Environmental NGOs increase awareness of environmental agreements and ensure that problems don’t get sidelined. But such agreements only set general aims, and practical implementation is left up to individual states.
– Ultimately, NGO monitoring of the implementation of climate agreements is fairly minor, says Oras Tynkkynen. Among other things he’s a senior advisor at the Finnish Innovation Fund – Sitra and is a former Green League MP.
– Most of our international environmental agreements are not directly binding. So you can’t easily state that Finland, say, has violated or complied with an environmental agreement.
But environmental NGOs’ newsletters and other publications can expose malpractices and name parties whose actions impede agreements from being carried out.
This is how NGOs seek to alter the climate of opinion
NGOs try to influence the substance of environmental agreements by lobbying the decision-makers and politicians of negotiating countries.
Lobbying refers to modifying opinions, and it starts already before a particular issue comes up in general political discourse.
Companies engage in lobbying in addition to NGOs. This is how international corporations seek to further their own interests, meaning to avoid possible new restrictions and the additional costs they incur.
– The emphasis of environmental lobbying is typically on reducing more emissions and doing so faster. With development lobbying the emphasis is on international funding for climate work and cutting emissions, says Tynkkynen.
Fossil fuel industry slowed down emission reductions
Over the years Brussels has become Europe’s biggest centre for lobbying. According to the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation, there are up to 30 000 professional lobbyists who petition various EU institutions on the sidelines. https://www.alter-eu.org/
Most of them are driving the interests of large commercial companies.
– For example, Finnish industry gets almost all its emission allowances free of charge within the EU
Emissions Trading System and this is wholly the result of lobbying, says Marita Laukkanen, chief researcher at the VATT Institute for Economic Research.
Carbon intensive companies have sought to put the brakes on emission reductions. Among EU countries, Poland is dependent on coal and therefore opposes rigorous environmental agreements.
– Several environmental meetings have been organised in Poland, where fossil fuel companies are accorded plenty of leverage. And this is how Poland tries to get its own pro-coal voice heard, says Kaarina Kolle, WWF Finland’s climate specialist.
And corporations have succeeded in their aims. At least that’s how Oras Tynkkynen sees it.
– The solution to the climate crisis has been substantially slowed down because the fossil fuel industry has managed to slow down emission reductions.
Katja Rönkkö, senior communications officer at WWF Finland, and the Nigerian environmental activist Philip Jakpor were also interviewed for this article.
Tips for journalists
1. Find out
Check what has been written and researched on the issue and what may have been overlooked. Contact the experts. Try to collect as much information as possible from as many sources as possible. Avoid one sided information gathering. And be sure to familiarise yourself with the country you are going to and its culture before traveling.
2. Networking
Don’t just settle for contacting journalists, experts and representatives in your own country, but start networking with other countries and especially the country you’re going to. Enrich your perspective by talking to people from different countries and from different fields as well as with experts in different positions.
3. Visit
Go along to negotiations on environmental agreements and find out about how they come about and are taken forward. Find out how decisions affect local people and the environment. That way you can see the interdependencies between events and get a more precise overall picture of the situation. Don’t be content with watching the subject from a distance. International NGOs often have extensive contacts with partner countries. Through them, you can reach places that you would not necessarily be able to go to on your own.
4. Avoid extremes
Environmental agreements and the debates arising from them are complex, and cannot in reality be simplified as successes or failures. Avoid simplistic thinking. Don’t force results into an either/or form, even though it might seem the easiest solution.
5. Be specific
Environmental negotiations’ processes are frequently abstract and they can be difficult to understand. Connect the subject to a specific event or person. This helps to illustrate and maybe give the subject a human face.
NGOs as a source of information
The aim is to make lobbing more transparent among other things through the use of various registers. More than 10 000 representatives of different industries have already signed the EU Transparency Register, but registration is not mandatory. This is why many large companies and lobbying companies have failed to join it.
Journalists can make use of NGOs to gather information. NGOs know about the subject areas and agreements their work concerns, and they usually have experts who have been following the issues down the years. NGOs often pursue their own agenda, so it’s important that you approach sources critically.
Prominent international environmental organisations
Greenpeace is a global environmental organisation operating in more than 40 countries. Its activities are funded by donations from individuals and private charity foundations. Greenpeace is independent and does not accept money from states or businesses. Greenpeace seeks to expose environmental crimes and challenge states and businesses to work more in a more environmentally friendly way. It conducts research and development work, and lobbies and engages with decision-makers. Greenpeace seeks to influence EU decision-making through its participation in conferences and meetings in Brussels.
Green Cross International is an international environmental organisation operating in more than 30 countries. Green Cross seeks to ensure a sustainable future for mankind. The organisation focuses on security, poverty, and environmental issues. Green Cross discusses with various stakeholders, such as NGOs, governments, UN agencies, and the private sector. President Mikhail Gorbachev founded Green Cross in 1993.
WWF – the World Wildlife Fund – is one of the world’s largest nature conservation organisations. It works in over 80 countries worldwide. WWF is a private foundation that protects the world’s biodiversity, safeguards the sustainable use of renewable resources, and seeks to reduce pollution and wasteful consumption. WWF cooperates with UN organisations, development agencies, governments, businesses, and NGOs on matters such as on lobbying and training.
Sources and further information
EU: Multilateral Environmental Agreements
Ministry of the Environment: International Environmental Agreements
On the Greenpeace website: Hunter, Jack; Bursting Brussels Bubble – the battle to expose corporate lobbying at the heart of the EU (seen 26.9.2017)
United Nations Environment Programme focuses on environmental problems concerning people’s habitat and living environments, sustainable development and development cooperation.
The United Nations Information Portal on Multilateral Environment Agreements.
UNEP, Environment Canada: Multilateral Environmental Agreement – Negotiator’s Handbook. UNEP handbook drawn up by Environment Canada and the University of Eastern Finland
Inter Press Service is an international news agency that produces news and analysis focusing on developing countries.
LobbyFacts is a specialised publication for lobbying and follow-up in European institutions, providing tools for monitoring, statistics and analysis of official lobbying in the EU