More Money, More Problems: Why States Comply with Global Environmental Norms

• In Event: Global Commitment to Addressing Climate Change

Abstract

Why are some states more likely than others to comply with international environmental norms? I argue that international status goals, which cannot be fully understood from mere measures of a given state’s material capabilities, inform states’ decisions with regard to normative compliance. Using a dataset that covers 176 countries’ degrees of compliance with global environmental norms between the years of 2002 and 2012, this paper tests several existing hypotheses regarding state compliance with international environmental norms. The results bolster recent findings from the naming and shaming literature and show that hypotheses originally generated to examine compliance with human rights norms can largely be generalized to understand state compliance with environmental protection as well. That said, while existing explanations provide insight into state compliance (or lack thereof) with international norms, they are insufficient in explaining why rising power countries, in particular, tend to demonstrate great variation in compliance outcomes. Consequently, this paper introduces an approach to studying norm compliance in a more holistic way. I argue that states’ material capabilities may provide general insight into countries’ propensities to comply with international norms, but that status-seeking states’ identity formulations must also be accounted for if we are to truly understand the ways in which they pursue prestige and soft power in the international realm.

Author

• Saskia van Wees, University of Florida