Understanding Environmental Norms
Published on 19. May 2026
Book
Hardback
258 pages
978-1-0353-4094-1 (ISBN)
Description
This timely book studies the centrality of norms in global environmental governance. Expert scholars demonstrate why some environmental norms are eroding while others are gaining unexpected force, assessing how their influence changes across cycles of compromise, contestation, backsliding and renewal.
Exploring how different scholars conceptualise norms and how these principles have emerged, the book analyses the implementation and impact of norms on global environmental governance. Chapters examine a diverse array of case studies that investigate the rights of nature, anti-fossil fuel, recycling and species protection norms, among others. The book advances norm theory, particularly in the context of international relations, providing fresh insights into how morality shapes humanity's impact on the planet.
Understanding Environmental Norms is a valuable resource for scholars and students of international politics, political science, environmental law, geography, sociology and environmental studies. It is also beneficial to practitioners and policymakers working on environmental governance and seeking a better understanding of the evolving power of norms.
Exploring how different scholars conceptualise norms and how these principles have emerged, the book analyses the implementation and impact of norms on global environmental governance. Chapters examine a diverse array of case studies that investigate the rights of nature, anti-fossil fuel, recycling and species protection norms, among others. The book advances norm theory, particularly in the context of international relations, providing fresh insights into how morality shapes humanity's impact on the planet.
Understanding Environmental Norms is a valuable resource for scholars and students of international politics, political science, environmental law, geography, sociology and environmental studies. It is also beneficial to practitioners and policymakers working on environmental governance and seeking a better understanding of the evolving power of norms.
Reviews / Votes
'As international law and organizations struggle for survival, Understanding Environmental Norms directs readers to other, often downplayed, influences on the human response to global environmental challenges. In a series of fascinating case studies - from the rights of nature to recycling - the authors expand on the nature of norms, the conflicts inherent in their formation and impacts, and the critical question: how to ensure they do more good than harm.' -- Kate O'Neill, University of California, Berkeley, USA 'Understanding Environmental Norms makes an important contribution by placing global environmental politics scholarship in conversation with international relations theory on normative change. The chapters are theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich, covering a diverse array of environmental norms. This collection clearly demonstrates that environmental norms provide particularly fertile ground for advancing international relations debates around contestation and backsliding as central dynamics in norm development.' -- Michele Betsill, University of Copenhagen, Denmark 'From recycling to the shifting social acceptance of fossil fuels and emergent ideas around the rights of nature, environmental norms help shape expectations of international institutions, business, civil society, states and their citizens. This timely volume brings together leading experts to provide an original and timely analysis of the norms that shape our planetary future.' -- Peter Newell, University of Sussex, UKMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cheltenham
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-0353-4094-1 (9781035340941)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Edited by Justin Alger, Senior Lecturer in International Relations, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia and Peter Dauvergne, Professor of International Relations, Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia, Canada
Content
Contents
1 The global politics of environmental norms 1
Justin Alger and Peter Dauvergne
PART I? ENVIRONMENTAL NORMS IN INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS
2 Environmental norms and practices 16
Steven Bernstein, Aarie Glas, and Marion Laurence
3 Environmental stewardship as a fundamental norm of
international society 33
Robert Falkner
4 Unpacking the causal role of norms in global environmental
governance: towards a problem solving research agenda 51
Benjamin William Cashore
PART II? THE EMERGENCE, DIFFUSION, AND
CONTESTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL NORMS
5 Rights of Nature: institutionalizing new norms in the US,
Panama, and beyond 77
Craig Kauffman, Pamela L. Martin, Marsha Jones Moutrie,
and Callie A. Veelenturf
6 The net zero norm: between radical potential and business as
usual 96
Joe Blakey and Matthew Paterson
7 Anti-fossil fuel norms and contentious politics: coal phaseouts and global multilateral fora 113
Stacy D. VanDeveer
8 The evolution of climate response norms in the IPCC 131
Valeria Cuevas, Simon Nicholson, and Sikina Jinnah
9 Narrowing the possibility space: the role of institutional
norms in the UNFCCC 147
Snigdha Nautiyal and Sonja Klinsky
10 A norm in the making? The privatization of regulatory
compliance assurance through third-party auditing 166
Stefan Renckens and Graeme Auld
11 Norm clusters and diffusion? International development
lending in a time of climate crisis 186
Susan Park and Katherine Owens
12 The corporatization of the recycling norm 202
Jen Iris Allan
13 The evolving meaning of the species protection norm: the
case of polar bear management in Canada 222
Miriam Matejova
1 The global politics of environmental norms 1
Justin Alger and Peter Dauvergne
PART I? ENVIRONMENTAL NORMS IN INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS
2 Environmental norms and practices 16
Steven Bernstein, Aarie Glas, and Marion Laurence
3 Environmental stewardship as a fundamental norm of
international society 33
Robert Falkner
4 Unpacking the causal role of norms in global environmental
governance: towards a problem solving research agenda 51
Benjamin William Cashore
PART II? THE EMERGENCE, DIFFUSION, AND
CONTESTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL NORMS
5 Rights of Nature: institutionalizing new norms in the US,
Panama, and beyond 77
Craig Kauffman, Pamela L. Martin, Marsha Jones Moutrie,
and Callie A. Veelenturf
6 The net zero norm: between radical potential and business as
usual 96
Joe Blakey and Matthew Paterson
7 Anti-fossil fuel norms and contentious politics: coal phaseouts and global multilateral fora 113
Stacy D. VanDeveer
8 The evolution of climate response norms in the IPCC 131
Valeria Cuevas, Simon Nicholson, and Sikina Jinnah
9 Narrowing the possibility space: the role of institutional
norms in the UNFCCC 147
Snigdha Nautiyal and Sonja Klinsky
10 A norm in the making? The privatization of regulatory
compliance assurance through third-party auditing 166
Stefan Renckens and Graeme Auld
11 Norm clusters and diffusion? International development
lending in a time of climate crisis 186
Susan Park and Katherine Owens
12 The corporatization of the recycling norm 202
Jen Iris Allan
13 The evolving meaning of the species protection norm: the
case of polar bear management in Canada 222
Miriam Matejova