3—Regime Effectiveness

Question 1

What is a regime?

Answer 1

“A regime is a system of principles, norms, rules, operating procedures and institutions that actors create to regulate and coordinate action in a particular issue area of international relations”

Question 2

What are the main international environmental agreements?

Answer 2

• The UNFCCC (1992)
• The CBD (1992)
• The Kyoto Protocol (1997)
• Paris Agreement (2015)

Question 3

What is an annex?

Answer 3

An annex is an attachment to an international agreement which regulates a specific sub-area. It is especially useful when it comes to regulating ever-evolving topics because, unless the treaty itself, can be regularly updated

Question 4

Why was the Kyoto Protocol adopted?

Answer 4

The Kyoto Protocol was adopted to implement concrete actions aimed at realising UNFCCC 1992’s goals

Question 5

Why was the Paris Agreement adopted?

Answer 5

The Paris Agreement was adopted because the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol had expired

Question 6

How do guidelines differ from international agreements? Provide examples

Answer 6

Guidelines are non-binding agreements. Concrete examples are the Basel Convention on waste treatment and the UN’s SDGs.

Question 7

Which approaches are used to address regimes’ effectiveness?

Answer 7

• Implementation: to which measure agreements’ provisions were implemented. The approach is flawed when agreements’ provisions are not impactful.
• Problem-solving: if the problem the agreement was signed to tackle has been resolved. A lack of causalities between the solution to the problem and the agreement’s implementation could also occur.
• Counterfactual analysis: the comparison between the current situation, where the agreement was implemented and the business as usual’s

Question 8

Which are the aspects considered for an international agreement effectiveness analysis?

Answer 8

• Output: the laws and infrastructures created by the agreement
• Outcome: change in actor’s behaviours (economical, political, technological, societal). The behavioural shift could depend on factors other than the agreement
• Impact: the accomplishment of the agreement’s goals. Non-indicative when the agreement‘s measures are not relevant

Question 9

Which are the determinants of effectiveness? And what are the problematic aspects to consider?

Answer 9

• Problematic aspects:
  
  1. Solutions are hard to generalise
  2. No panacea
• Determinants of effectiveness:
  
  1. Number of parties
  2. Inclusiveness
  3. Fairness
  4. The lag between action and problem
  5. (Un)Certainty
  6. The complexity of problems and solutions
  7. And many more

Question 10

Which aspect(s) of analysing regime effectiveness seems the most useful to you and why?

Answer 10

• It is important to asset whether the agreements’ provisions are impactful. If they are not, every deeper analysis of effectiveness will be misguided by an initial flaw.
• Output is the most useful out of the three: while outcome and impact heavily depend on third parties’ contributions from economics, society and technology, output alone determines to what extent the agreement has been implemented.
  
  • The birth of new infrastructures fosters dialogue between states and may eventually promote a more substantial commitment to the cause in the next years.

Question 11

What does effectiveness indicate?

Answer 11

The extent to which a measure solves an issue

Question 12

Is the climate regime effective?

Answer 12

• The climate regime has produced a considerable output (UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, Paris Agreement) although not adequate to implement its goals. On the other side, the outcome resulted in a number of third parties contributions, especially from societal actors.
• If the Kyoto Protocol provided stricter provisions, thus ranging higher in effectiveness, they have been significantly reduced with the Paris Agreement. Nevertheless, in both cases, the lack of enforcement mechanisms resulted in a lower commitment from the parties.

Question 13

Does the current regime address the problem of climate change?

Answer 13

The current regime does not adequately address the problem of climate change. Lack of enforcement mechanism, perceived unfairness and different level of engagement from the parties make the 1.5-2 degrees aim unrealistic

Question 14

Can you think of other ways to measure/analyse a regime
‘s effectiveness?

Answer 14

The counterfactual analysis provides a clear estimate of the regime’s effectiveness, rendering the current gap between the goals and the BUA scenario.