Environmental groupsThe Seattle events also identified the internationalisation of environ-
mental politics as a key challenge for the contemporary environmental
movement. In an interdependent global economic system the actions of
non-democratic international capitalist institutions such as the WTO have
aprofound effect on the environment, and international environmental
diplomacy between nation states has also expanded (see Chapters 9 and
10 ). With critical decisions increasingly being taken beyond the level of
the nation state by international organisations, transnational corporations
and national governments, how can environmental NGOs hope to compete
against such powerful players?
Yetthe international arena offers opportunities too. In recent years the
environmental movement has shown its capacity to construct transnational
alliances of NGOs, from both North and South, which have scored some
notable successes, helping make possible international agreements prevent-
ing mineral exploitation of the Antarctic (Wapner 1996 ), banning ozone-
depleting CFCs and protecting biodiversity (see Chapter9). Major groups like
Greenpeace and FoE have often shown their old dynamism at this interna-
tional level, perhaps because global campaigns are more glamorous, attract
wide publicity and offer different challenges to groups such as FoE that are
increasingly shackled by domestic institutionalisation. Indeed, environmen-
tal NGOs are now so active at the international level that some writers see
the emergence of a newglobal civic society, which is ‘that slice of associational
life that exists above the individual and below the state, but also across
national boundaries’ (Wapner 1996 :4;also Lipschutz 1996 ). They argue that,
instead of identifying with the nation state, people are increasingly seeing
themselves as part of a broader global community where they can be repre-
sented by environmental social movements: an international ‘new politics’.
While this inspiring vision may currently appear a little fanciful, it does
nevertheless identify an important arena in contemporary environmental
politics.
The most interesting example has been the global justice movement (GJM).
This broad movement consists of a network of actors and organisations,
engaged in collective action and sharing a common concern about a wide
range of connected transnational issues, notably development, trade, debt,
poverty and the environment. It involves activists from North and South,
and makes important links between their respective concerns. The GJM
incorporates both mainstream, moderate organisations, including aid and
development charities, religious organisations and leading environmen-
tal groups such as WWF and FoE, as well as an eclectic array of direct
action groups including environmental, anti-capitalist and anti-globalisation
protesters. These different wings of the GJM have engaged (in their differ-
ent ways) in conventional political activities, such as campaigns to reform
theWTOand the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, high-profile public
demonstrations including those at the Geneva WTO summit in 2002 and
theGleneagles G8 summit in 2005, and a range of conferences, such as the