Private authority in global environmental politics: Delegation to non-state actors in multilateral environmental treaties

In a recent editorial in the New York Times, David Brooks lamented the growing inability of states to address the world’s problems effectively: “The dispersion of power…means that more groups have effective veto power over collective action. In practice, this new pluralistic world has given rise to globosclerosis, an inability to solve problem after problem” (Brooks 2008). Pundits, policymakers and scholars have echoed Brooks: the role of actors beyond the state is expanding, with meaningful (and sometimes deleterious) effects for world politics. Nowhere has this shift been more pronounced than in the realm of international environmental policy. The 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment marked the beginning of the modern environmental era, and with it, an influx of NGOs participating in these new global fora. Other non-state actors—private firms, foundations, transnational associations and multinationals—have also become active in global, national and local efforts to promote environmentally-sound policies. Many, like Brooks, have interpreted this evidence to mean that the growing influence of non-state actors has resulted in a shrinking role for the state.