Global environmental politicshostility between the two camps has made the regime increasingly unstable
in recent years (Miles et al. 2002 : 400).
All regimes face serious implementation difficulties. Even the Montreal
Protocol on ozone depletion will have to overcome major obstacles to achieve
long-term success. Several countries, notably Russia and China, have admit-
ted that they will be unable to comply with the CFC phase-out timetable.
The efforts of industrialising countries have been hampered by the fail-
ure of some richer countries to honour their payments to the multilateral
fund. Another serious problem is the flourishing illegal trade in CFCs. It is
estimated that since CFC production ceased in developed countries, up to
20,000 tonnes of CFCs are illegally traded annually in industrialised coun-
tries (UNEP 2005 :10). The major source of smuggling seems to be Russia,
which is still manufacturing CFCs, from where virgin products are either
smuggled as unlicensed imports or, more commonly, falsely substituted for
recycled CFCs, which can still legally be traded.
Sometimes the problem lies with a weak regime agreement. A framework
convention may be a triumph of diplomacy, but its substance is initially
often rather thin, as illustrated by the ineffective voluntary carbon emis-
sion targets agreed at Rio which few developed states met. For example,
only three EU member states (Britain, Germany, Luxembourg) reduced car-
bon emissions between 1990 and 1998 (EEA 2000 ). States generally prefer
non-binding targets and schedules, but without meaningful sanctions and
effective monitoring systems it is difficult to hold countries to their com-
mitments. Much may depend on the effectiveness of the institutional struc-
tures that oversee implementation. Sustained political commitment is also
critical. The good intentions of a government during regime negotiations,
perhaps spurred on by a supportive enthusiastic public and environmental
lobby, may have diminished by the time it comes to act on its promises.
Where the solutions are very expensive, such as fitting scrubbers to power-
stations, or politically unpopular, such as an eco-tax, governments may give
priority to short-term domestic considerations. Consequently, environmen-
tal pressure groups can help implementation by constantly pressing gov-
ernments to fulfil their commitments and monitoring. The International
Institute for Environment and Development, WWF and Greenpeace played
acritical role in the implementation of the conservation features of the
International Tropical Trade Agreement (Princen and Finger 1994 : 5). Green-
peace’s pro-active ‘greenfreeze’ refrigerator campaign (see Box6.2)forced
chemical manufacturers to produce CFC/HFC-free refrigerators much sooner
than they had planned.
Sometimes, a government may be simply unable to implement an agree-
ment. Environmental regimes are agreed between nation states, but govern-
ments often have only limited control over the behaviour of actors (notably
corporations and individual citizens) and the activities they have promised
tochange. Even rich developed countries with strong political structures