The Global Environment Outline Why is the environment a subject for International Relations o A lot of environmental issues cross borders o The global or transnational nature of some environmental problems o Variation in international cooperation and national performance Collective Action Problems and the Environment o Externalities and the environment o The environment as a public good Non excludable Non rival one person s enjoyment of the good in no way inhibits another person s enjoyment of the good Clean air clean water ozone layer stable o The environment as a common pool resource Non excludable Rival one person s enjoyment of the good can decrease another person s enjoyment of the good Fisheries forests clean water The Commons Tragedy of the Commons and overexploitation The Commons a common grazing ground for every citizen of the town Tragedy Things in common tend to be exploited o If everyone let s all of their cows eat grass to their heart s content in order to produce healthier cows for profit then all of the grass will be gone in a year If everyone does the rational thing and allows their cows to at only so much then the commons will last much longer Knowing this there is an incentive to free ride common pool resources tend to be both underprovided as well as overexploited as a result o Severity of collective action problem can explain variation in global environmental outcomes No overriding international agreement means environmental issues are dealt with issue by issue Regional persistent issues are often easier to solve Bargaining over environmental protection o Domestic bargaining Costs of environmental protection often concentrated o Benefits often dispersed Each one of us gets a small benefit as it is harder for us as a collective to overcome the collective action problem Opponents of environmentalism often have collective action advantage Instances where benefits are concentrated o International bargaining Differential effects of treaties A treaty is international law You not only need everyone to sign the treaty but you need to enforce it Or otherwise create incentives that will allow it to be self enforced Environmental protection vs development Who pays the cost In relative terms developing countries do should Examples of successes and failures Cleaning up the Mediterranean sea and the International Whaling Convention o Smaller communities often achieve their goals Global warming ozone layer o Bigger goal and very large difficult to achieve success and has proven failure overtime
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