Policy Process in International Environmental Governance

Previously published literature often comments pessimistically on International Environmental Governance (IEG) and, as a result, many proposals to reform IEG are criticized. Although such critiques may acknowledge the social, economic and political factors underlying environmental problems, they do not sufficiently appreciate the extent to which the pursuit by multiple actors and their diverse agendas and interests affect the outcome of IEG. Reforms to IEG are therefore likely to have difficulties in achieving more effective outcomes. Policy-makers and others involved in the policy processes frame environmental problems in ways that represent their beliefs and agendas, shaping the design of policy and setting the direction of the rest of the policy process. This book identifies such practices by examining the policy processes of two case study institutions of IEG-UNEP and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), following the policy process from the international level to local levels. Policy processes occur in every institution of IEG, which is why this theme as a subject for study has broad implications for IEG. The author concludes by presenting how policy processes could be better structured to produce more effective outcomes for IEG given multiple, competing social, political and economic objectives of actors.