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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Katharine Rietig
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
The structural elements of global environmental governance are notoriously difficult to change and align with the needs of a rapidly deteriorating earth system. This, however, only increases the need to focus on the role of agency in this context. This paper does so by taking stock of what we know about agency in relation to International Environmental Agreements (IEAs) and suggests directions for future research. We contribute a conceptual framework to enable the mapping of research on agency-related to IEAs and advance more systematic study of agency in this context. The framework differentiates between the negotiation of IEAs, theirimplementationand outcomes,and includes agency-related and context-related drivers of agency in these processes. We subsequently review articles published between 2001 and 2020 in the journal International Environmental Agreements (as one of the few journals exclusively focusing on IEAs) dealing with actors’ agency and analyse how these articles address agency in the context of IEAs. We conclude firstly by identifying avenues for how further research can fill important gaps, including a need for increased transparency on the methods and theories used in articles, and more comparative research particularly on agency dynamics in implementation; and secondly by highlighting important pointers for policy-makers including the need to re-evaluate the role of national sovereignty and address the forces that counteract equality and justice. Key lessons include the need to improve global south countries capacity to influence IEA negotiations (input legitimacy), the central role of public and peer pressure on countries to implement commitments, the impact of multilevel governance dynamics and the importance of ensuring that IEAs benefit local communities (output legitimacy).
Author(s): Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen S, Rietig K, Scobie M
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics
Year: 2022
Volume: 22
Pages: 353-372
Print publication date: 01/06/2022
Online publication date: 05/04/2022
Acceptance date: 10/02/2022
Date deposited: 25/02/2022
ISSN (print): 1567-9764
ISSN (electronic): 1573-1553
Publisher: Springer Nature
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-022-09571-w
DOI: 10.1007/s10784-022-09571-w
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