Faculty Book Talk: Selin on the EU and Environmental Governance
Henrik Selin, Director of Curricular Innovation and Initiatives and Associate Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, discussed his book European Union and Environmental Governance as part of the 2016-2017 Faculty Book Talk Series on November 14, 2016.
The event was attended by Pardee School faculty and students and included a talk by Selin on the major European and global environmental issues, debates and policies. Selin’s talk was followed by a question and answer session with students and faculty.
In European Union and Environmental Governance Selin provides a critical, evidence-based evaluation of the achievements and shortcomings to date in European Union environmental and sustainability governance as well as both a historical overview and a discussion of the major future legal, political and economic challenges to the realization of EU goals related to better environmental governance, the authors offer a comprehensive introduction to this key issue.
Selin discussed the transfer of authority on environmental policy and regulation from the national to supra-national level since the inception of the European Union.
“There has been substantial transfer of authority and power to the EU level, which is actually quite astounding,” Selin said. “There are others who have lost power, but by far the major losers here are national parliaments. They are the ones who used to make all of the decisions, and now they are making virtually none of those decisions.”
According to Selin, the European Union has done fairly well in terms of enforcing environmental policy — especially considering the lack of accountability when a country violates an international climate agreement.
“If you violate EU law, including in the environmental area, it’s a long process — the Commission knocks on your door, asks you to change and if you don’t do that they will eventually take you to court,” Selin said. “What we are seeing is that over time it’s become more common that these things go all the way to court and the court rules in favor of the Commission, and in some cases they have issued hefty fines to member states for not meeting their environmental standards.”
Selin also discussed President-Elect Donald Trump’s past comments that he intends to pull the United States out of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
“If they were to do that, it creates a leadership vacuum,” Selin said. “The U.S. did a similar thing with the Kyoto protocol once, and it was largely the EU who stepped in and tried to become the global leader. Now, immediately after this election, the player who has been making the most noise in terms of leadership is China, not the European Union.”
Henrik Selin conducts research and teaches classes on global and regional politics and policy making on environment and sustainable development. His most recent book is EU and Environmental Governance, by Routledge Press, and is also the author of Global Governance of Hazardous Chemicals: Challenges of Multilevel Management by MIT Press. Learn more about him here.