Environmental Diplomacy: Negotiating More Effective Global Agreements

By Lawrence E. Susskind

Book Overview

Solutions to environmental problems require international cooperation, but global environmental treaty-making efforts, including the 1992 U.N.-sponsored Earth Summit in Brazil, have not accomplished much. International cooperation has been hampered by the conflicts between the developed nations of the North and the developing nations of the South; by the fact that science cannot accurately predict when or how environmental threats will materialize; and by the problem that the United Nations treaty-making system was never meant to handle threats to the environment.

Lawrence Susskind looks at the weaknesses of the existing system of environmental treaty-making and the increasing role of non-governmental interests in environmental diplomacy. Environmental Diplomacy argues for "nearly self-enforcing" agreements that ensure compliance without threatening sovereignty and maintains that new institutional arrangements are within reach. Susskind builds on the work of the Program on Negotiation at the Harvard Law School and the International Environmental Negotiation Network to offer guidelines for more effective global agreements that provide for sustainable development.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195075943
• ISBN13: 9780195075946
• Release Date: February 1994
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.2" x 0.5" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

Why 'no regrets' is good green management

Companies applying the 'no regrets' policy described in this book as a global diplomacy strategy are likely to fare better with their corporate greening moves in the climate-change, carbon-constraint era. Susskind, who led Harvard's 'public dispute' negotiation program, wrote this book shortly after the 1992 UN 'earth summit' (in which I participated as a business communications consultant, and then wrote "Going Green"). His idea of 'no regrets' in climate change decisions: Whether or not a nation believes CO2 emissions cause global warming, action to conserve fuel is an economic plus. Substitute "company" for nation and the principle is behind most company management moves with regard to modern corporate greening. Executives hedge their bets or bet on ROIs that may -- or will -- reduce environmental impact, focusing on probable wins or, at minimum, reduced regret. Susskind's book, a big-picture guide on green diplomacy, is a substantial resource for good green management.