Mission Interference: How Competition Confounds Accountability for Environmental Nongovernmental Organizations

Balboa, Cristina M.

doi:10.1111/ropr.12215

Cited by 39 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Second and interrelated, the increasing number of governance actors and the proliferation of institutions in transnational governance not only means that there are more accountability relations and actors face multiple, at times diverging accountability claims (Black 2008;Thomann et al 2018), but also that the growing fragmentation comes with conflicting and competing views about who should be accountable for what and to whom. On the other hand, actors in organizational fields may develop mutual accountability; that is, a responsibility to call each other to account (Balboa 2017). Thus, transnational governance brings about a variety of multi-actor and multi-institutional constellations that together form accountability regimes.…”

Section: Accountability As Conceptual and Analytical Lensmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward “hardened” accountability? Analyzing the European Union's hybrid transnational governance in timber and biofuel supply chains

Moser

Leipold

2019

Regulation & Governance

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The voluntary/mandatory divide is a constant feature of scholarly debates on corporate accountability for sustainability in global supply chains. A widely held assumption is that the addition of state authority to private transnational governance in global supply chains will "harden" accountability and, thus, promote more sustainable production. The state's ability to set legally binding requirements is expected to coerce companies into complying. The hybridization of private and state authority is seen to strengthen good practice in private authority. This empirical study questions these assumptions based on an analysis of two hybrid governance arrangements for sustainability in global supply chains: the EU's Timber Regulation (EUTR) and Renewable Energy Directive (RED). The results demonstrate that both EUTR and EU-RED yield sector wide efforts of compliance and to this extent can be seen as enhancing accountability in the sense of answerability. At the same time, we find that the policies in both cases are not more demanding, nor enforced strictly, the latter putting into question their potential to coerce companies. Further, a "hardening" of accountability is at least obscured as both EUTR and EU-RED have stripped private authority they employ in their hybrid transnational governance from the need to establish legitimacy with a broader audience. This makes legal compliance and cost-effectiveness the core factor for companies' efforts to demonstrate compliance. Our findings hence question whether the EUTR and EU-RED have led to "hardened" accountability compared to private transnational governance, and ask for an empirical, more nuanced understanding of what there is to gain or lose from hybridizing private and state authority in transnational governance.

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Section: Accountability As Conceptual and Analytical Lensmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward “hardened” accountability? Analyzing the European Union's hybrid transnational governance in timber and biofuel supply chains

Moser

Leipold

2019

Regulation & Governance

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“…Focusing on how states and international secretariats are held to account for achieving low‐carbon development pathways as the world strives to reach an agreement to limit global warming remains an important topic not least after the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015. Also important here is the accountability of nonstate actors (Balboa, ; Newell, ).…”

Section: Accountability and Nonstate Actorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The exercise of influence by nonstate actors fuel questions of accountability. On the other hand, nonstate actors are often seen (or even portray themselves) as critical agents who represent the public interest in multilateral affairs (Balboa, ; Betsill & Corell, ; Nasiritousi, Hjerpe, & Buhr, ; Omelicheva, ). Yet as Scholte (, pp.…”

Section: Accountability and Nonstate Actorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Institutional Accountability of Nonstate Actors in the UNFCCC: Exit, Voice, and Loyalty

Kuyper

Bäckstrand

Schroeder

2016

Review of Policy Research

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How are nonstate actors within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held to account? In this article, we introduce the concept of “institutional accountability” to complement the wider literature(s) on accountability in climate governance. Within institutional frameworks, actors employ rules, norms, and procedures to demand justifications from one another. In light of those justifications, actors then use “exit, voice, or loyalty” to positively or negatively sanction each other. To depict the dynamics of institutional accountability, we analyze the role of nonstate actors in the nine constituency groups of the UNFCCC. We outline the constituency structure and the population of observer organizations. We then identify examples where nonstate actors employed institutional rules in tandem with exit, voice, or loyalty to foster accountability. In making this analysis we draw upon three years of on-site participation at UNFCCC meetings, document analysis, and more than 40 semi-structured interviews with state and nonstate actors. We conclude by discussing the scope and conditions under which institutional accountability may occur in other issue areas of global governance

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“…Levy () cites the importance of private resources and capacity in dealing with this international “governance deficit,” whereas Cashore () and Cashore, Auld, and Newsom () focus on the role of the market in providing compliance incentives in the absence of governmental requirements. But while embracing such nongovernmental solutions can be advantageous, accountability remains a potential concern (see Kramarz & Park, ; Balboa, ; Rosenberg, ).…”

Section: Introduction: Mitigation and Adaptation In The Built Environmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polycentric Systems and Multiscale Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in the Built Environment

Galik

2019

Review of Policy Research

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Addressing climate change requires consideration of mitigation and adaptation opportunities at multiple spatial scales. This is particularly true in the built environment, defined here to include individual buildings, neighborhoods, and the spaces between. The current U.S. political environment portends fewer resources and coordinating services for mitigation and adaptation at the federal level, however, reinforcing the relevance and necessity of actions at subnational levels. In this study, we evaluate the applicability of a polycentric model of governance to the implementation of mitigation and adaptation practices, as well as the presence of polycentric systems in the built environment. We assemble a database of practices with the potential to achieve both mitigation and adaptation objectives, as well as those that may be cross-purposed or that may achieve one but not the other. We review practices to gauge the applicability of a polycentric model of governance to mitigation and adaptation practices in the built environment, and examine the attributes of three existing adaptation and/or mitigation programs to assess the extent to which they exhibit polycentric attributes. We conclude with recommendations for a broader research agenda, including efforts to develop more in-depth examinations into individual programs and comparative analysis of performances of different governance attributes. 建成环境中的多中心体系和多层次气候变化减缓及适应应对气候变化需要将多重空间范围中的气候减缓机遇和适应机遇考虑在内。这在建成环境中尤为如此，此环境包括个别建筑、邻区和二者之间的空间范围。美国当前政治环境预示着在联邦层面上用于气候减缓和适应的资源和协调服务将变得更少。然而，次国家层面上的相关性和行动必须性有所加强。笔者评价了一种多中心治理模式对实施气候减缓和适应措施的适用性，同时评价了建成环境中多中心体系的存在。笔者收集了由一系列实践组成的数据库，这些实践中一些具备实现气候减缓和适应两个目标的潜力，一些实现的目标不一致，一些可能只能实现其中一种目标。笔者检验了这些实践，以估算多中心治理模式对建成环境中气候减缓和适应实践的适用性；笔者还检验了三种有关气候适应和/或减缓的现有案例所具备的性质，以评估其在多大程度上展现了多中心性质。本文结论建议，研究议程应更广泛，包括对个别计划开展更深入的检验和比较分析不同治理性质的表现。关键词: 关键词: 气候变化, 环境, 治理, 区域治理 Sistemas policéntricos y mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático en múltiples escalas en el entorno construidoAbordar el cambio climático requiere considerar las oportunidades de mitigación y adaptación en múltiples escalas espaciales. Esto es particularmente cierto en el entorno construido, definido aquí para incluir edificios individuales, vecindarios y espacios entre ellos. Sin embargo, el entorno político actual de los Estados Unidos augura menos recursos y servicios de coordinación para la mitigación y adaptación a nivel federal, lo que refuerza la relevancia y la necesidad de acciones a nivel subnacional. En este documento, evaluamos la aplicabilidad de un modelo policéntrico de gobierno a la implementación de prácticas de mitigación y adaptación, así como la presencia de sistemas policéntricos en el entorno construido.

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Mission Interference: How Competition Confounds Accountability for Environmental Nongovernmental Organizations

Abstract: Kramarz and Park (2016) claim that global environmental governance's increased accountability mechanisms are not matched with environmental gains.

Cited by 39 publications

References 29 publications

Toward “hardened” accountability? Analyzing the European Union's hybrid transnational governance in timber and biofuel supply chains

Toward “hardened” accountability? Analyzing the European Union's hybrid transnational governance in timber and biofuel supply chains

Institutional Accountability of Nonstate Actors in the UNFCCC: Exit, Voice, and Loyalty

Polycentric Systems and Multiscale Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in the Built Environment

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