This study seeks to understand the role of non-state actors, particularly NGOs, in global environmental governance by spotlighting the EU’s policies on waste trade. To understand the role of NGOs in waste trade, the study traces the waste trade problematisation of the EU and discovers NGOs' strategies and frames to influence the policies of the EU on waste trade. The study uses mixed methods with the help of constructivist and post-structuralist approaches. According to the study, the EU historically approaches the waste trade as an environmental subject outside of the EU with the contribution of NGOs. On the other hand, changes in the global waste trade scene are shifting the EU’s waste trade problematisations within the EU as an economic dependency problem. In this context, by taking a dialogue builder and voice articulator role and creating alliances, NGOs try to change the EU's this two-way approach.  They work to create a global environmental problem understanding for waste trade using mixed frames, which contain both technical and political frames.

Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) has emerged in southern Africa as a form of resource governance that is intended to devolve control of natural resources to local populations. CBNRM has produced demonstrable benefits in attaining its three goals of economic development, environmental conservation, and community empowerment, however, over time success has seemingly dwindled which has been documented in the literature. Many scholars argue that it is the third goal of community empowerment that most often fails to be realized. Beyond that, one of the major gaps that exists in the literature is an analysis of the impact of climate change on the CBNRM programs. This dissertation will analyze the challenges and opportunities of climate change while further analyzing to what degree local communities benefit as a result. It builds on existing global assemblage work to develop a composite theoretical approach that analyzes CBNRM as green global policy assemblage in order to account for the evolution of CBNRM in response to climate change. This approach is necessary as CBNRM is highly political and the resultant developing power relations are rearticulating global environmental governance and traditional levels of analysis. What emerges from the case study of Namibia is a policy assemblage that results in power being distributed and enacted in ways that traditional theories of International Relations cannot adequately account for within their state-centric ontology. This dissertation is based on fieldwork conducted in Namibia, a country that is generally recognized as a global leader in CBNRM. My conclusions suggest that CBNRM cannot be viewed as an empowering of Namibian communities and corresponding weakening of the state. Instead, the state maintains its sovereign power however at a distance and it is exercised in a less direct fashion than would have traditionally been the case. Furthermore, by devolving power the state enables NGOs to exert their influence on the ground in assisting communities. However, the actions of NGOs have important political effects based on the complex relations they have with other countries, multilateral institutions, as well as novel hybrid organizations that are increasingly empowered to engage in development actions throughout the Global South. While this proliferation of actors has resulted in continued funding streams for important development initiatives, it also continues the dependence of African communities on global actors. In some ways this is making communities less autonomous and more reliant on others, rather than self-sufficient as CBNRM entails.

Analysts have had a long fascination with moments of significant change and discontinuity in political relations. Studies of “exogenous shocks,” “critical junctures,” “historical events,” “policy windows,” and “punctuated equilibria” have occupied a prominent place in qualitative assessments of policy and institutional change. Yet, despite analysts’ interest, these turning points remain poorly understood. Leading theoretical treatments are overwhelmingly descriptive, offering little in the way of explanatory capacity. Introducing the concept of Temporal Focal Points, my thesis provides a temporal extension to Thomas C. Schelling’s focal point hypothesis. Temporal Focal Points—definite, exceptional phases along the temporal continuum—precipitate a convergence of expectations among actors in time that heightens the likelihood of agreement. Convergent expectations are a crucial means of overcoming temporal coordination problems among actors. By facilitating a spike in analytical activity, political entrepreneurship, and bargaining intensity, actors are able realize joint gains opened up by past shifts in key parameters. Prominent temporal signposts allow actors to recognize that existing institutional arrangements are not an equilibrium. I test the plausibility of this theory through an analysis of the record of change at four distinct phases of the history of the United Nations environment regime from 1962-1992, including the 1972 Stockholm conference, the 1982 Nairobi conference, the UN General Assembly’s response to the Brundtland report, and the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.

The formal access of transnational actors (TNA) to international organizations (IO) has increased steadily over the past five decades, and a growing body of literature is at the moment concerned with the theoretical and normative implications of these developments. However, very little is known as of yet about who the TNAs in global governance are, where they come from, which issue areas they focus on, and when and where they choose to participate. Using analytical tools from interest group theory, in particular a subfield called population ecology, this study describes and explains the chronological development of two populations of TNAs in global governance, namely the observer communities of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. TNAs’ financial resources and their geographical proximity to global governance venues emerge as important factors influencing their capacity to participate, causing these TNA populations to be stratified and volatile.

abstract: This dissertation explores the intersection of two major developments in global environmental governance: the vision for a Green Economy and the growing influence of non-state actors. The work draws on multi-sited thick description to analyze how relationships between the state, market, and civil society are being reoriented towards global problems. Its focus is a non-binding agreement between California and Chiapas to create a market in carbon offsets credits for Reducing Emissions for Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD). The study draws on three bodies of scholarship. From the institutionalist study of global environmental politics, it uses the ideas of orchestration, civil regulation, and private entrepreneurial authority to identity emerging alignments of state and non-state actors, premised on an exchange of public authority and private expertise. From concepts borrowed from science and technology studies, it inquires into the production, certification, and contestation of knowledge. From a constitutionalist perspective, it analyzes how new forms of public law and private expertise are reshaping foundational categories such as territory, authority, and rights. The analysis begins with general research questions applied to California and Chiapas, and the international space where groups influential in these sites are also active: 1) Where are new political and legal institutions emerging, and how are they structured? 2) What role does scientific, legal, and administrative expertise play in shaping these institutions, and vice versa? And 3) How are constitutional elements of the political order being reoriented towards these new spaces and away from the exclusive domain of the nation-state? The dissertation offers a number of propositions for combining institutionalist and constructivist approaches for the study of complex global governing arrangements. It argues that this can help identify constitutional reconfigurations that are not readily apparent using either approach alone. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Science and Technology Policy 2015

This thesis conducts a comparative study of two big, international civil society organisations, La Via Campesina and WWF, and their work with climate change. The purpose is to investigate why they have such different perspectives toward solving the climate crisis, and whether the explanation can be found by looking at the different positions they have in relation to the global hegemonic system. Two supplementary approaches of discourse analysis, Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis and Bacchi’s What’s The Problem Represented to Be-approach, are utilised to analyse the organisations’ framing of climate change. Gramsci’s theoretical framework of hegemony is applied in order to inform the analysis and to shed light on how this framing interrelates to the hegemonic system of neoliberalism. In the case of La Via Campesina, the conclusion is that they are a counter-hegemonic movement, fighting in a war of position over the common sense. This spills over into their work on climate change, which is aimed at bringing transformative change. WWF has a more reformist agenda and is effectively enabling the perseverance of the current hegemony, but it cannot be confirmed within the scope if this thesis whether this is a direct consequence of co-optation or not.

Humanity currently faces an existential crisis: anthropogenic climate change. In order to guarantee our survival on a stable planet, immediate mitigation and adaption strategies must be implemented. However, institutions are failing to live up to the task and a concrete action plan is currently non-existent, as climate governance struggles with fragmentation, commitment, and challenges posed by neoliberalism. Since the top-down approach is insufficient, extra-institutional actors are arising as leaders for the environmental agenda.  This study narrows down on Greta Thunberg and assesses her capacity in leading the climate movement. The applicability of frame theory (Benford and Snow, 2000) will be tested to understand the mobilisation potential of Greta’s discourse. The main focus of this examination is to analyse how Greta has used diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational collective action frames in order to place the limelight on the seriousness of climate change and correspondingly how this has led to civil society mobilisation. Through a discourse analysis of her speeches, it was discovered that the framing perspective plays a role in meaning construction for the movement.

O meio ambiente se apresenta como um dos desafios da governança global no que se refere às abordagens de Relações Internacionais e Ciência Política. Isso se deve ao fato de que os recursos naturais não se submetem à soberania direta do Estado e/ou das organizações internacionais formais como fonte de autoridade devido à transnacionalidade que o tema enseja. Neste sentido, os diferentes atores das relações internacionais, estatais e não estatais, precisam construir arenas de atuação, criar regulamentações onde os Estados (eventualmente) não estão presentes, e criar instrumentos de enforcement e compliance. No entanto, a centralidade das questões ambientais é colocada em xeque por teorias racionalistas de relações internacionais baseadas na autoridade do Estado e de sua capacidade de enforcement top-down. O meio ambiente é um assunto melhor considerado por arenas transnacionais em um contexto multinível e policêntrico. Neste sentido, a análise em nível local e a capacidade de organização de grupos sociais na constituição dos arranjos institucionais através da ação coletiva para solucionar a possível \"tragédia dos comuns\" tem atraído estudiosos que procuram demonstrar a sua efetividade e, consequentemente, a sua contribuição para a resolução das contendas ambientais globais. Desta forma, o objetivo deste trabalho é demonstrar como a relação entre a governança dos recursos de uso comum em âmbito local vincula-se aos instrumentos de governança global definidos por governos e organizações internacionais formais para o uso da biodiversidade. Inicialmente, realiza-se revisão bibliográfica da literatura de Relações Internacionais e Ciência Política para articular as questões ambientais entre o local e o global para, posteriormente, revelar como a governança ambiental multinível e policêntrica é estabelecida para o caso do uso da biodiversidade em comunidades locais na Amazônia brasileira, como apresentado no trabalho empírico. / The environment is presented as one of the challenges of global governance with regard to the approaches of International Relations and Political Science. This is due to the fact that natural resources are not subjected to the direct sovereignty of the State and/or formal international organizations as a source of authority because of the transnationality that the subject entails. In this sense, the different actors of International Relations, State and non-State, need to build action arenas, create regulations where States (eventually) are not present, and create instruments of enforcement and compliance. However, the centrality of environmental issues is kept in check by rationalist theories of International Relations based on States\' authority and ability to top-down enforcement. The environment is a subject better considered in transnational arenas in a multilevel and polycentric context. In this sense, the analysis at the local level and the organizational ability of social groups in the constitution of institutional arrangements through collective action to address the possible \"tragedy of the commons\" has attracted scholars seeking to demonstrate its effectiveness and, consequently, their contribution for the resolution of global environmental issues. Thus, the aim of this study is to demonstrate how the relationship between the governance of the common-pool resources at the local level is linked to the global governance instruments set by governments and formal international organizations for the use of biodiversity. Initially, a literature review of International Relations and Political Science literature is carried out to articulate environmental issues between the local and the global to reveal how the multilevel and polycentric environmental governance is established in the case of the use of biodiversity in local communities in the Brazilian Amazon, as shown in the empirical work.

Today, one of the most compelling issues facing students of environmental politics is global environmental governance’s democratic legitimacy. Critics of multilateral and transnational sustainable development negotiations and implementations perceive these as democratically deficient, due to non-state actors deciding over nation-state politics. Multilateralism is then seen as a governance structure which sacrifices state sovereignty, which is the pillar of modern democratic theory together with the concept of national demos. Yet, other theorists consider global environmental governance and multilateralism to foster democratization beyond the concept of the nation-state – something which by them is understood as necessary in a world with ever-increasing supranational environmental and developmental issues. Since 1992, the United Nations has implemented stakeholder models, meaning multi-stakeholder partnership and civil society involvement in sustainable development negotiations, as a way of raising democratic legitimacy and accountability. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals is the culmination of these efforts and the globally guiding document on the subject. The Agenda is a result of the broadest deliberation strategy ever employed by the UN. Via typological content analysis and viewing the Agenda through our theoretical framework, we understand that the UN applying stakeholder models does not necessarily mean evoking stakeholder democracy. Furthermore, democracy is largely construed as a tool for sustainable development and less as an end per se, even if the two are sometimes communicated as equal objectives. All in all, whether one interprets sustainable development negotiations as democratically legitimate or deficient depends on one’s view of democracy beyond the nation- state, as either a possible and necessary notion or a directly undemocratic one. / Idag är global miljöstyrnings demokratiska legitimitet ett av de mest åtråvärda forskningsproblemen inom miljöpolitiska studier. Kritiker av multilaterala och transnationella förhandlingar rörande hållbar utveckling och implementering uppfattar dessa som demokratiskt bristfälliga, då icke-statliga aktörer bestämmer över nationalstaters politik. Multilateralism ses då som en styrelseskicksstruktur som offrar nationalstaters suveränitet, vilket tillsammans med konceptet nationellt demos är kärnan i modern demokratisk teori. Dock anser andra teoretiker att global miljöstyrning och multilateralism kan befrämja demokratisering bortom nationalstater - något som av dessa anses som nödvändigt i en värld med ständig ökning av överstatliga miljö- och utvecklingsproblem. Sedan 1992 har Förenta Nationerna verkställt intressentmodeller, alltså multi- intressentpartnerskap och civilsamhällsinvolvering i hållbar utvecklings-förhandlingar, som ett sätt att höja demokratisk legitimitet och ansvarsskyldighet. Agenda 2030 och dess 17 globala mål för hållbar utveckling är kulmineringen av dessa satsningar, och det globalt ledande dokumentet gällande ämnet. Agendan och dess grundarbete är resultatet av den till dagsdatum största och mest omfattande överläggningsstrategi som FN någonsin använt sig av. Via typologisk innehållsanalys, och granskning av Agendan genom vårt teoretiska ramverk, så tolkar vi att FN:s genomförande av intressentmodeller inte nödvändigtvis innebär en frammaning av ett uteslutande intressentdemokratiskt ideal. I tillägg så kommuniceras demokrati mestadels som ett verktyg för hållbar utveckling, även om dessa två koncept delvis beskrivs som likvärdi ga mål. Huruvida förhandlingar kring hållbar utveckling uppfattas som demokratiskt legitima eller bristfälliga beror på tolkarens syn på demokrati utanför nationalstaten, som antingen en möjlig och nödvändig uppfattning, eller som en direkt odemokratisk sådan.

Este trabalho se insere nas discussões sobre governança global ambiental e debate o papel dos líderes burocráticos nas organizações para o meio ambiente, em face à condições externas que desafiem o exercício de sua função política, sob a hipótese exploratória de a despeito de um ambiente desafiador, o tipo de liderança e características pessoais e de formação do líder podem contribuir para a criação e fortalecimento do poder de agenda de uma organização. O caso a ser estudado é o do Programa das Nações Unidas para o Meio Ambiente, no qual se analisa a liderança de três Diretores Executivos (Maurice Strong, Mostafa Tolba e Achim Steiner) durante três marcos históricos (Conferência de Estocolmo, Rio 92 e Rio+20). A forma de liderança empregada é estudada através da tipologia de Oran Young. Características pessoais serão analisadas através do conceito de liderança transformacional. Neste estudo, a formação profissional destes líderes também serão consideradas a fim de compreender sua contribuição para o fortalecimento da função politica ou técnica desta organização. A análise tem como base produções acadêmicas sobre o tema, materiais oficiais e relatórios acerca dos momentos históricos, declarações públicas e percepções de personalidades acerca da atuação e formação dos líderes, além de entrevistas realizadas exclusivamente para esta dissertação. / This dissertation is inserted in the discussions on global environmental governance and it debates the role of international leadership in international organizations for the environment, under the assumption that in face of challenge external conditions, the kind of leadership and the leaders\' personal characteristics and background can positively impact the power of agency of an organization. The case of study is the United Nations Environment Program, analyzing the leadership of three Executive Directors (Maurice Strong, Mostafa Tolba and Achim Steiner) over three historical milestones (Stockholm Conference, Rio 92 and Rio + 20). The kind of leadership performed by individuals is studied using Oran Young\'s typology. Personal characteristics will be analyzed through the concept of transformational leadership. Besides, in this study, leader\'s professional experiences will, also, be considered in order to understand their contribution in strengthening organizations political or technical function organization. The analysis is based on academic contributions on the subject, official materials and reports on the milestones, public statements and perceptions of individuals about leaders\' performance and professional background, as well as interviews conducted exclusively for this dissertation.