{"id":5625,"date":"2018-03-15T14:10:45","date_gmt":"2018-03-15T19:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/?p=5625"},"modified":"2018-03-15T14:10:45","modified_gmt":"2018-03-15T19:10:45","slug":"join-the-parties-25-ways-to-promote-participation-in-multilateral-environmental-agreements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2018\/03\/15\/join-the-parties-25-ways-to-promote-participation-in-multilateral-environmental-agreements\/","title":{"rendered":"Join the Parties: 25+ Ways to Promote Participation in Multilateral Environmental Agreements"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Susan Biniaz<\/em><\/p>\n

Negotiators of multilateral environmental agreements are frequently faced with the challenge of striking the right balance between stringency of commitment and breadth of participation. A perfect agreement on paper, with strong commitments and a robust compliance mechanism, might attract too few Parties (or too few key Parties) to achieve the agreement\u2019s environmental objective. Conversely, broad participation in a weak agreement might also fail to accomplish the agreement\u2019s goals.<\/p>\n

This paper focuses on the various ways in which negotiators have worked to encourage participation in multilateral environmental agreements. In some cases, they involve steps taken before and during the negotiation of the agreement. In other cases, they involve the provisions of the agreements themselves (such as various forms of flexibility, incentives to join, and disincentives to remaining outside) or decisions taken by Parties after agreements have entered into force.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, States participate in agreements because they consider it in their environmental, economic, and\/or political\u00a0interest to do so. There may be forces beyond the four corners of environmental agreements that cause States to join them or implement their provisions de facto<\/u>.<\/p>\n