ABSTRACT
Environmental issues require global governance. Even the most local-seeming actions (driving a car, generating electricity) have environmental effects that cross international boundaries. These problems cannot be addressed successfully without some level of international coordination. The common-pool resource nature of environmental problems (meaning that people often cannot be excluded from engaging in resource use or pollution generation, and that accessing a resource by one reduces its usefulness for others) suggests that action is unlikely to be able to prevent or reduce environmental degradation unless undertaken collectively.
