ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with private environmental governance at the global level. It seeks a better understanding of the significance of private environmental governance (PEG) for International Relations. The chapter argues that while important changes in the international political economy can be noted, the perspectives overstate the transformational impact of PEG. A key question in the study of PEG concerns the relationship between private actors and states. It can be argued that the rise of private forms of governance is intimately linked with a decline in state power and results from the failure of the states-system adequately to govern the global commons. Simplistic dichotomies between private and public regimes do not help in understanding the dynamics involved in PEG. There is undoubtedly an important link between private governance and global civil society that warrants a transnationalist perspective on the changing conditions of global environmental politics.
