The Global Politics of Pollution

Abstract

As the scope of environmental concerns expanded in the 1970s and 1980s, greater attention was paid to the transboundary and then global aspects of pollution, as pollutants dispersed across state borders through air and ocean currents, or were physically displaced through trade or dumping. Political action often followed scientific concern and pressure for action from non-governmental environmental organizations. Debates have centred on whether pollution should be regulated or prevented and increasing attention has come to be given to precautionary action, at least in principle. The problems and difficulties in the negotiations echo those demonstrated in Chapter 2: competing interests between polluter and victim states, the imperatives of sovereignty, compromises between substantive agreements and declaratory frameworks, resistance to targets and firm commitments, and permissive compliance and verification procedures. The chapter begins with an examination of the problem of the transboundary dispersal and displacement of hazardous waste and toxic chemicals. It then turns to the management of pollution in the oceans and the atmosphere which provide the second and third case studies in this chapter.