The influence of Treaty Design on the participation of Developing and Developed Nations in International Environmental Agreements (IEAs)

Abstract

It is an observed fact that developing and developed countries participate in InternationalEnvironmental Agreements (IEAs) to different levels. Do IEA provisions exert differential levels of influence on the participation of developing and developed countries? This paper relies on multivariate regression analysis to examine the relationship between key IEA provisions and the participation of developing and developed countries in thirty-one global IEAs. The texts of the selected IEAs are analyzed and coded for the presence (or absence) of key provisions pertaining to, inter alia, strength, flexibility, transparency, and participation incentives such as financial and technology transfers. Results of the analysis show that strong binding provisions within IEAs tend to detract both the developing and developed countries from participation. On the other hand, provisions supporting greater flexibility (e.g. clauses promoting dispute resolution through negotiations first) or greater transparency (e.g. through NGO observership or reporting requirements) seem to be attractive to both developing and developed countries. These findings suggest that effective international environmental cooperation cannot be compelled; rather, it needs to be made attractive through the right mix between enforcement mechanisms and flexibility clauses, as well as through appealing participation incentives.

Intergovernmental Institutions

“…Finally, successful institutional formation requires that states join the institutions they negotiate. Both state and treaty characteristics help explain membership choices (Seelarbokus 2014b). Although most of the literature examines correlations between national economic and political traits and treaty membership, increasing attention is being paid to treaty design features such as legalization, formalization and obligational depth (Von Stein 2008;Perrin and Bernauer 2010;Baccini and Urpelainen 2014;Seelarbokus 2014b;Spilker and Koubi 2016).…”