The Roads from Rio: Lessons Learned from Twenty Years of Multilateral Environmental Negotiations, edited by Pamela S. Chasek and Lynn M. Wagner , published by Routledge, 2012, xxi + 308pp., £29.99, paperback.

• Author: Jan De Mulder
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12015
• Date: 01 April 2013
• Published date: 01 April 2013

Book Reviews

The Roads from Rio:

Lessons Learned from

Twenty Years of

Multilateral Environmental

Negotiations, edited by

Pamela S. Chasek and Lynn

M. Wagner, published by

Routledge, 2012, xxi +

308pp., £29.99, paperback.

Anyone who participated in one of

the many international meetings

regarding a major environmental

subject or problem during the past

two decades is aware of the exist-

ence of the Earth Negotiations Bul-

letin (ENB). In his foreword to this

publication, co-founder Langston

Goree offers a brief anecdotic over-

view of the start of ENB. His phras-

ing that ‘delegates came to rely on

our daily reports and appreciated

the transparency we brought in the

process’ (p. xix) reminded me of my

personal experience as a member of

the Belgian delegation to a number

of meetings of the United Nations

Commission on Sustainable Devel-

opment in the period 1995–1997.

The daily ENB issues belonged to

my survival kit and were a useful

reporting tool afterwards. In the

early 1990s, the Canada-based ENB

quickly became a global operation

with contributors having various

professional backgrounds covering

both academia and policy making.

It efficiently provides the global

green diplomacy with worldwide

real-time information.

In twelve chapters, the 22 authors

of this volume present a unique

perspective on the evolution of

negotiations on the most important

environmental themes since 1992.

All of them have participated in

a number of these negotiating

processes and have used their first-

hand knowledge as ENB writers for

this publication.

The chapters of this book are not

thematically arranged but they are

clustered into three parts. Each one

examines a particular feature of

environmental negotiations since

1992: process, actors and issues.

Table 1.1 (p. 10) in the general intro-

ductory chapter written by both

co-editors offers an overview of the

multilateral environmental agree-

ments (MEAs) addressed in each

chapter, and this indicative table

may lead to a particular ranking of

these MEAs. It is hardly surprising

that the Convention on Biological

Diversity seems the most popular

one, followed by the United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate

Change (UNFCCC).

In the first chapter of Part 1 on

process evolution, Depledge and

Chasek analyze the growing number

and pace of global environmental

negotiations, their increasing com-

plexity as well as their intensifica-

tion. They also pay particular

attention to the growth of informal

groups. As they state: ‘When talks

stall – as they often do – the chair-

person may resort to convening

more select groups to try to broker

an overall political deal’ (p. 27).

Timing issues and the use of

technology and media are also

dealt with. The authors mention a

range of interesting examples and

comment on the advantages and

disadvantages of particular devel-

opments. Hence, it is not unsurpris-

ing that they finish with the

question about the sustainability of

the current negotiating practices.

The second chapter focuses on

innovative processes and tech-

niques that have been used to help

move coalitions toward a negotiated

conclusion at points when talks

have stalemated. The authors (Dav-

enport, Wagner and Spence) briefly

introduce some theoretical back-

ground as explored by different

schools (e.g., social constructivism,

liberal economics, realism). They

consider specific negotiating pro-

cesses on biosafety, forests and

climate change that have been using

approaches for conflict resolution

similar to the so-called ‘track II’

type. Track II looks beyond the clas-

sical diplomacy in order to build

trust between representatives of

entrenched coalitions. The authors

acknowledge the limits of these

techniques, but they are also con-

vinced about their usefulness, as

was the case with the teddy bears

for biosafety. This interesting case

concerns the original approach of

the Colombian Minister of Environ-

ment to re-invigorate the final talks

on the Cartagena Biosafety Protocol

in 2000. He used a bag full of

colourful teddy bears to which he

had assigned various names based

on positive virtues, such as justice.

Every day each spokesperson/

representative of the ten country

groupings involved in the final

negotiating round had to draw a

bear out of this bag to determine the

order in which coalitions would be

called.

The third chapter is about inform-

ing policy and starts with an over-

view of the types of institutional

arrangements that exist for science

to inform global environmental

policy making. Kohler and col-

leagues explore the track record of

expertise across a range of regimes,

including issues like mandate,

advice and legitimacy of these

advices. They state that the impact

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Review of European Community & International Environmental Law

RECIEL 22 (1) 2013. ISSN 0962-8797

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