Experts Discuss Environmental Governance in the EU at Pardee House Seminar
The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future hosted a book seminar Nov. 13 on European Union and Environmental Governance (2015, Routledge) with authors Prof. Henrik Selin (Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University) and Prof. Stacy D. VanDeveer (University of New Hampshire).
Prof. Selin, a Pardee Center Faculty Associate, provided an overview of the European Union’s membership, governing bodies, and historical treaties, while Prof. VanDeveer explained several key aspects of the EU’s approach to environmental governance over the past 40-plus years. Specifically, they highlighted the substantial transfer of authority to the EU from national parliaments, the growing role of EU governing bodies, and the increased influence of lobbying efforts. They also emphasized the complexity of the EU’s system of policymaking, implementation, and compliance.
The authors argue that the EU has successfully influenced countries that are candidates to join the EU, as well as other countries around the world, to pursue higher environmental standards. On the whole, however, they consider the EU’s environmental policy outcomes to be a wide range of success (e.g. ozone depletion, air and water pollution), limited success (e.g. agriculture, fisheries, and biodiversity), and mixed results (e.g. waster and chemicals management, GMOs, and climate change). Over the course of the next 40 years, Profs. Selin and VanDeveer envision significant legal and political challenges to meeting the EU’s stated sustainability goals.
Their book examines the major current European and global environmental issues and debates, the growing global role of EU environmental and sustainable development policies, and future challenges to the realization of EU goals related to better environmental governance.
Prof. VanDeever previously was a contributing author for the Pardee Center Task Force Report on Governance for a Green Economy, which was co-chaired by Prof. Selin.
