This thesis uses document analysis and semi-structured personal interviews to look at current strategies and policies of major companies to manage the life cycle environmental risks associated with their products and processes, which I refer to as corporate environmental responsibility (CER); The thesis also explores what some national governments are and could be doing to encourage greater environmental responsibility from companies. As environmentalists and climate scientists have been warning for decades, and now world leaders are coming to realise, the world faces serious environmental challenges, none more urgent than climate change. A failure to act to mitigate the risks associated with this one challenge, as Stern (2006, pii) asserts �could create risks of major disruptions to economic and social activity�. A major proportion of the world�s environmental problems can be attributed directly to production, use and disposal of products (Tukker & Jansen, 2006), and as this thesis will argue, national government policies to encourage or force greater environmental responsibility from producers are required to reduce risks and mitigate impacts. In recent decades national governments have been reluctant to intervene in the market place, preferring to rely on voluntary mechanisms, but as will be discussed in greater detail, there is now an increasingly critical voice (Zarsky, Roht-Ariaza & Brottem, 2002; Hirschland, 2003; Archer & Piper, 2003; Vogel 2005; Hay et al, 2005) that questions the effectiveness of voluntary corporate responsibility as it is currently practiced, which subsequently raises the question: what role national governments, and international governance should take? The primary data sources for this thesis are personal interviews with senior business leaders from 25 major companies, recorded public speeches, both web and non-web based corporate public relations material, and personal interviews with key academics in the field, environmentalists and corporate analysts, conducted mainly between 2002 and 2004. The analysis of this data has sought to investigate the attitudes of major companies to: - corporate environmental responsibility, though some interrelated aspects of social responsibility are also considered; - what drives them to take greater responsibility to reduce their environmental risks; - government policies, especially possible legislation to encourage and/or force CER. In addition through case studies of: - one industry sector - two major companies, and - one industry sector pilot study; as well as secondary research on several other companies, this thesis investigates what some companies are saying and doing about corporate environmental responsibility. This will lead to a short discussion of the degree to which these companies� rhetoric of responsibility matches their actions � that is how much they are �walking the talk�. The thesis also looks at the current potential of national governments in encouraging and/or forcing greater CER, then contrasts the development and implementation of national policies for CER in Australia with those in Europe, focussing on CER as it relates to products in the electrical and electronics industry. The thesis concludes with some observations and suggestions on policies of major companies and of national governments, as well as international governance, to encourage greater CER.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2006. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: William Neff. Includes DVD. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 26).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago Divinity School, June 1997. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-171).

Jalisco es un estado altamente vulnerable a los efectos del cambio climático. El estado es vulnerable a sequías en el norte e inundaciones en las costas. Jalisco también es un estado con un sector agrícola de alta producción. Los efectos del cambio climático ponen en riesgo esta producción agrícola, que en turno tendría efectos negativos en las familias agrícolas y la economía del estado. A través de varias estrategias de adaptación al nivel del agricultor y del gobierno, se puede crear un sector agrícola con posibilidades para afrontar los efectos del cambio climático con éxito. Para crear estas estrategias de una manera justa y eficaz, se podría usar el marco de las policy sciences durante la formulación para políticas públicas. El marco de las policy sciences promueve la colaboración entre las partes interesadas durante el proceso del desarrollo de políticas públicas. Por medio de la colaboración de las agencias gubernamentales, los agricultores, las organizaciones no gubernamentales, los centros de investigación y la ciudadanía se pueden crear e efectuar estrategias eficaces para adaptar al sector agrícola jalisciense a los efectos del cambio climático.

The 2002 ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the government of Canada represents an interesting case study in Canadian federalism. This thesis seeks to explore the perspective of the government of Saskatchewan during the debate surrounding the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. In examining Saskatchewans perspective, this thesis uses the theoretical framework developed by Richard Simeon in Federal-Provincial Diplomacy: The Making of Recent Policy in Canada. In particular, the four major sources of intergovernmental conflict identified by Simeon, economic conflict, ideological conflict, political competition, and differences in perspective, will be used to examine Saskatchewans reaction to the ratification to the Kyoto Protocol. Climate change policy provides interesting insights into Canadian federalism. Constitutional authority in environmental policy is concurrently shared between both levels of government. At the same time, the federal government has authority to make international treaties, but requires provincial consent to implement those treaties in areas of provincial jurisdiction. Unlike other previous intergovernmental negotiations, the Kyoto Protocols ratification also introduces international elements and considerations to domestic federal-provincial relations, which have rarely been explored in academic literature surrounding Canadian federalism. As such, this thesis hopes to use the case study of Saskatchewans perspective on Kyotos ratification as a means of expanding on the relevance of Simeons framework through the consideration of unexplored international factors on Canadian federalism.

When setting the stringency of environmental regulations of the intensive livestock industry, governments make a trade-off between rural economic development and environmental quality. This trade-off represents the weight the government places on social welfare relative to the profitability of the intensive livestock industry. The impact of the weight the government places on rural economic development on the formation of environmental regulations in the US intensive livestock industry is examined in this thesis. A political economy model explaining the formation of environmental regulations in the presence of a special interest lobby group is developed. The theoretical model finds that the incumbent government sets policy in response to the marginal disutility from pollution, the intensity of pollution damages, and according to the weight the government places on rural economic development. The theoretical model is tested using a cross-sectional analysis of 1997 intensive livestock industry environmental regulations across US states. Econometric results provide evidence that state governments implement more stringent regulations in response to the concerns of rural citizens and the intensity of pollution damages. The study finds that the pressure to pursue rural economic development has a positive relationship with the stringency of regulations.

When setting the stringency of environmental regulations of the intensive livestock industry, governments make a trade-off between rural economic development and environmental quality. This trade-off represents the weight the government places on social welfare relative to the profitability of the intensive livestock industry. The impact of the weight the government places on rural economic development on the formation of environmental regulations in the US intensive livestock industry is examined in this thesis. A political economy model explaining the formation of environmental regulations in the presence of a special interest lobby group is developed. The theoretical model finds that the incumbent government sets policy in response to the marginal disutility from pollution, the intensity of pollution damages, and according to the weight the government places on rural economic development. The theoretical model is tested using a cross-sectional analysis of 1997 intensive livestock industry environmental regulations across US states. Econometric results provide evidence that state governments implement more stringent regulations in response to the concerns of rural citizens and the intensity of pollution damages. The study finds that the pressure to pursue rural economic development has a positive relationship with the stringency of regulations.

Wissenschaft hat einen großen Anteil daran, internationale Umweltprobleme auf die politische Tagesordnung zu bringen und Maßnahmen zu ihrer technischen Lösung zu entwerfen. Dies gilt sowohl für den Abbau der Ozonschicht als auch für den Klimawandel. So relevant die Generierung von wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen in diesen Feldern ist, so komplex ist die Interaktion zwischen Wissenschaft und Politik und so schwierig ist es, Verlässliches darüber zu sagen. Thomas Hickmann analysiert das Verhältnis von Wissenschaft und Politik in internationalen Umweltregimen aus einer neuen Perspektive. Er untersucht nicht den Einfluss wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnisse auf die Politik, sondern rückt die Frage in den Fokus, inwieweit Regierungen Einfluss auf die Wissenschaft nehmen, um nationale Interessen durchzusetzen. Diese Perspektive wurde in der Forschung bislang weitgehend vernachlässigt, weshalb eine systematische Analyse dieser Frage in der Literatur fehlt.

Esta tesis doctoral estudia distintos problemas de economía medioambiental, con un énfasis en la regulacción medioambiental (incluyendo políticas, aplicación y gobernanza) y en su cumplimiento por parte de las empresas. Consta de tres capítulos, unidos por el tema de regulación ambiental, específicamente, la visión desde los niveles internacional, nacional y de empresa. El primer capítulo estudia los acuerdos internacionales en materia de medio ambiente, siendo el aspecto innovador la toma en consideración de múltiples contaminantes con efectos correlaciondos y la secuencia de la negociación. Se muestra que una cooperación en la primera fase puede facilitar las negociaciones posteriores. Además, excepto para países simétricos, la secuencia de la negociación afecta a los resultados respecto a acuerdos, haciendo de la secuencia otro instrumento para aumentar la participación. En el segundo capítulo se analiza, en un marco en que la política medioambiental viene predeterminada, cómo debería distribuirse el poder para imponer la aplicación de las normativas en una estructura de aplicación centralizada, descentralizada o mixta. El capítulo se relaciona con la literarura sobre federalismo ambiental al incorporar una nueva perspectiva sobre los problemas relacionados con el cumplimiento de las normativas. Los sacrificios que deben hacerse al elegir entre centralización y descentralización recaen en la internalización de externalidades negativas y la consideración de la heterogeneidad entre regiones. Además, si las preocupaciones ambientales locales y centrales no coinciden, podrían surgir contradicciones donde cada nivel jurisdiccional prefiere lo opuesto como estructura de aplicación superior. En el tercer capítulo de la tesis me centro en otro aspecto del cumplimiento de las normativas medioambientales por parte de las empresas. Me centro en el estudio de cómo las características de una compañía, y en particular las de su gobierno corporativo, afectan al comportamiento de ésta con respecto al cumplimiento de la regulación medioambiental. Además del efecto disuasorio general de la regulación medioambiental, en este trabajo proporciono un nuevo aspecto que puede ayudar a entender la heterogeneidad que se observa en el comportamiento de las empresas en el terreno medioambiental. Propongo un modelo teórico que luego estudio empíricamente, y llego a la conclusión de que el impacto del gobierno de la compañía en el grado de cumplimiento con las normativa medioambiental presenta una forma funcional en U invertida, lo que explicaría que no se haya encontrado una relación significativa en la literatura empírica previa. Este hecho indica por tanto que además de las expectativas convencionales de que la mejora del gobierno corporativo debería reducir sus incumplimientos en materia medioambiental, puede darse también el efecto inverso. / This doctoral thesis is generally on environmental economics, with a slight focus on environmental regulation (including policy, enforcement and governance) and firm’s compliance. It consists of three essays, linked by the theme of environmental governance, specifically, the governance on the international, national and firm level. The first essay studies international environmental agreement, with its innovation in taking into account multiple pollutants with correlation effect and the negotiation sequence. It turns out that a cooperation in the first stage can facilitate later negotiations. And except for symmetric countries, the negotiation agendas matters for the membership outcome, which makes the sequence another instrument to possibly enlarge the participations. In the second essay, it analyzes when the environmental policy is predetermined, how the enforcement power should be distributed under centralized, decentralized or a mixed enforcement structure. The chapter brings the environmental federalism literature to a new perspective of compliance problems. The tradeoff between centralization and decentralization lies in internalizing negative externalities and accounting for heterogeneity across regions. Besides, if the environmental concern of the central and local agencies does not coincide, disagreements may arise where each jurisdictional level prefers the opposite as to the superior enforcement structure. The research then shifts to the environmental governance within the firm level in the third essay. I study whether and how a firm’s characteristics, in particular its corporate governance, affect the environmental compliance behavior. Besides the general deterrent effect of environmental regulation, this essay provides a novel angle in explaining the heterogeneity of corporate environmental performance. By both theoretical and empirical means, I find that the impact of firm’s corporate control on the degree of environmental violation exhibits an inverse-U trend. The failure to discover a significant relationship in previous empirical literature can thereby be explained. Hence, additional to conventional expectation that an improvement of a firm’s corporate governance should lessen its environmental incompliance, the reverse effect can also take place.