Comparative Environmental Governance

Undergraduate

Many of the most pressing environmental problems, from climate change to biodiversity loss, are global in scale. In the late 20th century, countries agreed to tackle such problems largely by using scientific and technical consensus as the basis for coordinated action. More recent weakening of global environmental accords and the expert consensus supporting them suggests that this approach can no longer be relied on to produce robust transnational agreements. It is necessary to navigate differences in political culture that give rise to competing understandings of how to frame and solve global environmental problems. This course looks at the fraying international consensus by asking: What do different nations disagree about? Why don’t they agree? How might they agree? We compare how states come to know and regulate risks, including their divergent responses to scientific and technical uncertainties. We examine the cases of nuclear power and climate change to understand different approaches to national and international environmental governance. We also take up the role of collective actions—including the German anti-nuclear, Indian anti-dam, and French gilets jaunes movements—in imagining future pathways. This comparative work aims to deepen our understanding of how to build more just and sustainable environmental policies for the 21st century. SO M 1:30pm-3:25pm