Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
if the CSD can infl uence the climate change talks. They, too, see the CSD
as a testing ground for language.” That said, however, I argue that if a
group has only enough resources to engage in one of these institutions,
the UNCSD is likely to provide the most satisfying results in terms of
policy changes that support environmental justice.
As I indicated in my discussion of the strategies pursued by NGOs at
the UNFCCC, nonstate actors—especially those who have engaged for
many years in international negotiations—have developed a standard set
of intervention strategies that facilitate their infl uence at hard-law forums
(see Dodds 2004). Soft-law forums like the UNCSD offer a wider range
of strategies, which sometimes serves to diffuse NGO efforts in these
forums. In previous studies, I have elaborated in detail on scholarship
that suggests NGO and movement efforts in such arenas are most effec-
tive in the area of norm articulation (Caniglia 2001, Caniglia and Sarabia
2003). Karkkainen (2004) describes forums like the UNCSD as hybrid
governance structures, where broad stakeholder participation in the
articulation of standards and models of action predominate. I have also
argued that it is just this type of arena where NGOs and other nonstate
actors can have the most impact on the evolution of environmental poli-
cies, because this state of policy winnowing and concept debate allows
“norm entrepreneurs” (Caniglia 2008; Finnemore and Sikkink 1998) to
engage governments, industry, and other power brokers in a more cre-
ative and open forum of discussion than institutions of hard law afford
(Caniglia and Sarabia 2003). Therefore, given that the UNCSD illustrates
the most amenable characteristics for NGO/social movement effective-
ness, I have elaborated above some specifi c recommendations for changes
to the multistakeholder dialogs that I feel will pave an even more effec-
tive path for the articulation of policies at the UNCSD that facilitate
environmental justice.
Discussion and Conclusions
Issues of justice are central to the achievement of sustainable development
(Roberts and Parks 2007; O'Connor 2008; Lewis, Gould, and Roberts
2003). Despite this agreement, the achievement of environmental justice
via international institutions has been hampered by numerous crosscut-
ting debates, national interests, and a decentralized international environ-
mental governance structure. This chapter has tried to clarify some of the
confusion surrounding the global environmental governance system by
examining two types of institutions. The UNCSD is a soft-law agency of
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