Dangerous Holes in Global Environmental Governance: The Roles of Neoliberal Discourse, Science, and California Agriculture in the Montreal Protocol

Abstract

This paper explores how a relatively successful global environmental treaty, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, is currently undermined by US protectionism. At the “global scale” of environmental governance, powerful nation‐states like the US prolong their domination of certain economic sectors with the assistance of neoliberal discourse. Using empirical data gathered while attending Montreal Protocol meetings from 2003 to 2006, I show how US policy undermines the Montreal Protocol's mandate to phase out methyl bromide (MeBr). At the global scale of environmental governance the US uses a discourse of technical and economic infeasibility because, in the current neoliberal milieu, it cannot make a simply protectionist argument. The discourse, in other words, is protectionism by another name. While much of the literature in critical geography on neoliberalism has focused on de‐regulation versus re‐regulation, this paper illustrates how science, protectionism, and neoliberalism can become articulated uneasily and in sometimes unexpected ways.

Sociology in Global Environmental Governance? Neoliberalism, Protectionism and the Methyl Bromide Controversy in the Montreal Protocol

“…While China increases its exports, California strawberry growers struggle to enter both Europe and China's growing markets. This "emerging superpower" is feared to be an economic threat to US strawberry production by US growers, agri-chemical companies, and the US government [31,32,75]. Meanwhile, science/knowledge poised to legitimize alternatives to methyl bromide remain rather excluded from any large-scale implementation in the US.…”

“…This can lead to a disconnect between the short-term interests of well-connected actors in GEG processes and the long-term goals of environmental protection, a temporal disconnect. Additionally, there is a growing social disconnect that has shifted instances of GEG towards the protection of a small groups of stakeholders whilst endangering society [11,[30][31][32][33][34].…”

“…My arguments here are based mainly on my observations of agriculture operating at the global scale of environmental governance from a global environmental sociological perspective [3,4,14,[30][31][32][33][34]. GEG is designed to seek ways to make social organization more ecologically sustainable.…”

“…Yet, it is also clear that US protectionism has had a significant impact of the dissemination and interpretation of science/knowledge of methyl bromide and its alternatives [14,31].…”

The Trading and Use of Agrochemicals

“…Concerns had been voiced about the environmental effects of methyl-bromide for years (the Netherlands government phased 2 The term is derived from the days of alcohol prohibition in the United States when both the church and the illegal 'black market' gained in different ways from the law. (Gareau 2008). Hence, methyl-bromide continues to be used, principally in the United States, but also in several other countries.…”