Regulating the Polluters : Markets and Strategies for Protecting the Global Environment - Alexander Ovodenko

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Regulating the Polluters

Markets and Strategies for Protecting the Global Environment

By: Alexander Ovodenko

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Hardcover | 9 November 2017

At a Glance

Hardcover
248 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
25.4 x 17.78 x 2.54

Hardcover

RRP $263.00

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National governments and private stakeholders have long recognized that protecting the global environment requires international cooperation. Climate change, tropical deforestation, biodiversity loss, ozone depletion, hazardous wastes, and ocean pollution are among several issues that have brought national governments together to alleviate the consequences of environmental degradation. As they have worked to mitigate these global problems, national governments have developed a wide variety of environmental regime designs. But why have national governments created different international rules and institutions to address global environmental issues? Some national environmental regimes are more institutionally integrated, some have relatively narrow mandates, some have legally binding obligations while others do not, and some obligations are determined through multilateral negotiations while others are nationally determined. In other words, what explains the pattern of regime designs in global environmental governance?

Alexander Ovodenko argues that this variation can be explained by looking to a dynamic that has been thus far downplayed by the literature on global environmental governance: the structures of industries regulated by environmental rules. Specifically, it argues (contra the dominant literature) that it is far easier to attach binding international agreements to oligopolistic industries than those that are fragmented. While concentrated global producers are likely to be more politically influential and thus in a position to shape environmental governance, they are also in a much better position to comply with such agreements as they have both sufficient capital resources and the technological capacity to innovate by adopting "greener" technologies. In other words, the sources of their political influence make them the best and most efficient options for mitigating global pollution. By contrast, it is much more difficult for governments to regulate small-scale producers since such firms and their consumers are much more price sensitive, and these firms have limited resources to devote to compliance. Regulating the Polluters inverts the literature on regulatory capture and collective action by presenting empirical evidence of the irony of market power in global environmental politics.

Industry Reviews

"This carefully researched study makes a valuable contribution to the international political economy literature on environmental protection." -- Thomas Hale (University of Oxford), International Affairs 94:2 "Ovodenko (George Washington) provides a thoughtful, rigorous analysis of global environmental governance. This well-organized and readable volume presents a market theory of environmental regime design...This volume is accessible to beginning and advanced researchers, and students seeking to gain an understanding of specific global environmental issues (commercial shipping and aviation, etc.) or of a fully developed, nuanced model explaining the development of international environmental regimes. Recommended." --CHOICE "In this engaging book, Alexander Ovodenko argues that treaty negotiators face a much tougher task when trying to regulate polluters in competitive markets than those in oligopolistic markets. Ovodenko uses strong theory and compelling empirical analysis to shed important new light on the rational design of international institutions." --Ronald B. Mitchell, author of Intentional Oil Pollution at Sea: Environmental Policy and Treaty Compliance and International Politics and the Environment "Regulating the Polluters offers important new insights into the problem of global environmental governance. Through painstaking empirical research, Ovodenko shows that industries with few large players are easier to regulate in international negotiations. The book not only sheds light on why some environmental agreements succeed and others fail, but also offers constructive ideas for better policy to safeguard the planet from harm." --Johannes Urpelainen, Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Professor of Energy Resources and Environment, Johns Hopkins SAIS "As a theory-building book, Regulating the Polluters remains valuable despite leaving the reader wondering what other factors may account for some of the empirical examples raised. Certainly it shows that students of international environmental politics must consider the structure of markets in order to understand how business interests may shape regulatory outcomes. In this way, Ovodenko provides an important theoretical argument to the growing literature on international regulation." - Thomas Hale, University of Oxford, UK

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