ABSTRACT
The core of the regime is the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution and the subsequent substantive protocols dealing with specific pollutants. The dynamics of decision making on the issues within the Community have affected the positions taken by the governments within the acidification regime in the narrower sense. This chapter examines the general nature of the problem of acid rain as one variant of the broader phenomenon of transboundary air pollution; the emergence of the problem as an issue of international concern; and the gradual development of the international regime established to deal with this problem. Governments in both Norway and Sweden became concerned about the acidification of their lakes and forests due to transboundary air pollution because valuable fish stocks and forest resources were threatened. Both acid precipitation and the long-range transport of air pollution were familiar long before acid rain became the subject of international controversy.
