The Politics of the Environment: Ideas, Activism, Policy, 2nd Edition

Global environmental politics

more likely because everyone can end up a winner. Such assumptions under-
pin institutionalist perspectives, which regard environmental co-operation
as perfectly rational whenever self-interested states judge that the benefits
of co-operation will outweigh the costs (Keohane 1989 ).^3
The apparent paradox of international co-operation may, therefore, not be
so ‘irrational’ as realists suggest. Of course, realist reservations should not
be dismissed lightly. Collective action problems, not least the incentive to
free-ride on the efforts of others to co-operate, ensure that each MEA will
represent a hard-won diplomatic triumph. Nevertheless, the existence of so
many concrete examples of co-operation suggests that the obstacles are not
insuperable. Instead, following the lead of institutionalist writers, and also
drawing on constructivist approaches (e.g. Haas 1999 ), it is more productive
tofocus on the factors that influence the emergence of international treaties
addressing problems of the global commons.

◗ Environmental regimes: the ozone and climate

change treaties

Regime: The principles, norms, rules and

decision-making procedures which form the

basis of co-operation on a particular issue in

international relations.

Regimes are ‘sets of implicit or explicit prin-
ciples, norms, rules, and decision-making proce-
dures around which actors’ expectations converge
in a given area of international relations’ (Krasner
1983 :2)(seeBox9.2). Part of the significance of a
regime is that, by agreeing to it, a government voluntarily accepts exter-
nal interference in the way it exploits resources within its own sovereign
territory. The growth of MEAs since the early 1970s is evidence of growing
international co-operation to deal with problems of the global commons.
This section describes the processes leading to the signing of the ozone
depletion and climate change treaties. These treaties are interesting not
only because they address two of the most serious contemporary global
atmospheric problems but also because they offer a contrast between one
apparently successful regime (ozone) and one that has had little success
(climate change).

9.2 Regime terminology

Aconvention,ortreaty, is the main form of

multilateral legal instrument, containing binding

obligations, rules and regulations.

Aframework conventionis negotiated in

anticipation of later texts and may contain only

a broad set of principles and aims relating to

the issue. Subsequently, maybe over several

years, it is strengthened by the negotiation of

protocols and amendments.

Aprotocolspells out specific, binding

obligations, such as specific emission

reduction targets.

From Porter et al. ( 2000 : 13–14).