CIESIN Thematic Guides The emerging importance and role of international environmental agreements has not gone unnoticed in academic and policy literature. Many authors have focused on how effective international environmental agreements are formulated. Environmental issues such as climate change are particularly challenging for policymakers because of their multicountry or global scope, and because of formidable political and economic obstacles.
The three articles identified here address factors that will almost certainly constrain international efforts to formulate global environmental agreements and present strategies for overcoming these constraints. In "Institutions for the Earth," Levy, Haas, and Keohane (1992) provide a broad overview of how international institutions can be part of the solution to global environmental problems. By examining the multinational institutions established for addressing seven environmental problems, the authors illustrate many of the complex issues that shape how these institutions are formulated. "Prospects for a Global Greenhouse Gas Accord" focuses more narrowly on climate change (Morrisette et al. 1991). The authors review three existing international environmental treaties to identify lessons for formulating an international agreement on climate change. Only the introduction and conclusion of the article are available here, but details of the individual case studies are included in the published version. In "The Greenhouse Effect," Grubb (1989) discusses policy options and tools for achieving reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in a multicountry context. The author assesses the applicability of such tools as carbon taxes or marketable permits in an international context. Only the portion of the paper that deals specifically with international negotiations is available here.