Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
(N/A)
BERKELEY,CA 94720
Performing Department
Society and Environment
Non Technical Summary
The shape of global environmental governance has changed significantly since its inception in the early 1970s. It is no longerthe sole preserve of governments and their representatives working together under United Nations auspices to negotiateinternational environmental treaties and agreements. Rather, we are seeing new actors emerging as players in their own righton the international scene, and an array of new policy initiatives and tools being brought to bear on the key global environmentalproblems of our times. Activist organizations are working with corporations to set up regulatory schemes and initiatives of theirown, some of which have taken on the complexity and depth of inter-governmental treaty regimes. The major internationalfinancial institutions (the World Bank and the World Trade Organization) have themselves become sites of environmentalgovernance, in part a response to the environmental impacts of their basic mandates of economic growth and development. Inplace of traditional target-based treaty obligations, global markets are being harnessed to address carbon emissions. Evenplayers whose actions have hitherto taken place largely on the local level have emerged onto the global stage. California hascarved out a significant role in tackling climate change, and it is not the only local jurisdiction undertaking such actions. Further,grassroots and community groups are making their presence felt globally, either as direct participants in global negotiations or inbuilding their own transnational networks. In order to map this changing political landscape, I developed a descriptive modelbased around differing sites and modes of global environmental governance at a macro level. Taking this model as a baseline,this project will address some of the interesting theoretical and empirical questions that came out of this research. For example:1. How have these changes played out across individual environmental issue areas, from toxics to biodiversity In addition tomapping out governance trends across these cases and others, I will track how these changes play out in negotiations to craft apost-Kyoto global climate governance regime. 2. How does this project contribute to debates over reforming globalenvironmental governance Specifically, what does an institutionalist approach, which posits that change is conditioned byexisting practices and may be slow, uneven or strongly resisted, suggest about the degree of agency global policy elites have toengineer an "ideal" system 3. How does the theory and practice of global environmental governance affect actors at the local orsubnational level Specifically, this project will examine what global environmental governance has meant to date for California,and California's role and influence in global environmental politics now and into the future. Expected outputs: A collection ofcurrent and historical data on the shape and evolution of governance regimes across individual issue areas; Presentations atconferences, workshops; A series of articles in peer-reviewed journals; Contributions to public debates, e.g. forums on globalgovernance, California's policy progress
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
50%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
The shape of global environmental governance has changed significantly since its inception in the early 1970s (O'Neill 2009). Itis no longer the sole preserve of governments and their representatives working together under UN auspices to negotiateinternational environmental treaties and agreements. Rather, we are seeing new actors emerging as players in their own righton the international scene, and an array of new policy initiatives and tools being brought to bear on the key global environmentalproblems of our times. Activist organizations are working with corporations to set up regulatory schemes and initiatives of theirown, some of which have taken on the complexity and depth of inter-governmental treaty regimes. The major internationalfinancial institutions (the World Bank and the World Trade Organization) have themselves become sites of environmentalgovernance, in part a response to the environmental impacts of their basic mandates of economic growth and development. Inplace of traditional target-based treaty obligations, global markets are being harnessed to address carbon emissions. Evenplayers whose actions have hitherto taken place largely on the local level have emerged onto the global stage. California hascarved out a significant role in tackling climate change, and it is not the only local jurisdiction undertaking such actions. Further,grassroots and community groups are making their presence felt globally, either as direct participants in global negotiations or inbuilding their own transnational networks. In order to map this changing political landscape, I developed a descriptive modelbased around differing sites and modes of global environmental governance at a macro level. Taking this model as a baseline,this project will address some of the interesting theoretical and empirical questions that came out of this research. For example:1. How have these changes played out across individual environmental issue areas, from toxics to biodiversity In addition tomapping out governance trends across these cases and others, I will track how these changes play out in negotiations to craft apost-Kyoto global climate governance regime. 2. How does this project contribute to debates over reforming globalenvironmental governance Specifically, what does an institutionalist approach, which posits that change is conditioned byexisting practices and may be slow, uneven or strongly resisted, suggest about the degree of agency global policy elites have toengineer an "ideal" system 3. How does the theory and practice of global environmental governance affect actors at the local orsubnational level Specifically, this project will examine what global environmental governance has meant to date for California,and California's role and influence in global environmental politics now and into the future. Expected outputs: A collection ofcurrent and historical data on the shape and evolution of governance regimes across individual issue areas; Presentations atconferences, workshops; A series of articles in peer-reviewed journals; Contributions to public debates, e.g. forums on globalgovernance, California's policy progress
Project Methods
The first stage of this project is a mapping exercise across several different global environmental issue areas, examining therange and evolution of governance mechanisms within them. Therefore, this will involve a. case selection, b. data collection(historical, current overviews of governance in each issue area, plus critical actors and sites of governance), c. identifying trendsand mapping current pictures of governance regimes, and d. identifying points of comparison across cases, generatinghypotheses as to why these differences occur. In turn, this exercise, along with the utilization of relevant insights from prevailingtheories of institutional change at the global level, will contribute to the part of the project that addresses debates over reformingglobal environmental governance. Second, following the current climate negotiations will involve first, getting up to speed onrecent developments in that policy arena, and examining the very complex set of stakeholders in global debates over limitingcarbon emissions and other efforts to address or adapt to climate change. This will involve a literature review, and followingnegotiations as they are reported (e.g. through the Earth Negotiations Bulletin, which provides detailed reporting on all officialclimate-related negotiations and meetings). The third component of this project - examining local level impacts of and influenceon global environmental government will involve a survey of the relevant literature on the role of sub-state actors in globalenvironmental politics. Second, I will gather data on the impacts of existing global policies on California. I will also identify andtest relevant hypotheses regarding California's influence on global environmental politics: for example, is it an actor in its ownright, able to influence (either directly or by example) the course of global environmental governance Is California a net importeror exporter of innovative environmental policy ideas Do California's strengths lie in the willingness of its government to acceptand implement policy innovations or in its private/NGO sector, in terms of providing ideas and innovations that benefit not onlyCalifornia but also the world