Obstacles to effective global environmental policy - Characteristics of international environmental issues that create obstacles

4 important questions on Obstacles to effective global environmental policy - Characteristics of international environmental issues that create obstacles

How do the interlinkages between environmental issues, economic and political interest cause difficulties in establishing effective international environmental law?

-It creates a complexity to environmental issues, because it is not possible to deal with an environmental issue without adressing the economic cause of that issue.
-And governments are often more concerned about their political and economical interests than environmental issues.
-Also, the high economic costs associated with environmental action cause distrust between governments and therefore harms the contractual environment.

What is meant with unequal adjustment costs?

Due to the nature of sollutions for global problems, some countries would have to make more adjustments within their state, however, they feel this is unfair because countries that have to invest less in change will equally benefit from the final profits.

Explain what is meant with the obstacle of extended time horizons and time horizon conflict

With environmental problems, the actual threat will be relatively far into the future after it is discovered. It is difficult for people to bear heavy costs now, to fix a long-term problem. Also the political system is organized in a way that favors short-term thinking, with terms of max 4 years and budget cycles of 1 or 2 years.
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Environmental problems require the cooperation of a large number of actors. What are the difficulties associated with cooperation of large-numbers of states and/or actors.

-Free-rider problem
-Potential to be harmful for the contractual environment.
-Large likelihood of significant differences between actors.

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