Over the past three decades, policy integration has become a key objective for guiding and harmonizing policies for sustainable development. Most recently, the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals have added new impetus to efforts of integrating competing objectives of environmental sustainability, social development, and economic growth, as well as of integrating issue-specific environmental policies on climate change and terrestrial and marine biodiversity. While multilateral environmental agreements are important international instruments for achieving sustainable development, there has been little focus so far on their contribution to policy integration. Covering the years from 2007 to 2016, this article presents an empirical analysis of sustainability policy integration (i.e., how multilateral environmental agreements integrate environmental, social, and economic issues in their decisions) and environmental policy integration (i.e., the outreach of multilateral environmental agreements to different environmental issue areas beyond their mandate). The analysis finds that multilateral environmental agreements have not moved toward further policy integration over the studied period. If policy and institutional coherence is a key global governance target in the post-2015 era, a concerted effort will be required to improve the extent of policy integration by multilateral environmental agreements.

Achieving food security worldwide raises a number of issues with regard to the distribution of global resources. On the one hand, access to resources and ecospace is essential for individuals in order to survive; on the other hand, the allocation of the earth’s resources as well as risks and responsibilities are relevant for the global community. Yet, elements of access and allocation are various and complex, encompassing social, environmental, and economic dimensions in an increasingly fragmented global governance structure. Drawing on the multidisciplinary governance framework on access and allocation by Gupta and Lebel, this paper provides a synoptical review of the literature on food security of the past decade from the perspective of the earth system governance scholarship. This article addresses the question: what have we learnt about access and allocation issues in the area of food governance and its implications for food security? In addressing this question, this review examines how institutions, norms and power affect access to and allocation of resources. The paper draws out key trends and lessons from the literature to conclude that research needs to be sensitive to the complexity and intersectionality of food, the systemic challenges that it poses, and the broader political economy around it.

An extensive regime for marine biodiversity in 'areas beyond national jurisdiction' is currently discussed under the United Nations. A key aspect of its institutional design concerns the integrative quality of the treaty that is to be developed on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction -called the 'BBNJ Agreement'. There is a large number of global and regional policy instruments regulating activities in the areas beyond national jurisdiction.Yet, issues of integrating and coordinating these instruments prevail, raising the question how a new treaty could provide for environmental policy integration in ocean governance. This paper draws on environmental policy integration literature of the past three decades to explore, ex ante, to what extent the planned ocean treaty can contribute to more institutional harmonization. It examines how the treaty addresses four key policy-making dimensions of environmental policy integration, and new opportunities and challenges that have emerged, based on the attributes of the treaty provisions and its institutional architecture. This paper concludes that the BBNJ Agreement offers an alternative policy framework which has the potential to enhance the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity by triggering more international cooperation and collaboration and filling gaps in ocean governance.

International environmental institutions are key for addressing global environmental problems, such as overfishing, climate change and biodiversity loss. Yet, as the overexploitation of natural resources as well as unsustainable practices of governance, settlement, and economic activities have been established over long periods of time, international environmental institutions are challenged to provide global environmental protection. These difficulties are amplified by the often-lacking cooperation and coordination of international environmental institutions in a fragmented global governance structure. Thus, integration is an indispensable part for achieving global environmental protection. Although both academics and practitioners are increasingly calling for more global environmental protection, there is no simple one-size-fits-all solution available that could ensure such an endeavor. What is needed is a thorough understanding of individual institutional specifications, interactions and interconnections and even systemic dynamics that emerge from institutional linkages over time. Institutional change analysis allows to study these aspects in a comprehensive way and to examine integration efforts of international environmental institutions over time. Rather than taking snapshots of international environmental institutions, this dissertation looks at longitudinal developments towards global environmental protection. Therefore, to discern high expectations and policy objectives from what is really happening, this dissertation addresses the following research question: How do international environmental institutions change and integrate in global governance? This dissertation draws a distinction between how international environmental institutions drive a process of integration in a larger institutional context which is external to them and how they integrate rules which are internal to them. The answer to the question emerged from four studies. Study 1 synoptically reviewed institutional change and integration in the global food governance system. It showed that actors are important for altering global governance processes. Especially, the role of private actors and governments needs to be taken into consideration for understanding the rules of the game. Study 2 provided findings that policy integration is a key institutional change process for global governance. Yet, most international environmental institutions do not integrate their institutional activities but remain in silos, which is a barrier to the achievement of global environmental protection. Study 3 shows in detail that an international environmental institution has the potential to be a driver of global environmental protection through policy integration while being challenged by multiple barriers at the same time. Thus, for international environmental institutions to alter global governance processes, they must actively take efforts in enabling and fostering policy integration as well as international cooperation and collaboration. Study 4 provided support for the idea that institutional change is a gradual transformational process in which there can be multiple variations of rule dynamics over time. Study 4 showed that bridging historical institutionalism and organizational science can bring new insights into institutional change at the sub-institutional level, i.e., internal developments of an organization. This dissertation postulates that international environmental institutions are central for altering global governance processes. Yet, the studies have shown that international environmental institutions are struggling at various fronts when it comes to a successful integration of policies, but also cooperation and coordination efforts.

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