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Terhemba Ambe-Uva, Global environmental governance and the accountability trap, International Affairs, Volume 97, Issue 3, May 2021, Pages 902–904, https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiab043
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Extract
In recent years, an emergent body of International Relations scholarship has taken an interest in global governance and responses to new transboundary threats. Global environmental governance and the accountability trap is animated by similar concerns about the global governance crisis of the environment, mostly because of what the book refers to as a ‘culture of unaccountability’. The contributors to this edited volume are interested in how global environmental governance institutions are (re)shaping accountability and the extent to which they enhance or limit it (p. 6). The book, edited by Susan Park and Teresa Kramarz, highlights the paradox that the proliferation of global environmental governance institutions has gone in tandem with the continued deterioration of the environment, or what is now referred to as ‘a deficit of ecological integrity’.
At the core of the edited volume lies a relatively simple argument: that existing governance arrangements may allow authority holders to be held accountable without necessarily addressing wicked problems. Multi-stakeholder initiatives such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Marine Certification Scheme (MSC) could bias accountability goals, for example by shifting the focus away from long-term environmental goals to short-term economic gains. In response, the editors provide a framework for a two-tier understanding of environmental governance. The contributors apply this framework to analyse three types of institutions: public, private and voluntary accountability mechanisms. The framework allows them map out ‘who, what, and why questions of environmental action, which inform the design of interventions and underpin any subsequent effort of implementation’ (p. 217). Such big questions are at the heart of the standards, processes and sanctions used to create accountability.
