IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ieaple/v13y2013i1p15-30.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Meeting common environmental challenges: the co-evolution of policies and practices

Author

Listed:
  • Arild Underdal

Abstract

This article proposes an analytical framework for exploring policy responses to common challenges of environmental governance. Observing that governance involves multiple processes, I begin by identifying a conceptual platform for studying unilateral learning and adaptation as well as international cooperation as integral and interacting components of a complex governance system. I propose the concept of co-evolution as the cornerstone of this platform and distinguish between two modes of co-evolution: diffusion and cooperation. The article draws findings and propositions from recent literature to identify the mechanisms at work and the conditions under which they foster mutually beneficial solutions. Indicating how important governance challenges differ with respect to these conditions, I build the case for a diagnostic and differential approach that matches capacity-building and policy strategies with the challenge in focus. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Arild Underdal, 2013. "Meeting common environmental challenges: the co-evolution of policies and practices," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 15-30, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ieaple:v:13:y:2013:i:1:p:15-30
    DOI: 10.1007/s10784-012-9203-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10784-012-9203-0
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10784-012-9203-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Olav Stokke, 2013. "Regime interplay in Arctic shipping governance: explaining regional niche selection," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 65-85, March.
    2. Oran R. Young, 2001. "Inferences and Indices: Evaluating the Effectiveness of International Environmental Regimes," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 1(1), pages 99-121, February.
    3. Hugh Ward & Frank Grundig & Ethan R. Zorick, 2001. "Marching at the Pace of the Slowest: a Model of International Climate‐Change Negotiations," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 49(3), pages 438-461, August.
    4. Finnemore, Martha & Sikkink, Kathryn, 1998. "International Norm Dynamics and Political Change," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(4), pages 887-917, October.
    5. Holzinger, Katharina & Knill, Christoph & Sommerer, Thomas, 2008. "Environmental Policy Convergence: The Impact of International Harmonization, Transnational Communication, and Regulatory Competition," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 62(4), pages 553-587, October.
    6. Oran R. Young, 2003. "Determining Regime Effectiveness: A Commentary on the Oslo-Potsdam Solution," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 3(3), pages 97-104, August.
    7. Young, Oran R., 1991. "Political leadership and regime formation: on the development of institutions in international society," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(3), pages 281-308, July.
    8. Simmons, Beth A. & Dobbin, Frank & Garrett, Geoffrey, 2006. "Introduction: The International Diffusion of Liberalism," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 60(4), pages 781-810, October.
    9. Snidal, Duncan, 1985. "The limits of hegemonic stability theory," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(4), pages 579-614, October.
    10. Jon Hovi & Detlef F. Sprinz & Arild Underdal, 2003. "The Oslo-Potsdam Solution to Measuring Regime Effectiveness: Critique, Response, and the Road Ahead," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 3(3), pages 74-96, August.
    11. Koremenos, Barbara & Lipson, Charles & Snidal, Duncan, 2001. "The Rational Design of International Institutions," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(4), pages 761-799, October.
    12. Oran Young, 2013. "Sugaring off: enduring insights from long-term research on environmental governance," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 87-105, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ronald Mitchell, 2013. "Oran Young and international institutions," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, March.
    2. Sarker, Pradip Kumar & Rahman, Md Saifur & Giessen, Lukas, 2018. "Regional governance by the South Asia Cooperative Environment Program (SACEP)? Institutional design and customizable regime policy offering flexible political options," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 454-470.
    3. Coco Smits & Jan Tatenhove & Judith Leeuwen, 2014. "Authority in Arctic governance: changing spheres of authority in Greenlandic offshore oil and gas developments," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 329-348, November.
    4. Stephenson, J.R. & Sovacool, B.K. & Inderberg, T.H.J., 2021. "Energy cultures and national decarbonisation pathways," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    5. Pradip Kumar Sarker & Md Saifur Rahman & Lukas Giessen, 2019. "Regional economic regimes and the environment: stronger institutional design is weakening environmental policy capacity of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 19-52, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ronald Mitchell, 2013. "Oran Young and international institutions," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, March.
    2. Arild Underdal, 2012. "Strategies in international regime negotiations: reflecting background conditions or shaping outcomes?," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 129-144, May.
    3. Jürg Vollenweider, 2013. "The effectiveness of international environmental agreements," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 343-367, September.
    4. Carolyn Johns & Adam Thorn & Debora VanNijnatten, 2018. "Environmental regime effectiveness and the North American Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 315-333, June.
    5. Tobias Böhmelt & Jürg Vollenweider, 2015. "Information flows and social capital through linkages: the effectiveness of the CLRTAP network," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 105-123, May.
    6. Maximilian S. T. Wanner, 0. "The effectiveness of soft law in international environmental regimes: participation and compliance in the Hyogo Framework for Action," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-20.
    7. Sander, Michael, 2013. "Conceptual proposals for measuring the impact of international regimes on energy security," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 449-457.
    8. Pradip Kumar Sarker & Lukas Giessen & Max Göhrs & Sohui Jeon & Minette Nago & Fredy David Polo-Villanueva & Sarah Lilian Burns, 2024. "The forest policy outputs of regional regimes: a qualitative comparative analysis on the effects of formalization, hegemony and issue-focus around the globe," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 449-467, September.
    9. Andreas Kokkvoll Tveit, 2018. "Can the management school explain noncompliance with international environmental agreements?," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 491-512, August.
    10. Maximilian S. T. Wanner, 2021. "The effectiveness of soft law in international environmental regimes: participation and compliance in the Hyogo Framework for Action," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 113-132, March.
    11. Jana von Stein, 2008. "The International Law and Politics of Climate Change," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 52(2), pages 243-268, April.
    12. Gregor Schwerhoff, 2013. "Leadership and International Climate Cooperation," Working Papers 2013.97, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    13. Maria J. Debre & Hylke Dijkstra, 2023. "Are international organisations in decline? An absolute and relative perspective on institutional change," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 14(1), pages 16-30, February.
    14. Daniel Berliner, 2013. "Follow your Neighbor? Regional Emulation and the Design of Transparency Policies," KFG Working Papers p0055, Free University Berlin.
    15. Stephen, Matthew D. & Parízek, Michal, 2019. "New Powers and the Distribution of Preferences in Global Trade Governance: From Deadlock and Drift to Fragmentation," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 24(6), pages 735-758.
    16. Christopher Marcoux & Johannes Urpelainen, 2012. "Capacity, not constraints: A theory of North-South regulatory cooperation," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 7(4), pages 399-424, December.
    17. Caleb Gallemore, 2017. "Transaction costs in the evolution of transnational polycentric governance," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(5), pages 639-654, October.
    18. Nilsson, Adriana, 2017. "Making norms to tackle global challenges: The role of Intergovernmental Organisations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 171-181.
    19. William Phelan, 2008. "Open International Markets without Exclusion: Encompassing Domestic Institutions, Excludable Goods, and International Public Goods," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp245, IIIS.
    20. Lutz Philip Hecker & Frank Wätzold & Gunther Markwardt, 2018. "Spotlight on Spatial Environmental Policy Spillovers: An Econometric Analysis of Wastewater Treatment in Mexican Municipalities," CESifo Working Paper Series 7251, CESifo.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ieaple:v:13:y:2013:i:1:p:15-30. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.