Global Environmental Politics

Midterm Study Guide

Externalities

Indirect cost of benefit from an activity done by someone else. For example, pollution people deal with the cost even though they did not cause the majority of it. 

Tragedy of the commons

When people act for their own self interest and ruin shared resources for everyone even though they know that what their doing is causing harm. 

Stockholm Conference (1972)

A conference done in 1972 on the human environment. Put environmental issues in the international agenda and helped lead to the creation of the UNEP (united nations environment Programme)

UNEP

United nations environment programme, leading global environmental authority within the united nations system.

Regimes

Form of government, a system of rule, or a specific administration in power.

Environmental Kuznets curve

states that an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between per capita income and environmental degradation. 

Brundtland Report (1987)

our common future  produced by the World Commission on Environment and Development; it popularized sustainable development, meeting present needs without compromising future generations’ ability to meet theirs.

Polluter pays principle

The principle that the polluter should bear the costs of preventing,controlling and fixinging the pollution then making society deal with it.

Trail Smelter cases

A U.S. and Canada dispute in which cross-border fumes from a Canadian smelter damaged U.S. territory; the arbitration helped establish that states must not cause serious transboundary environmental harm.

Stockholm Principle 21

Affirms states sovereign right to use their resources but also they bear the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction do not damage other states or areas.

Intergenerational equity

The idea that present generations should manage the environment and resources fairly in respects to future generations

Precautionary Principle

When the risk is serious or irreversible harm, lack of full scientific certainty should be used as a reason to delay reasonable protective action.

Soft law

non binding declaration, guidelines, or commitments that shape expectations and behavior even if they are not legally enforceable treaties.

Bracketed text

draft treaty language placed in square brackets because negotiators have not yet agreed on it, does not mean the provision requires a supermajority to amend.

Epistemic communities

networks of experts who share knowledge, causal beliefs, and policy ideas and can influence how decision makers understand an issue.

Command and control

A regulatory approach that governments use to set required standards to limit and enforce compliance rather than relying on market incentives.

Collective goods/ free-rider problem

Collective goods benefit people even those who do not contribute. The free rider problem occurs when people rely on thinking other people will pay for all their benefits while not contributing.

Additionality (aid)

The claim that aid or climate/environmental funding should be new and additional to existing assistance not relabeled money that would be provided anyway.

Global Environment Facility (GEF)

An international funding mechanism that supports projects that address global environmental problems like biodiversity loss, climate change and ozone depletion

New international economic order (NIEO)

proposes advances by developing countries for a fairer global economic system including better trading terms, finance technology access and development assistance. 

G-77

 a coalition of developing countries that coordinates positions in UN negotiations; its members have diverse interests and are not a completely uniform bloc.

South/LDCs

in this course context the south refers to developing countries. LDC means least developed country. These labels cover countries with varied capacities and interests.

Stag-hunt game

A cooperation game in which the best joint outcome requires mutual cooperation, but each player may choose a safer option if unsure the others will cooperate.

Prisoners Dilemma

A strategic situation in which individually rational choices can produce a worse collective outcome than cooperation helping explain why states may underprovide environmental protection. 

Arctic amplification

The Arctic warms faster than the global average, partly because ice and snow loss lowers reflectivity and because of other regional feedbacks.

Thwaites Glacier

 A large, vulnerable glacier in West Antarctica; its potential retreat is important because it could contribute substantially to sea-level rise.

ENSO

El Niño–Southern Oscillation, a recurring pattern of tropical Pacific ocean-atmosphere variability that influences weather around the world.

Greenhouse gases

Gases that absorb and re-emit infrared radiation, warming the climate. The three main gases emphasized here are CO₂, methane, and nitrous oxide; F-gases also matter.

F-gases

Fluorinated gases including HFCs, PFCs, and sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆); many have very high global-warming potentials, though emissions volumes differ.

Positive feedback

A process that amplifies an initial change, such as warming causing ice loss, which lowers albedo and causes further warming.

Negative feedback

A process that counteracts an initial change and tends to stabilize the system.

Methane clathrates / hydrates

Ice-like structures containing methane, found in some marine sediments and permafrost; warming could destabilize some deposits, though the scale and timing of releases are uncertain.

Climate forcing

A change in Earth’s energy balance, such as increased greenhouse gases, aerosols, or changes in solar input, that pushes climate toward warming or cooling.

Climate departure

A point at which a location’s future average climate shifts persistently outside the historical range experienced there.

Attribution science

Methods used to assess how much observed climate change or a specific event’s likelihood/intensity can be attributed to human influence.

Thermal expansion

 Sea-level rise caused as ocean water warms and expands.

Coral bleaching

Corals expel or lose their symbiotic algae under stress, often due to unusually warm water; prolonged bleaching can lead to coral death.

‘Hockey stick’

A reconstruction of past Northern Hemisphere temperatures showing relatively small long-term changes followed by a sharp modern rise.

Milankovitch cycles

Long-term changes in Earth’s orbit, tilt, and wobble that alter the distribution of sunlight and help pace ice ages.

CO₂: about 280 ppm then, 420+ ppm now

The guide contrasts preindustrial atmospheric carbon dioxide (about 280 parts per million) with present-day levels above 420 ppm; exact current values vary by date and measurement.

Keeling Curve

The long-running record of atmospheric CO₂ measured at Mauna Loa beginning in 1958, showing a rising trend and seasonal cycle.

Nonlinearity

A relationship in which a change in input does not produce a proportional change in outcome; climate systems can have thresholds and abrupt shifts.

Global oxidation event (about 2.4 billion years ago)

The Great Oxidation Event, when oxygen began accumulating in Earth’s atmosphere, transforming life and geochemistry.

Snowball / slushball Earth

Hypotheses that Earth experienced episodes of extensive global or near-global glaciation; ‘slushball’ allows some open water.

Sinks

Natural systems that absorb more of a substance than they release over a period, such as forests and oceans absorbing carbon dioxide.

Albedo effect

The effect of surface reflectivity: bright surfaces reflect more sunlight, while darker surfaces absorb more energy. Ice loss can lower albedo and amplify warming.

Ocean acidification

A decline in ocean pH as seawater absorbs CO₂ and forms carbonic acid, reducing carbonate availability for organisms such as corals and shell-forming species.

Ozone-depletion potential (ODP)

A relative measure of a substance’s ability to destroy stratospheric ozone, commonly compared with CFC-11.

Chlorine / bromine loading

The amount of ozone-destroying chlorine or bromine reaching the stratosphere; bromine is especially effective molecule-for-molecule at ozone destruction.

Alliance for Responsible CFC Policy

A coalition of industry actors that opposed or sought to shape restrictions on CFCs; useful for understanding how business interests influenced ozone negotiations.

DuPont

A major chemical company and CFC producer that became an important actor in ozone-policy debates and the development of substitutes.

Ozone Trends Panel

A scientific assessment group that reviewed evidence about ozone trends; the key study point is the role of scientific assessment in establishing the ozone problem.

Multilateral Fund

A fund created under the Montreal Protocol to help developing countries meet their obligations, including by supporting technology transfer and incremental costs.

Kigali Amendment (2016)

An amendment to the Montreal Protocol that phases down HFCs because of their climate-warming effects.

ODS

Ozone-depleting substances: chemicals that release chlorine or bromine in the stratosphere and destroy ozone.

CFCs

Chlorofluorocarbons; formerly used in refrigeration, aerosols, and other applications. They are potent ozone-depleting substances.

HCFCs

Hydrochlorofluorocarbons; transitional substitutes for CFCs with generally lower, but nonzero, ozone-depletion potential.

HFCs

Hydrofluorocarbons; substitutes that do not deplete ozone but many are powerful greenhouse gases. The Kigali Amendment phases down their production and consumption.

Halons

Bromine-containing chemicals used in fire suppression; highly effective at destroying stratospheric ozone.

CT / carbon tetrachloride

A chemical formerly used as a solvent and feedstock that can deplete stratospheric ozone.

MC / methyl chloroform

A solvent (1,1,1-trichloroethane) that depletes ozone.

MB / methyl bromide

A fumigant that releases bromine and depletes ozone.

LRTAP Convention

Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, adopted in 1979; it established a framework for cooperation on air pollution crossing national borders.

LRTAP protocols

Agreements under the LRTAP Convention that address particular pollutants or reduction commitments, including sulfur and nitrogen compounds.

Acid-rain precursors

SO₂ and NOₓ — Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides released largely by combustion. They react in the atmosphere to form acids and can be transported long distances.

POPs

Persistent organic pollutants: toxic organic chemicals that resist breakdown, travel long distances, accumulate in organisms, and can cause harm.

Heavy metals

Elements such as mercury, lead, and cadmium that can be toxic and persist in the environment.

Photochemical smog

Ground-level air pollution formed when volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides react in sunlight.

Ozone hole

Seasonal severe depletion of stratospheric ozone, most notably over Antarctica, caused primarily by human-made ozone-depleting substances.

Dobson Units (DU)

A measure of the total amount of ozone in a vertical column of atmosphere. About 300 DU is a rough global-average reference; 100 DU compressed at surface pressure is about 1 mm of ozone.

‘Limits to Growth’ perspective

The view that finite resources and ecological limits constrain indefinite material and population growth; unchecked growth can lead to overshoot and crisis.

‘Ultimate resource’ perspective

The view associated with Julian Simon that human ingenuity, substitution, and innovation can overcome apparent resource scarcity over time.

Killer smogs

Severe air-pollution episodes, notably the 1952 Great Smog of London, that caused widespread illness and deaths and helped spur clean-air regulation.

Minamata

Japanese industrial mercury poisoning from contaminated seafood, causing severe neurological illness; it became a landmark case of industrial pollution and environmental injustice.

Silent Spring

Rachel Carson’s 1962 book documenting ecological and health risks of pesticides, especially DDT; it helped energize the modern environmental movement.

Love Canal

A New York neighborhood built near buried chemical waste; contamination and residents’ health concerns became a major U.S. hazardous-waste and environmental-justice case.

Three Mile Island (1979)

A partial nuclear reactor meltdown in Pennsylvania that intensified public concern about nuclear power and reactor safety.

Chernobyl (1986)

 A catastrophic nuclear power-plant accident in Soviet Ukraine that released radioactive material across a wide area.

Fukushima Daiichi (2011)

A nuclear accident in Japan following an earthquake and tsunami, prompting evacuations and renewed debate over nuclear safety.

Waldsterben

 German for ‘forest death’; refers to widespread forest damage associated with air pollution, especially acidifying pollutants, and helped change European positions on acid rain.

NAPAP

National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program, a U.S. research effort that studied acid rain and its effects.

Agenda 21

A broad, nonbinding action plan for sustainable development adopted at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.

Johannesburg Conference (2002)

The World Summit on Sustainable Development, reviewing implementation after Rio and emphasizing implementation and partnerships.

Rio +20 (2012)

The UN Conference on Sustainable Development, held 20 years after the 1992 Rio Earth Summit; the source guide calls this ‘Rio +12,’ but the widely used name is Rio+20.

Millennium Development Goals (2000)

Eight international development goals adopted around 2000, with targets originally set for 2015.

Sustainable Development Goals (2015)

The 17 goals in the UN 2030 Agenda, covering poverty, health, education, inequality, climate, ecosystems, and other sustainable-development priorities.

In ozone negotiations, North–South differences were a bigger stumbling block at Montreal than at London.

False

‘Bracketed text’ means treaty provisions can only be amended by supermajorities.

False

HCFCs have an ozone-depletion potential that is a small fraction of CFCs’ ODP.

True

By banning CFC-based aerosols first, Europeans moved earlier and faster than the U.S. in reducing ODS.

False

Kigali Amendment (2016): Which substance is targeted?

HFCs.

First U.S. federally mandated cap-and-trade program: which pollution?

sulfur dioxide.

Developing countries sought to reduce or eliminate the role of which institution in aid-facility negotiations?

World Bank.

Trail Smelter cases and Stockholm Principle 21 support which principle?

polluter pays is not the most precise match.

Which LRTAP state shifted from laggard/veto state to leader as Waldsterben and a popular Green Party emerged?

 Germany.

Which state was a lead state because it imported acidifying pollution and its scientists identified the problem?

Sweden.