ABSTRACT
In the context of increasing ecological, economic and political interdependence, international organizations have evolved from simple mechanisms for state cooperation to central actors in world politics and active agents of global change. However, while the number of institutions, policies and programmes charged with stewardship of the global commons has risen dramatically over the last thirty years, the state of the global environment continues to show negative trends and increasing risks (Speth 2004; Berruga and Maurer 2006). As a result, scholars and politicians alike have called for measures to strengthen the global environmental governance system (Esty and Ivanova 2002b; Speth 2003, 2004; Desai 2004; Kanie and Haas 2004) and, in turn, transform the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) into a more powerful global environmental organization.2
