3. Environmental governance

Question 1

What are the three trends in global envrionmental governance?

Answer 1

1. There are many new actors
2. Increased interactions
3. New mechanisms (top-down, bottom-up, many others)

Question 1

What is the consequence of the abundance of actors in global environmental governance?

Answer 1

• Because of the abundance of actors, the architecture of GEG is more fragmented, polycentric and complex.
• This makes it impossible to know how humanity at large is addressing climate change: nobody has the overview.

Question 2

What are the three key factors that shape environmental governance?

Answer 2

1. People and ideas (people pinpoint big ideas)
2. Events (stuff goes wrong, then people get active)
3. Institutions (we build a system which keeps growing)

Question 3

Give one example of the factor ‘people and ideas’ in environmental governance?

Answer 3

• John Muir, an American activist and conservationist. He started with national parks, often at the expense of indigenous peoples.
• Aldo Leopold, a philosopher who wrote a book about wild life, stating we cannot separate the individual from the landscape. In recent years, this has influenced “Rights of Nature”.
• Rachel Carson, who wrote a book in ’62 entitled Silent Spring, about the use of pesticides (DDT) which killed song birds.
• Ernest Callenbach, a novelist who wrote the sci-fi book Ecotopia, in which the US is split in two: the North West becomes an eco country where everything is great.
• Donella Meadows, lead author of the 1972 Club of Rome book Limits to Growth, pointing out the complex, interconnected and finite characteristics of our world. It was largely ignored by politicians.

Question 4

Give one example of an event that has shaped environmental governance.

Answer 4

• Bhopal disaster 1984: chemical disaster in India. A story of a powerful American company trying to get rid of responsibility. Lesson learnt: don’t build chemical factory in the middle of a city, have better maintenance, better legal procedures, higher safety standards.
• Chernobyl 1986: Swedes found out because USSR denied facts. Lesson learnt: some countries stopped nuclear (interesting how countries made different choices); more security.
• Oil spills: Alaska 1989: drunk captain tried to take shortcut. Very cold and oil doesn’t decompose. Major impact. The boat only had 1 hull. Lesson learnt: at least 2 hulls. Oil spills has declined.
• Fukushima: nuclear tragedy caused by tsunami. Tsunami prone area. Bad risk assessment used.

Question 5

What is an often heard critique of UN meetings?

Answer 5

• Too symbolic
• Too much talking
• Too little acting
• Takes too long

Question 6

Why was 1990 a busy decade in multilateral environmental agreements?

Answer 6

• End of the Cold War (more focus on social and environmental problems)
• Spirit of collaboration
• Superpower US dictated everyone else what to do

Question 7

What is new about ‘global’ when we talk about global environmental goverance?

Answer 7

Global environmental governance describes world politics as no longer confined to nation states but as characterized by increasing participation of actors that have so far been largely active at the national/subnational level.

Question 8

What is governance?

Answer 8

Governance is a broader set of activities for coordination, contestation, managing and steering by multiple actors (governments, NGOs, businesses, private actors).

Question 9

Which three elements shape environmental governance as a policy arena?

Answer 9

1. People and ideas (people pinpoint big ideas)
2. Events (stuff goes wrong, then people get active)
3. Institutions (we build a system which keeps growing)