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

Global environmental politics

keydifference is the cost and availability of solutions. In ozone diplomacy,
CFCs were not critical to the economy and substitutes (now) exist for most
uses. Solutions to ozone depletion are largely technological and can be dealt
with by co-operation between the state and a small number of key manu-
facturers with little observable impact on citizens. In contrast, energy pro-
duction and consumption is of central economic importance. Affordable

Renewable energy:Energy sources, such

as wind, geothermal and hydroelectric, that

never run out.

and practicable solutions, such as renewable
sources of energy (wind, solar, waves) or cleaner
technologies (electric cars), may not be readily
available or acceptable. Effective measures to com-
bat climate change will inevitably involve fundamental socio-economic
changes affecting economic growth, energy production, transport and indi-
vidual lifestyles. There are few votes to be won and many to be lost on these
issues. Not surprisingly, no country has yet committed itself to such radical
solutions (see Chapter 12 ).

Critical question 2
Is the role of environmental NGOs in securing international environmental
co-operation undervalued?

◗ Regime implementation

How successful are environmental regimes in solving the problems they
address? Hurrell ( 1995 ) has observed that ‘the weakest link in the chain of
international environmental cooperation may well not lie in the difficul-
ties of negotiating formal agreements but, rather, in ensuring that those
arrangements are effectively implemented’ (p. 141). Despite extensive cov-
erage of the formation and strengthening of environmental regimes, until
recently implementation issues were relatively neglected, but this gap in the
literature has been plugged by a wave of implementation studies since the
mid-1990s (Victor et al. 1998 ;Young 1999 ;Kutting ̈ 2000 ;Miles et al. 2002 ).
None the less, with many regimes still evolving, it is difficult to draw overall
conclusions about their effectiveness.
It is important, first, to be clear about the meaning of ‘effectiveness’ (Young
1994 :ch.6;K ̈utting 2000 ;Wettestad 2005 ). One approach regards a regime
as successful if the institutional arrangements it creates can change the
behaviour of states, for example by overcoming the objections of veto states
or persuading countries to sign up to new or tougher targets. This definition
is only really a proxy measure of effectiveness, for it works on the assumption
that commitments made on paper will be implemented – but that is an
heroic assumption.
Even if some or all commitments are implemented, a comprehen-
sive assessment of effectiveness must also determine whether a regime