Philosophy, Structure, Methods, and Challenges M. Eileen O’Hara, Ph.D. EM410 Unit 5 Global Regimes & Compliance with Global Environmental Policy

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 well- functioning 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!

Click Here… Then 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 long- term 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