summit?
 I will prepare one or more proposals based on the
climate change delegates' presentations, and the
seminar will conclude with a vote on climate/emissions
targets. Each country group will be given one vote.
The End
ANY QUESTIONS?
As usual, I would like to thank Matthew Miller and Limor
Weizmann for letting me use some of their slides