UN Conferences and Governance of the Environment PDF

80 UN Conferences and Governance of the Environment in a politically irreconcilable frame of profound North-South cleavages. The issue at hand appealed to the immediate interests of the industrial ized countries because of either popular concern within the countries or perceived linkages between th...

80 UN Conferences and Governance of the Environment in a politically irreconcilable frame of profound North-South cleavages. The issue at hand appealed to the immediate interests of the industrial ized countries because of either popular concern within the countries or perceived linkages between the subject and material national interests, leading major donor states to commit resources to the issues. Robert Putnam and Nicholas Bay ne inferred a number of similar background conditions from successful G-7 summits.16 UNCHE, for instance, was held at a fortuitous moment. Domestic environmental movements were just becoming active in the United States and Europe. Potential North-South disagreements were avoided by prior high-level discussions that rejected the conceptual dichotomy between economic growth and environmental protection; extended the international agenda to include environmental concerns of the South re garding natural resource policy as well as the pollution concerns of the industrialized countries; and provided a notional commitment to "addi tionally" and financial assistance on behalf of the North.17 Environ mental protection was not seen as inconsistent with other established goals in international negotiations, including national security and eco nomic liberalization. UNCHE also provided the first opportunity, fol lowing U.S. recognition, for China to stake out a position in inter national diplomacy. North-South relations became more acrimonious with the New International Economic Order (NIEO) discussions in the late 1970s, making it harder to forge consensus at international confer ences. Even with these factors, Cold War divides still modestly influ enced the conference, as the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc countries withdrew at the last minute over the participation of West Germany; yet, because the superpowers were in a period of d?tente, such tactical link ages were not perceived as provocative and freighted with Cold War significance. Effectiveness of International Conferences It is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of many of these conferences, in part because of weaknesses and gaps in our ability to monitor progress in achieving conference goals. The record is generally mixed, at best, in terms of achieving the targets and aspirations expressed in the action plans and declarations of the conferences. It is difficult to meas ure directly the effects on the environment, and the record of states in complying is mixed or uncertain. The goals are often ambiguous. State reporting about compliance is generally weak and incomplete, and few provisions for verification of state compliance are made at the confer ences. Most assessments of conference successes remain impressionistic This content downloaded from 193.190.250.9 on Fri, 16 Sep 2022 11:14:29 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  Peter M. Haas 81 and anecdotal, although some conferences generated new doctrinal con sensus or new institutions to help advance the conference goals (such as UNCHE, with the UN Environment Programme [UNEP]; the 1974 World Food Conference, with the World Food Programme and the In ternational Fund for Agricultural Development [IFAD]; the 1994 World Population Conference, with its strong endorsement of new population policy albeit without strong institutional support; and UNCED, with its support for the new doctrine of sustainable development but still with a weak Commission on Sustainable Development). At UNCED+5 the General Assembly and the Commission on Sustainable Development tried to evaluate overall progress achieved since UNCED. It deter mined, among many observations, that production and consumption pat terns had become more energy efficient in industrialized countries; that land use conflicts were more acute in developing countries between competing demands for agriculture, forest cover, and urban uses; and that water scarcity remains a major threat to development and human health in developing countries.18 In short, it is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of the confer ences on state policies and on observable environmental impacts. It would be unreasonable to expect such conferences to yield lasting and clear effects on states and on the environment. It is equally unreason able to assign blame to conferences for failing to reverse environmen tal decline. A full list of global environmental conferences is presented in Table 1. Functions of Conference Diplomacy Global environmental conferences also have a number of indirect ef fects with longer-term effects on national policies that affect inter national governance and the prospects for sustainable development. Without a strong theory of state interests, it is not possible to draw clear causal inferences about the influence of international conferences on state interests and practices. Theorists across paradigmatic divides, with the exception of staunch rational choice theorists, should be able to agree that conferences that are able to mobilize more of the functions I discuss later in this article will have a stronger impact on member states than will conferences unable to mobilize as many. Some variables are of interest to neoliberal institutionalists because they influence state as sessments of the economic cost of environmental pollution, the ecolog ical benefits of its solution, and the political coalitions associated with each functional issue on the agenda. Conferences thus influence inter national linkage politics. For constructivists, important variables are the This content downloaded from 193.190.250.9 on Fri, 16 Sep 2022 11:14:29 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Table 1 Global Environmental and Sustainable Conferences Since 1972 Year Name, location Product/outcome 1972 United Nations Conference on the Declaration of Principles Human Environment, Stockholm Action Plan UNEP 1974 World Food Conference, Rome Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition World Food Council IFAD 1974 World Population Conference, Bucharest World Population Plan of Action 1975 World Conference on Women 1977 UN Water Conference, Mar del Plata, International Drinking Water Supply and Argentina Sanitation Decade (1981-1991) 1977 UN Conference on Desertification, Plan of Action to Combat Desertification Nairobi 1978 UN Conference on Human Settlements, UN Centre for Human Settlements Vancouver Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000 1979 UN Conference on Science and Vienna Programme of Action on Science Technology for Development, Vienna and Technology for Development 1979 World Climate Conference, Geneva 1981 UN Conference on New and Renewable Nairobi Programme of Action for the Sources of Energy, Nairobi Development and Utilization of New and Renewable Sources of Energy 1984 World Conference on Agrarian Reform Programme of Action on Agrarian and Rural Development, Rome Reform and Rural Development 1984 Second World Population Conference, Mexico City 1985 World Conference on Women 1990 Second World Climate Conference, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Geneva Change (IPCC) 1992 UNCED, Rio de Janeiro Rio Declaration Agenda 21 Framework Convention on Climate Change Convention on Biodiversity Statement of Forest Principles UN Commission on Sustainable Development (continues) This content downloaded from 193.190.250.9 on Fri, 16 Sep 2022 11:14:29 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  Peter M. Haas 83 Table 1 continued Year Name, location Product/outcome 1994 International Conference on Population Programme of Action and Development, Cairo 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing Declaration and Platform Beijing of Action 1996 Habitat II, Istanbul The Habitat Agenda and Istanbul Declaration on Human Settlements 1996 World Food Summit, Rome Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the World Food Summit Plan of Action 1997 UNGA Special Session on Sustainable Development Source: Jacques Fomerand, "UN Conferences: Media Events or Genuine Diplomacy?" Global Governance 2, no. 3 (1996): 361-375; Thomas G Weiss, David P. Forsythe, and Roger A. Coate, The United Nations and Changing World Politics, 2d ed. (Boulder: Westview, 1997), esp. chap. 9; Lynton Caldwell, International Environmental Policy (Durham: Duke University Press, 1996). information channels and actual pieces of information that shape states' appreciation of how their citizens are affected by environmental degra dation and the political coalitions that support environmental protection. The causal mechanisms by which institutional factors influence state choice are highly contingent upon national administrative characteris tics and domestic state/society relations. Moving beyond a systemic level of analysis, variation in an individual state's sensitivity to these functions of conference diplomacy would probably vary by at least the following national level factors: freedom of the press, literacy, access to the media, and democratic institutions that enable citizens to express concern to governments (state/society relations).19 While it is not possible to directly stop human activities that de grade the environment through universal declarations or at conferences, global UN conferences can enhance governments' concern about the en vironment and strengthen their willingness to commit scarce political and financial resources to its protection. Agenda setting. Global environmental conferences can place new is sues on the global agenda and galvanize national concern by publiciz ing these issues. The conferences often have the effect of reframing is sues for decisionmakers, locating the issue within a new political matrix, and thus making possible new tactical and substantive linkages by which This content downloaded from 193.190.250.9 on Fri, 16 Sep 2022 11:14:29 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 84 UN Conferences and Governance of the Environment policies may be developed.20 For instance, environmental protection was firmly placed on the international agenda at the UNCHE confer ence, and the preliminary Founex meeting effectively reconciled North South differences about the priority accorded to environmental consid erations in economic planning. The meeting established the principle that the two goals could be compatible, especially with concessionary finance from the North to pay for incremental pollution control costs in the developing countries. UNCHE also helped inform Northern govern ments of Southern countries' concern about resource deterioration, de forestation and water quality, and the underlying problems of insuffi cient money for sewage treatment and effective resource management. The North gradually came to appreciate the possibility of an alternate agenda that would include the South's concerns and still supplement the North's primary focus on industrial pollution, waste management, and transboundary environmental threats. The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development shifted public debate and discourse on population issues to a focus on the underlying social, political, and economic forces that influence pop ulation growth. The Programme of Action marked a distinctive shift in population policy toward promoting cooperation to eradicate poverty, encouraging universal access to health care services, and empowering women.21 Popularizing issues and raising consciousness. Conferences provide a brief window of opportunity for educating the mass public and govern ment officials about environmental issues. Conferences spawn publicity about the declarations and statements of principles the meetings pro duce. Because many journalists attend the conferences, they provide an opportunity for NGOs and the media to publicize issues and to educate members of the media about environmental issues. For instance, at UNCED the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) sent one per son whose responsibility was to court the media and frame the presen tation of the daily reporting in a way that would be critical of the United States. NRDC hoped to provoke the United States into taking a more environmentally sympathetic role at the conference. Generating new information and identifying new challenges for gov ernments. Preparation for conferences often generates information for countries about their environmental problems, the array of policies available for addressing such issues, and the political coalitions organ ized around them. States are invited to submit in advance of the confer ence national reports about conditions in their countries. This process This content downloaded from 193.190.250.9 on Fri, 16 Sep 2022 11:14:29 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  PeteiM.Haas 85 can lead states to learn of new problems, clarify recognition of their na tional interest, and identify the political landscape potential for com promise. These reports are often synthesized by the secretariats for sub sequent dissemination.22 Providing general alerts and early warning of new threats. Confer ences help focus attention on new problems and also help identify in stitutional gaps and needs in addressing such problems. The "Assess ment of the World Food Situation," presented to the 1984 World Food Conference, helped focus attention on the "world food gap" that threat ened developing countries. UNCHE helped identify the urgency of ad dressing land-based marine pollution and the institutional need to create a global environmental monitoring system, which subsequently became one of UNEP's core activities.23 Galvanizing administrative reform. Conferences also prompt govern ments to create or reform national bodies responsible for forms of en vironmental protection. National administrative bodies serve as the nodes of transnational environmental policy networks. At the time of UNCHE, only 26 governments had administrative agencies responsible for environmental protection (15 in developed, 11 in developing coun tries). The preparation for UNCHE led many governments to recognize the need for creating national environmental agencies. By 1982, the total number was up to 144 (34 in developed, 110 in developing coun tries). UNCED led to the establishment of Sustainable Development (SD) committees and bodies in nearly 150 countries.24 Adopting new norms, certifying new doctrinal consensus, and setting global standards. Global conferences are sites of doctrinal contesta tion. UNCHE developed new principles of soft law that have been in terpreted and applied by international lawyers to inform a generation of international environmental lawyers.25 Specific programmatic action, such as the 2,509 specific proposals in Agenda 21, set the stage for le gitimate responses to international conferences. The identification of the number of people at risk from malnutrition and targets for official de velopment assistance (ODA) and hunger reduction stipulated at World Food Conferences similarly established standards and aspirations for subsequent governmental practices. Promoting mass involvement of new actors. International environmen tal conferences contribute to the participation of new actors in inter national environmental politics by inviting new groups of actors to attend This content downloaded from 193.190.250.9 on Fri, 16 Sep 2022 11:14:29 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 86 UN Conferences and Governance of the Environment international conferences. Environmental conferences have been leaders in the introduction of NGOs to international diplomacy. These meetings developed the practice, introduced at UNCHE, of holding parallel NGO conferences and governmental conferences and admitting NGO partici pants as observers at the governmental conferences. Roughly 178 NGOs participated at UNCHE.26 Over 1,400 were represented at UNCED. Despite the vast increase in the number of NGOs attending inter national environmental conferences, the participation is still heavily tilted toward the North, where NGOs have greater financial support and are better able to find resources to attend conferences. At UNCED, 70 percent of the registered NGOs came from industrialized countries. Conferences provide the potential for networking and developing transnational issue networks to coordinate international campaigns, and NGOs may subsequently provide information to governments and apply pressure on governments. Conferences often invite participation from major nonstate groups, including NGOs, the transnational scientific community, and, since UNCED, multinational corporations.27 Such groups are invited to attend expert group meetings in advance of the conference, participate in par allel NGO events, and even attend governmental meetings as observers. Participation is often, particularly in preliminary meetings, by expert advisory groups of specialists such as the Joint Group of Experts on Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP), the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), and umbrella indus try NGOs, such as the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). Mass public NGOs tend not to participate in the early stages. Global environmental conferences may be deliberately designed to foster new coalitions more generally and to build support for environmental protection at the national level by including the political influence of transnational policy networks. Maurice Strong, secretary-general of UNCHE and UNCED, coined the phrase "the process is the policy" to capture the idea that through conference diplomacy more actors and perspectives could be introduced to international environmental policymaking. There is still a wide variation in the extent of NGO influence at conferences. The rules of participation remain set by states' decisions in ECOSOC, and the organizations are continually constrained (if not to tally hamstrung) by state choices to allocate resources and set rules of behavior for the organizational dealings with NGOs. NGOs are often more influential at national and community levels, but participation and recognition at international conferences reinforces or establishes their domestic claims to authority. Yet even while states cling to formal sovereignty, the exercise of practical sovereignty erodes with NGO This content downloaded from 193.190.250.9 on Fri, 16 Sep 2022 11:14:29 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms  Peter M. Haas 87 participation.28 Still, Realists would be quick to point out that the will ingness to extend participation to NGOs is given by states and is always subject to being reversed. Prospects for Rio+10 and Sustainable Development The aggregation of UN conferences and constructivist forces has been to create a diffuse array of pressures on states militating for forms of sustainable development. Rio+10 provides the next major opportunity for reforming and streamlining multilateral environmental governance. It is intended to refocus international attention on sustainable develop ment and to assess accomplishments since 1992. Yet, as with the writing of this piece, it lacks most of the properties of conferences that led to productive outputs that contributed to im proved international environmental governance. Rio+5 was widely re garded as a failure in this regard, as it did not mobilize any long-stand ing interest. Mass public interest in sustainable development remains weak, and the United States appears to be developing a new global diplomatic posture of skeptical multilateralism, at best, as seen by the abandonment of the Kyoto Protocol and the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. Consequently, there is little political impulse for a productive conference. Multilateral financial and technological transfers for sus tainable development have dwindled since the early 1990s. Moreover, there is growing disenchantment with UNEP's remote location in Kenya and its lack of resources. The Commission for Sustainable Development lacks the administrative autonomy or financial resources to be able to reach out to civil society to develop any of the conference functions dis cussed above that could potentially influence state policies and envi ronmental quality. States also appear increasingly concerned about con trolling NGO participation at the meetings. The best prospects for products from the Rio+10 are probably insti tutional reforms. The international environmental governance system has not been significantly overhauled in three decades. After UNCHE, UNEP was the only international institution responsible for environ mental protection. Since then, however, most international institutions have assumed some environmental responsibilities. Recent evaluations suggest that there are administrative overlaps in the system and ineffi ciencies, as institutions have assumed new responsibilities for the envi ronment.29 Suggestions for improvements focus on reforming UNEP and on creating a Global Environmental Organization (GEO). A GEO should be established to fulfill the policy and technology based functions that provide institutional support for multilateral This content downloaded from 193.190.250.9 on Fri, 16 Sep 2022 11:14:29 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms