To celebrate our birthday we’re offering 10% off all books throughout July!Discount will be applied automatically at checkout.

The Roads from Rio

Lessons Learned from Twenty Years of Multilateral Environmental Negotiations

Pamela Chasek editor Lynn M Wagner editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:27th Feb '12

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Roads from Rio cover

At the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, popularly known as the Rio Earth Summit, the world’s leaders constructed a new "sustainable development" paradigm that promised to enhance environmentally sound economic and social development. Twenty years later, the proliferation of multilateral environmental agreements points to an unprecedented achievement, but is worth examining for its accomplishments and shortcomings.

This book provides a review of twenty years of multilateral environmental negotiations (1992-2012). The authors have participated in most of these negotiating processes and use their first-hand knowledge as writers for the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s Earth Negotiations Bulletin as they illustrate the changes that have taken place over the past twenty years. The chapters examine the proliferation of meetings, the changes in the actors and their roles (governments, nongovernmental organizations, secretariats), the interlinkages of issues, the impact of scientific advice, and the challenges of implementation across negotiating processes, including the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention to Combat Desertification, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Commission on Sustainable Development, the UN Forum on Forests, the chemicals conventions (Stockholm, Basel and Rotterdam), the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the Convention on Migratory Species and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

"The Roads from Rio provides insight into 20 years of multilateral environmental negotiations (1992–2012), by critically analyzing and discussing a cross-selection of MEAs and International Environmental Processes over the years. Compiled by academics reporting from the front line, The Roads from Rio offers a comprehensive analysis of, and insight into the dynamic and complex world of 20 years of climate negotiations. In managing global environmental problems in current fragmented climate governance system, The Roads from Rio reveals the prominent role of multilateral negotiations in this process." Dr Suzanne Verhoog, University of Amsterdam

"Remarkably accessible despite its three-page dictionary of acronyms, the volume is well suited to introduce future academics and practitioners to this complex landscape. There are few up-to-date accounts of these complex processes that can match its balance of comprehensiveness and accessibility." – Noelle E. Selin – Review of Policy Research


"This wonderful book was published and launched in the UN on 23rd March. It is a must-read for everyone involved in multilateral negotiations about the environment and sustainable development." – Review by Derek Osborn, President, Stakeholder Forum.

"This is how international environmental diplomacy really operates. The authors apply a fine grained level of resolution that offers new insights into the practice of international environmental politics by multiple actor groups." –Peter M. Haas, University of Massachusetts - Amherst

"For the past twenty years, the writers of this volume have been reporting from the front-lines of international environmental negotiations. In this superb and masterfully-conceived book, they step back from their day-to-day involvement and illuminate the dynamics and evolution of international environmental treaty-making. I cannot envision a better guide. Policy-makers, academics and ordinary citizens will find themselves indebted to the authors for the book’s empirical understanding, conceptual coherence, and analytical insight." – Paul Wapner, American University

ISBN: 9780415809757

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 780g

336 pages