International Institutions and the Natural Environment

Managing the Global Commons

The Life Cycle of International Environmental Cooperation

• Initial concern/agenda setting

– Can be by an IO, a state, or by NGOs

• Development of international scientific capability

• International agreement on principles (convention)

• International agreement on details and mechanisms (protocols and annexes)

• Frequent adjustment of the rules

Environmental IOS

• Like other IOs, except:

– They tend to be smaller

– Independent information-gathering tends to play a more important role

• Often use the convention/protocol approach

– Renegotiate details frequently

The UNEP

• 400 staff, headquartered in Nairobi

• Manages environmental trust funds, e.g. GEF

• Identifies areas for international environmental cooperation

• Acts as secretariat for several multilateral environmental agreements

– Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)

– Montreal Protocol

Other IEOs

• International Maritime Organization (IMO)

• International Whaling Commission (IWC)

• North-West Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO)

• The Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR)

• The North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC)

Other IEOs, Part 2

• The Antarctic Treaty System

• The European Commission

• World Conservation Union (IUCN)

• The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)

• International environmental NGOs

A World Environmental Organization?

Do we need a WEO to act as an institutional counterweight to the international economic institutions?