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This thesis examines the political process through which sustainable development is promoted and applied. It asks why policies designed at global or regional levels with claims to environmental concerns fail to tackle environmental degradation on a local scale. It seeks to analyse how the dynamics of exclusion within the policy process marginalise the environmental sustainability agenda at different policy levels. Based on a political ecology approach, the thesis contributes to knowledge on environmental policy processes by analysing weaknesses in the creation, design and implementation of environmental warrants. In this thesis, a warrant is considered to be a safeguard that gives reliable or formal assurance, guarantee or security concerning a policy decision that has been taken. The analysis ranges from the macro level, where the policy framework is discursively framed and contested by groups with antagonistic claims, to the meso level where the policy framework is shaped by techno-bureaucratic practices, to the micro level where the environmental challenges of project implementation are contrasted with the regional policy framework. The thesis investigates these processes within the context of the Mesoamerican Sustainable Development Initiative (MSDI) of the Puebla Panama Plan (PPP), a regional development strategy which has been implemented since 2001 in Central America and southern Mexico. The analysis focuses on an area under environmental stress where a project supported by the PPP appears to add to already unsustainable processes of environmental change. The modernisation of Dos Bocas port in Paraiso, in the State ofTabasco, Mexico, a project located at a site of considerable environment fragility, was selected as the location of the case study. The research fmds that although the MSDI is a fIrst step towards fostering environmental sustainability in the region, the environment, claims and interests of local stakeholders are systematically marginalised. This is through exclusionary deliberative practices operating at the three different policy levels, leading to a weak environmental warrant for the PPP infrastructure projects.

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This research started from a concern about the changing role of the environmental movement in government decision making in newly democratised Korea. Many empirical studies found that environmental movements in other transitional democracies reached their peak during the liberalisation of authoritarian regimes, and considerably declined after democratisation. Unlike these cases, the Korean environmental movement grew greatly after democratisation, but faced its decline later within civil society-friendly administrations (1998-2007). This trajectory raises questions about what actually happened between the government and the environmental movement in Korea. To explain this phenomenon, this research selected the political opportunity structure (POS) approach, which stresses the importance of political environment around social movements. Based on the two dimensions of the POS – “access to the political system” and “configuration of actors”, this research has explored, (i) what forms of access chances were created by the Korean government in decision making; (ii) what change occurred in the relationships between the environmental movement, government, and other social actors; and (iii) how these factors influenced the environmental movement’s ability to influence outcomes. The research is based on case studies of two anti-dam movements, the Dong River dam movement and the Hantan River dam movement, and interviews were carried out with key stakeholders, including environmental activists, public officials, experts, and newspaper reporters.

This thesis investigates the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decisionmaking and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus). It assesses its normative contribution to International Environmental Politics (IEP). Via English School (ES) lenses, it gauges the degree of pluralism and solidarism in the Convention. More specifically, it evaluates Aarhus’ role as a green human rights regime; scrutinises the contribution of Aarhus’ trinity of procedural rights; offers a regime analysis; and asks (a) what Aarhus’ association with democratisation is and (b) whether its success depends on Parties’ political cultures. Three originality claims are made. First, this project offers a particular investigation into an under-researched, quite elusive Multilateral Environmental Agreement (MEA). Second, it applies pluralism and solidarism to a tangible research object. Third, it addresses the overlooked issue of cosmopolitanisation in IEP. Three key findings are drawn. First, Aarhus demonstrates the presence of, and contributes to, a greener European international society. Second, Aarhus has considerable solidarist potential, offering tools for cosmopolitan human empowerment in IEP. Third, pluralist realities retain distinct influence. Cosmopolitan empowerment may be emerging, but it is still nascent. Sovereignty remains, and this is welcomed. Tentative cosmopolitanisation of political orthodoxies is morally desirable and practically feasible. Evolutionary reform of the statist status quo is more agreeable than revolutionary change. World society values, of the sort enacted by Aarhus, help render IEP more ethically ambitious and human-oriented. But they will not emerge without a stable political framework in which states can institutionalise them. Aarhus demonstrates that whilst IEP remains International, it can still be enriched by humanity, which states must accommodate if they are to be legitimate international citizens, exercising responsible sovereignty, in the twenty-first century.

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Nous analysons dans cette thèse le processus de structuration d'organisations politiques écologistes, le Green Party et les Verts, de manière comparative et à l'échelle régionale, sur la période 1974-1995. Nous étudions cinq dimensions de ce processus : structuration organisationnelle, évolution des clivages avec les autres formations politiques, évolutions électorales et stratégiques, parcours militants et médiatisation des écologistes. Nous mettons en évidence plusieurs processus se jouant à l'échelle régionale et locale et leur influence décisive sur l'échelle nationale (rôle moteur des fédérations régionales dans l'unification des Verts français, évolutions stratégiques locales) mais également l'impactrécurrent à l'échelle locale de dynamiques opérant à l'échelle européenne, surtout à partir de la formation d'un groupe écologiste au Parlement européen à partir de 1984. Dans les deux régions, les caractéristiques des partis Verts sont déterminées en premier lieu par la structure des clivages qui les opposent (ou apparentent) aux autres partis politiques ainsi que les parcours militants de leurs militants, deux facteurs qui donnent également lieu à de graves conflits internes. En Bretagne, les événements de mai 1968 puis un mouvement anti-nucléaire puissant contribuent à la structuration d'une famille politique consistante mais les Verts restent très fragiles sur le plan organisationnel, malgré une implantation électorale significative surtout à partir de 1989. Au Pays de Galles, le développement d'un mouvement écologiste autonome est entravée par la puissance du mouvement régionaliste et la présence au sein du parti travailliste de nombreux opposants à l'armement nucléaire, et le fait qu'une partie significative des militants du Green Party soient des nouveaux arrivants originaires d'Angleterre. Le Wales Green Party recueille de ce fait des résultats électoraux très faibles mais parvient à pérenniser son organisation et ses activités. / This thesis analyses the structuring of green political parties from a comparative perspective and at a regional (sub-national) scale, from 1974 to 1995. We study five dimensions of this process: organisational structuring, evolution of cleavages with other political parties, electoral and strategic evolutions, careers of activists, and media coverage (including a study of green media). Our research highlights several processes taking place at regional and local levels which have a decisive influence on the national scale (e. g. the crucial part played by regional federations in the unification of LesVerts in 1984 and early strategic evolutions at a local level) as well as the regional impact of dynamics developing at the European level, above all after the formation of a Green group in the European Parliament in 1984. In both regions, the Green parties are shaped first of all by the cleavages opposing (or relating) them to other parties and by the careers of their activists, two factors from which also stem serious internal conflicts. In Brittany, the impact of May 1968 followed by a successful movement against nuclear power have contributed to the transformation of the green movement into apolitical force but Les Verts have then remained very fragile as an organisation, despite significant electoral gains from 1989 onwards. In Wales, the green movement as a specific force is weakened by the strength of the regionalist movement, the opposition to nuclear weapons from many Labour Party activists and the fact that many Green Party activists in Wales are newcomers from England. The Wales Green Party thus obtains low electoral results but nevertheless succeeds in making its campaigns and activism durable.