Greens in the greenhouse: Environmental NGOs, norms and the politics of global climate change

Achieving effective international cooperation on the issue of global climate change requires the development of new norms for how states ought to behave vis-a-vis the atmosphere. This study contends that 1988--1997 was a period of norm emergence on the issue of climate change and that this process occurred in the context of three international negotiations: the 1988 Toronto Conference, the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol negotiations. It addresses two questions related to the emergence of an international climate change norm: (1) how do norms develop in world politics? and (2) what is the role of environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) in that process?; The emergence of a new international norm is not unproblematic; for every norm that is created, there are a number of other norms that have not captured the attention of decision makers. Some norms may rise to prominence through the work of "norm entrepreneurs," or actors who call attention to new standards of behavior. Although environmental NGOs (ENGOs) tried to play this role on the issue of climate change, they had varying degrees of success in actually shaping the process of norm development between 1988 and 1997. Moreover, the pattern of norm development on the issue of climate change is somewhat puzzling and cannot be adequately explained in terms of the distribution of material resources or state interests.; Drawing on an evolutionary perspective to norm formation, this study argues that international norms develop through a political process, involving state as well as non-state actors, where material forces influence, but do not determine, which norms will prevail. The process of norm emergence as well as the ability of any given actor to shape that process is contingent on the way issues are framed in world politics as well as the institutional setting in which norm emergence occurs.; ENGOs were most influential in the evolution of an international climate change norm during the Toronto Conference. The frame they used to argue for significant emissions reductions resonated with the way decision makers viewed the threat of climate change during this early period and the institutional rules provided significant opportunities for environmentalists to participate in the process of developing a new international norm. As state decision makers became more concerned with the economic implications of controlling greenhouse gas emissions, they were less willing to adopt stringent standards of behavior. Additionally, ENGOs had greater difficulty finding political opportunities to influence the evolution of an international climate change norm once that process moved to the arena of formal treaty negotiations.