State Led Cooperation

Question 1

Realism and inter-state cooperation

Answer 1

• Not possible

- I.S. Ruled by insecurity, mutual fear and distrust which cannot be overcome

Question 2

Liberalism and inter-state cooperation

Answer 2

• Yes cooperation is possible when it is of mutual benefit to all involved
• Keohane argues that institutions are vital in allowing for this to happen

Question 3

Constructivism and inter-state cooperation

Answer 3

Yes cooperation can occur through shared ideas, norms and socialisation of states as they shape state identity, interests and behaviours (Wendt)

Question 4

Multilateral Environmental Agreements

Answer 4

Are a form of international regime; this involves developing and maintaining new rules, organizations, norms and decision-making procedures around the issue area

Question 5

Krasner definition of an international regime

Answer 5

“A set of implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules and decision-making procedures around which actors expectations converge in a given area of international relations”

Question 6

Rittberger definition of an international regime

Answer 6

The rules of the game agreed upon by actors in the international arena (usually nation-states) and delimiting, for these actors, the range of legitimate or admissible behavior in a specific context of the activity.

Question 7

How many MEAs exist today?

Answer 7

More than 140 exist today most of which were made since 1972

Question 8

What are the six sets of factors that O’Neil deems key in determining the international communities response to environmental issues?

Answer 8

• Crises and awareness
• Leadership and leverage
• The rules of the game
• Domestic politics
• North-South politics
• NGOs and the Corporate sector

Question 9

Barrett

Answer 9

• Argues that while there have been successes like the Montreal Protocol and the Fur Seal Treaty, international cooperation more often than not fails
• This is because the constraints of sovereignty are not easily disarmed or pushed aside and the international scale provides challenges with regards to enforcement
• Thus, it is vital we approach different environmental issues in different was
• Focuses on the Kyoto Protocol and evaluates its chances of success argues that “The Kyoto Protocol will not succeed in sustaining cooperation because it fails to do what the book explains all good treaties must do- it fails to restructure incentives. In particular, it can only work if its obligations can be enforced, and yet Kyoto fails to provide the means for enforcement”
• Kyoto= framework but no foundation which prevents broadening and deepening of cooperation overtime and those the negotiators should have focused on how to address the issue of enforcement first
• Should focus on fast-tracking substitution of environmentally friendly technology and use a pledge and review system
• Developing countries shouldn’t only have to take a modest approach

Question 10

Kyoto Protocol

Answer 10

• December 1997
• No real enforcement measures-> negotiators believed it was something that could be added later on
• Was based on the Montreal agreement
• Imposed quantitative emission ceilings on the industrialised countries only
• By 2001 only one of the annex one countries had signed
• Unfinished in terms of the rules governing the calculation of Annex I party’s assigned amount of emissions, so countries couldn’t sign as didn’t know what they were agreeing too
• US rejected it in 2001
• Had to be ratified by at least 55 countries accounting for at least 55% of the total CO2 emissions for 1990, including 38 annex 1 countries
• Canada claiming credits in violation of the agreement
• Costs outweighing the impact that making change would actually have
• Employed flexible mechanisms
• Employed emissions trading schemes to lower cost but this also lowers the environmental benefit

Question 11

Clinton Administration investigation into the cost of Kyoto Protocol

Answer 11

Put the marginal cost to the Annex I countries of implementing Kyoto at somewhere between $14 to 23/ tone Carbon

Question 12

International Whaling Convention 1946

Answer 12

• This was originally about saving whales so they could catch them later as stocks were being depleted, the significant change in its purpose created a regime which took on a life of its own
• Voluntary organisation

Question 13

1982 Moratoria on Commercial Whaling

Answer 13

• came under the International Whaling convention 1946
• decided that commercial whaling was not viable in the long term or good for the planet
• has been successful since the 1990s, it was estimated that there were only 5000 blue whales in the sea but as of 2010 there are about 10,000

Question 14

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species 1973

Answer 14

• UNEP initiative, ratified by 172 parties
• Aimed to ensure the international trade in wild plants and animal species does not threaten their survival
• Biodiversity loss poses a major challenge today as it is difficult to calculate what percentage of species we have lost as we don’t know exactly how many we had to begin with
• Tackles the issue from a demand and supply perspective-> maybe about raising awareness etc. To curb demand, supply limited anyway and limiting it further by banning hunting

Question 15

Basel Convention on the Control and Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal 1989

Answer 15

• UNEP initative with 183 parties as of 2013
• Aims to ensure environmentaly sound management of hazardous wastes by minimising their generation, reducing their transboundary movement and disposing of these wastes as close to their point of generation as possible
• Rich countries don’t like to have their own wastes so they export it; developing countries see this as an economic opportunity

Question 16

The 1994 BAN amendment to the Basel Convention

Answer 16

• States that parties listed in Annex VII (members of the OECD, EU, Liechtenstein) will prohibit immediately all transboundary movements of hazardous wastes which are destined for final disposal operations in non-OECD countries
• Not in force as it requires 75% ratification- Lots of OECD countries including US have not ratified it
• Hazardous waste is primarily produced by developed countries, particularly America, Russia etc

Question 17

UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 1992

Answer 17

• UN initiative with 192 parties
• Aims to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level preventing dangerous human-caused interference with the climate system
• Includes the Kyoto Protocol 1997 and the UN Climate Secretariat which places binding constraints on greenhouse gas emissions and encourages economic incentives to reduce emissions
• Key issues are the major players are scared off by legally binding constraints, the idea of common but differentiated interests and economic disadvantage
• An analysis of Global Carbon Dioxide Emissions by Region 1990-2012 demonstrates that at a basic level Kyoto has not stabilized the issue

Question 18

Process of Regime construction

Answer 18

• Negotiation, more negotiation and strengthening
• Nature, scope and cause of the problem, directions for future negotiation and minor obligations such as reporting are established first (trust building)
• ‘In subsequent stages, member states negotiate more detailed protocols or amendments, which set up concrete goals, and targets that are binding on signatory states
• for every new treaty states must negotiate, adopt and ratify it domestically before it can be entered into force

Question 19

Perkins et al.

Answer 19

• considered why states implement MEAs?

- Studied EU states’ implementation and compliance/non-compliance with MEAs since 1979-2000

Question 20

Rationalist explanation regarding the non-implementation of MEAs (Perkins et al.)

Answer 20

-The costs of doing so are extremely high which can be off putting

Question 21

Reputational explanation regarding the implementation of MEAs (Perkins et al.)

Answer 21

Not doing so will have detrimental effects on their reputation which is key in the likes of the EU

Question 22

Constructivist explanation regarding the implementation of MEAs (Perkins et al.)

Answer 22

MEAs result in norm transfers between countries

Question 23

Managerial explanation regarding the implementation of MEAs (Perkins et al.)

Answer 23

Implementation depends on the legal constraints upon the country

Question 24

The Issue of Fragmentation

Answer 24

• i.e. UNDP and UNEP-> environmental issues are at the heart of both of the issues they deal with
• The UNDP’s role has become highly normative with regards to the Sustainable Development Goals and before that the MDGs
• The UNEP is highly constrained by budget
• Could these issue be better dealt with at a regional level?
• Does trying to create a universla standared water them down too much?
• Should we merge the two programs into a single structure that conserves and strengthens vital technological functions but enables a balanced and integrated approach to sustainable development?

Question 25

Methods of enforcing, incentivizing binding commitments

Answer 25

• Shame them and say they aren’t civilised or behaving properly
• Shun them
• Trade sanctions

Question 26

Paris Climate Agreement

Answer 26

• Only 3 countries have not signed it or are withdrawing: Syria, Nicaragua and the US
• In terms of membership, it is a very successful multilateral agreement, the use of nationally determined commitments is key for this
• However, scientists have calculated that this does not match up with the aim of keeping temperature increase below 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels
• Key issues: does this avoid enforcement, is shaming countries for not doing what they said they would, going to be enough to instigate action, does this provide a way to bypass the issue of national interest?

Question 27

Ozone Depletion

Answer 27

• Ozone protects from harmful UVB rays, consequently allowing life on earth to exist
• The Ozone is deteriorating due to the release of pollution containing the chemicals chlorine and bromine allowing large amounts of UVB through causing skin caner and cataracts, harm to animals and inhibiting the reproductive cycles of phytoplankton
• The key cause of this is CFCs
• About 90% of CFCs currently in the atmosphere were emitted by industrialized countries in the Northern Hemisphere
• With the ban of CFCs in 1996 the ozone layer is slowing repairing itself

Question 28

The Vienna Convention 1985

Answer 28

• Established global monitoring and reporting on ozone depletion
• Created a framework for the development of protocols for taking more binding action

Question 29

The Montreal Protocol under the Vienna Convention 1987

Answer 29

• Countries agreed to phase out the production and consumption of certain chemicals that deplete ozone by specific deadlines
• Different countries had different phase-out periods
• This is the first and only global environmental treaty to achieve universal ratification by all 197 parties
• e.g. NZ implemented the NZ Ozone Layer Protection Act of 1996 and the Ozone Layer Protection Regulations 1996
• Perhaps not a problem solved but a problem controlled

Question 30

Lessons from the Montreal Protocol that could be applied to other issues

Answer 30

• Benefits of allowing countries to set their own deadlines
• Using it as a ploy to market new products e.g. CFC free fridges
• Equal weighting of each countries opinion
• Multilateral fund used to help developing countries change too in a way that would cost them less
• One cause, one solution and a necessity, not framed in a complex manner like climate change
• Consent and cooperation can result in positive change
• People more likely to do something if it has a lower cost i.e. CFC phase-out costs less than carbon phase out
• Fitting within the discourse of intergenerational improvement rather than going against it i.e. keeping fridges

Question 31

Murdoch and Sandler

Answer 31

• Focus on Montreal Protocol
• It is our contention that the Montreal Protocol was initially enacted because it codified reductions in CFC emissions that polluters were voluntarily prepared to accomplish as the scientfic case against CFCs grea
• Self-interest motivated compliance making the need for a binding agreement unnecessary

Question 32

Velders et al

Answer 32

• Focus on Montreal Protocol and considered it a landmark agreement
• With the force of an international treaty and substantial scientific evidence connecting ODSs to ozone depletion, there was a rapid development and deployment of suitable ODS substitutes and not-in-kind alternatives, which steadily achieved reductions over the last two decades in ODS production, consumption and emissions

Question 33

Molina et al

Answer 33

• Focus on Montreal protocol
• Policymakers could amend the Montreal Protocol to phase down the production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) with high global warming potential
• These and other fast-action strategies may reduce the risk of abrupt climate change in the next few decades by complementing cuts in CO2 emissions