Measuring the Negotiation Burden of Multilateral Environmental Agreements

Miquel Muñoz, Rachel Thrasher and Adil Najam
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Miquel Muñoz: Miquel Muñoz is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, Boston University. His research focuses on the nexus between climate change and renewable energy policies, and on global environmental governance. He has extensive experience on MEA negotiations, having attended over 50 such meetings in five years, as an observer with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) Reporting Services. He is co-author of several academic articles including: Great expectations: understanding Bali and the climate change negotiations process (2008); 4 Steps for Targeted Coherence: A Modular Approach (2008); Tracking Global Environmental Financing: A Proposal (2008); UN 2006 Climate Change Conference: a confidence building step? (2007); Harmonization of renewable electricity feed-in laws in the European Union (2007), and the four editions of REN21's Renewables Global Status Report (2005-2009).
Rachel Thrasher: Rachel Thrasher completed her Master's degree in International Relations at Boston University in 2008 where she focused her research on US-style free trade agreements and their impact on Latin American countries. She received her J.D. in June of 2007, also from Boston University. Since graduate school, Rachel has been exploring policy and legal issues related to regional trade agreements, multilateral environmental agreements, and global forests governance.
Adil Najam: Adil Najam is the Frederick S. Pardee Professor of Global Public Policy at Boston University. He also serves as the Director of the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and a Professor of International Relations and of Geography and Environment. He served as a Lead and Convening Author for the Third and Fourth Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and his recent books include: Global Environmental Governance: A Reform Agenda (2006); Trade and Environment Negotiations: A Resource book (2006); Envisioning a Sustainable Development Agenda for Trade and Environment (2006); Environment, Development and Human Security: Perspectives from South Asia (2003); and Civic Entrepreneurship (2002). Apart from academic research he consults widely with international organizations and government agencies on issues related to sustainable development policy, especially focusing on the role of developing countries in international environmental politics. Professor Najam also serves on the United Nations Committee on Development Policy, an advisory organ to the UN Economic and Social Council.

Global Environmental Politics, 2009, vol. 9, issue 4, 1-13

Abstract: The Global Environmental Governance (GEG) system has grown significantly since the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. In this paper we analyze ten leading Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), reviewing various quantitative indicators (related to time, resources and commitment) to chart their evolution and to measure the "negotiation burden" that the burgeoning GEG system is imposing on states and secretariats. We find that these representative MEAs have not only grown in size but also have become busier over time, although there are indications that as the GEG system "matures," it may also be stabilizing. Among other things, we find that the reported budget for these ten MEA secretariats has grown nine-fold in sixteen years, from US$ 8.18 million in 1992 to US$ 75.83 million in 2007. Counting only the most important of meetings, and using the number of meeting days as an indicator of the "negotiation load," we find that the negotiation load for the leading MEAs has stabilized, averaging around 115 meeting days per year. Decisions also seem to plateau at about 185 per year. (c) 2009 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Date: 2009
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