Introduction

The field of global environmental politics has formed an important subject in undergraduate courses for nearly twenty years. The environment has traditionally been approached from an institutional angle in international politics, which means studies have focused on international treaties, organizations, and other set-ups as the primary agent of environmental improvement. Thus, traditionally, political science researchers have focused most prominently on the field of regime theory and more recently on the field of global governance in general. As a result, both global environmental politics and global governance are concerned primarily with the relations between political actors and the structure within which they operate. They see institutions as the main social force both as causes of change and as prescriptions for solving problems (Young 2002: 3). But, more recently, many researchers have felt that such a focus is no longer enough. As Peter Haas puts it:

What is needed is a clearer map of the actual division of labor between governments, NGOs, the private sector, scientific networks and international institutions in the performance of various functions of governance. Also needed is an assessment of … how well they actually perform these activities.