Book Reviews

This issue:

Clearing the Air. European Advances in Tackling Acid Rain and Atmospheric Pressure
Jørgen Wettestad, Burlington (USA): Ashgate Publishing Ltd.

Trade and Environment. Difficult Policy Choices at the Interface
edited by Shahrukh Rafi Khan: London: Zed Books

Clearing the Air. European Advances in Tackling Acid Rain and Atmospheric Pressure
Jørgen Wettestad, Burlington (USA): Ashgate Publishing Ltd. 189pp. ISBN: 0754609596, Hardback, 2002.

J. Wettestad is a senior research fellow at The Fridtjof Nansen Institute (Lysaker, Norway), which is the research arm of The Fridtjof Nansen Foundation at Polhøgda established in 1958. This prestigious independent foundation is engaged in research on international environmental, energy, and resource management politics, taking a multi-disciplinary approach with a main emphasis on political science, economics, and international law. Among the main FNI research themes it is possible to find Ocean politics and law, Biodiversity and other global governance issues, Polar politics and law, Russia and Norway Energy politics, Theory and method in the study of international cooperation, European and EU environmental politics, and Climate politics. The book now reviewed represents a serious and simultaneous engagement with the last three aspects mentioned.

Clearing the Air

European Advances in Tackling Acid Rain and Atmospheric Pressure looks at the developing trends in The Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRATP) and the 2001 EU National Emission Ceilings (NEC) directive, which according to the author have led to much stronger European air pollution policies. The relevance of the topic is obvious when one considers that although Western Europe and North America experience air pollution leading to acidification of nature and choking cities, as problematic by-products of economic growth quite early, these problems have been emerging and becoming a cause of public concern also in newly industrializing countries. The book goes on to deal with the way international policies that affect high-valued economic growth and core national interests, as are the ones dealing with air pollution, have been established and strengthened over time. The comparatively long history of the changing politics of European air pollution is accessed through the diachronic and synchronic analysis of two of its components: the EU directive on National Emission Ceilings (NEC), adopted on June 22, 2000, and the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP). The 1999 Gothenburg Protocol with its broader scope both in terms of substances and effects is singled out to exemplify the strengthening of policies within the CLRTAP.

Through its seven chapters, the book addresses four stated aims. Having exposed the methodological backbone of the study to the reader in the first two chapters, the author then proceeds to consider the substantive questions at stake. Special attention is given to the specific processes during the 1980s within CLRTAP, namely the negotiations on a nitrogen oxide protocol that took place from 1985 to 1988, and the EU, namely the parallel negotiations on directives addressing emissions from large combustion plants that took place between 1984 and 1989/90. Chapter four focuses on developments during the 1990s, more precisely on the negotiation process surrounding the multi-pollutant/multi-effect protocol, which started in 1994 and concluded in 1999 with the adoption of the Gothenburg Protocol. Some insight is given into the fascinating and complex interplay between the two major epistemic communities - scientists and policy-makers – that helped to shape the ecological modernisation process. Chapter five focuses on how the EU took up the challenge of acidification and smog in the 1990s, with an Acidification Strategy that evolved into an Acidification and Ozone Strategy, and a National Emissions Ceilings (NEC) Directive adopted in September 2001. The differences observed between the two regimes studied are explored in the sixth chapter, which builds upon the separate histories and case studies carried out in the previous chapters. The concluding chapter discusses the main findings and prospects for institutional interplay in the field of air pollution control, with special attention being given to the expected implementation of the measures adopted by the main relevant actors – Germany, France and UK.

The main objective of the study is to substantiate the claim of increased policy strength. Wettestad measures policy strength by taking into account how substantive norms, rules and regulations significantly constrain the range of behaviour that qualifies as legal or appropriate. And he measures the ‘behavioural bite’ of the policies analysed by three central dimensions: legal bindingness, specificity and ambitiousness. Related to the ambitiousness of policy is the environmental problem-solving capability, and the need to measure the rough distance and thereby ‘match’ between regulatory development and environmental challenges. In order to explain policy strength, the author takes an ‘Institutionally Flavoured Intergovernmentalism’ approach. Among the focused institutional issues are the change in membership and decision-making procedures both within the EU and the CLRTAP. The interplay between the changes observed within the EU (as the 1995 accession, the increased majority voting in the Council and a more prominent role for the Parliament) and the CLRTAP regulatory development in the 1990s are also explored. The developments in terms of membership, decision-making procedures and external institutional influences are addressed through a set of questions. Several institutional propositions are put forward to attempt an explanation for the stronger policy within the EU than within the CLRTAP. Each of these propositions is then further elaborated on in the next chapters of the book. The first chapter concludes with an explanation of the developments within the two contexts over time and the differences between the two contexts.

Secondly, the book also sets out to shed light on how the above-mentioned developments have come about. While analysing some explanatory variables, the author considers both the ones that could hinder the strengthening thesis and the ones that might support it. Among the first, it is possible to find two main arguments. On one hand, there is the reluctant establishment of CLRTAP in 1979 and the fact that, by the early 1990s, due to the steps already taken, further development of abatement measures within the EU were becoming increasingly expensive. On the other hand, it should be mentioned that the general political saliency of environmental concerns had by the 1990s begun to decrease again, but also the issue of climate change was rising quickly on the political agenda, replacing air pollution. Wettestad then goes on to explore the factors that might shore up the strengthening of air pollution policy. And here he mentions some institutional aspects related to the regimes analysed, as the broader and potentially more integrative decision-making approach in the organizations concerned. First, there was a participation of a new group of Eastern countries in the CLRTAP and the EU accession of three new ‘green and rich’ countries (Austria, Finland and Sweden). Second, some procedural changes took place with the 1992 Maastricht Treaty that may have contributed to a decision-making context more sympathetic to the ‘green cause’ with an enhanced role of the European Parliament.

The third intention stated by the author is to illuminate several interesting questions related to the relationship between the EU and the CLRTAP. It is questioned whether the fact that the problems addressed by the EU NEC Directive and the CLRTAP are fairly similar and the EU ceilings are overall somewhat more ambitious is a difference that stems from the diversity of institutional contexts involved. Another quite interesting issue addressed connects to the given widespread perception of the EU as a considerable stronger institution than traditional regimes. If this is in fact the case, it has to be questioned why there are differences in strength between the two regimes, both of which are still considered to be so moderate. Wettestad concludes that as far as the EU and the CLRTAP are considered differences in institutional strength can be a myth. The latter is administratively stronger than the EU and both organizations, despite considerable formal procedure differences, seem to have quite consensual decision-making practices. The relevant factor seems to be rather the issue linkage potential. Within the EU issue interaction and linking is a much more prominent feature of the decision-making process. Finally, it is observed that there is a developing similarity in policy-making approach within the two contexts, with a common focus upon critical loads and emissions ceilings. As the EU has traditionally favoured technology standards it is then curious to explore the reasons why this ‘parallelism’ came about.

And, finally, Wettestad seeks to discuss important prospects ahead. Among the latter are the general prospects for successful national implementation in key-emission countries (UK, Germany and France). It is, hence, possible to find in this work some interesting insight into national policies and the important EU coordination effort of air pollution policy-making launched in May 2001 – ‘Clean Air for Europe’ (CAFE). Another relevant question addressed by the author, and answered in a negative way, is whether the EU expansion eastwards and the gradually diminishing differences in membership between the two institutions will withdraw the rationale for upholding the CLRTAP.

The author explains in a very clear and detailed manner the CLRTAP regime and the evolution of EU air pollution policies, as well as the background to the present strategies and measures. This insight and overview of the prospects for the future is quite appealing and helpful for policy makers and researchers working in the field. The work done by Wettestad creates the need for further studies on the interplay between the EU and the CLRATP as well as for deeper analysis of the implementation process at the national level. The interconnectedness of international and domestic policy-making is especially intricate in the EU context. Thus, ‘domestic politics’, ‘national implementation of obligations assumed at the international level’, ‘basic national interests’ and ‘policy learning and diffusion’ are relevant concepts for the better understanding of the clean air policy and further contributions in the field are welcome. The project conducted by Paul G. Harris on Environmental Change and Foreign Policy, Phase III: Europe and the European Union, which follows Phase I dedicated to the USA and Phase II dedicated to East Asia, is expected to bring up a set of quite relevant works on the topic.

Trade and Environment. Difficult Policy Choices at the Interface
edited by Shahrukh Rafi Khan

London: Zed Books, 2002, pp. xvi + 253; index. Hb ISBN 1842770985 £50.00/$75.00, Pb ISBN 1842770993 £15.95/$29.95 Key words: Economics, Environment, Development, Trade

The authors of Trade and Environment have in common their present or former connection to the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Policy Institute and/or to Pakistan. The perspective given in the book is hence both political and economic, with a strong focus on foreign investment and on the construction of a concrete policy agenda. The strength of the book is its pragmatic approach and provision of detailed information on the issues addressed. This can, however, turn sometimes into a weakness for the reader who is more theoretically driven.
After an introduction by Rafi Khan four parts follow. First, it is given an overview on the trade and environment interface, identifying linkages and Southern concerns. Next the Pakistan case study is used to clarify potential and actual responses to the risks and opportunities posed by the mentioned interface. Cotton and cotton products and leather exports are selected as two key export commodities. The third part refers to emerging issues for the South on the trade and environment interface. And the last part just before the concluding considerations offers some proposals for a policy response by the South.

International trade and environmental protection are issues that continually arise and clash on the global policy agenda. The World Trade Organisation, unlike the GATT, addresses the environmental impact of trade liberalisation, for example, through the creation in 1995 of a Committee on Trade and the Environment (Annex III.11 of the final act). The relevance of the topic is also shown by the number of recent publications focusing on it. These range from specific approaches (v.g., O. Fauchald, Environmental Taxes and Trade Discrimination, 1998) to more general ones (v.g., A. Ulph, Trade and the Environment, 1999; M. Cole, Trade Liberalisation, Economic Growth and the Environment, 2000; G. Sampson, Trade, Environment, and The WTO: The Post-Seattle Agenda, 2000; Jha, Markandya and Vossenaar, Reconciling Trade and the Environment, 1999; R. Gupta, Anti-dumping & Countervailing Measures, 1996).

This work provides a response to some of the problems brought up by the trade and environment literature, which deals with a number of other issues and hypotheses that are not a part of traditional trade theory. Namely, it addresses the often and profound differences of perspective and clashes of interest involved in the debate over environment and trade. While labour in the North is concerned about the loss of jobs to more competitive Southern manufacturing, environmentalists are concerned about Southern imports that result in environmental degradation. And Southern governments protest over the Northern green protectionism and eco-imperialism. Special attention is then given to the important differences in perception between the rich industrialized and developing countries. Furthermore, the literature dealing with this aspect and covering case studies in developing countries (see, for instance, the two latter publications mentioned above) usually does not focus on the Pakistan case. Thus, the good insight provided by Rafi Khan is quite useful for scholars, policymakers and negotiators.

Central and market responses are explained as alternative governance mechanisms at the various stages of the cotton commodity chain, namely, genetically engineered cotton, integrated pest management, organic agriculture and treatment options. And environmental impact of export enhancement and the cost and benefits of mitigation are identified for both cotton and leather industries. The move towards cleaner industrial production is also described in some detail. Practical suggestions are presented for the South with regard participating more effectively in the trade and environment debate. A practical road-map is provided for the Southern countries to analyse and articulate their legitimate national interests and advance these interests successfully in the international arena. It is mentioned, for instance, the need to enhance the coordination and information-sharing among the relevant agencies. The trade and environmental implications of the climate change negotiations are also examined, with special emphasis given to project-based clean development mechanisms. Another pressing issue in the political agenda which is addressed is the need for an international investment regime in a broader sense that takes the perspective of sustainable development into account.

The idea that the trade-sustainable development relationship can be easily described as either negative or positive is dispelled. It is pointed out that there are both threats and opportunities in this relationship for countries and firms pursuing economic development and environmental protection. A recurring theme in the book is that attending to the needs of the environment is a multi-win situation from a Southern perspective. The costs of environmental degradation are said to be quite high in the South, once the poor are the most vulnerable in this regard, while the costs of mitigation may be lower than commonly believed. Moreover, environmental action by Southern countries is claimed to bring both cost declines at the micro-level and macro-gains. Conforming to environmental standards is also expected to result in retaining or winning export markets. Thus, the South has a good reason to engage with the North on the trade and environment debate. And good diplomacy means extracting a price for doing something that is in the Southern interest anyway.

Claudia Soares
London School of Economics