Who participates in global environmental governance? Partial answers from international relations theory

An important current of research in international environmental affairs deals with the roles of non-state actors in international environmental governance. For many, the growing influence of non-state actors is a welcome trend because these actors, especially non-governmental organizations, facilitate environmental negotiations between states and perform key information-gathering, dissemination, advocacy, and appraisal functions that states are either unwilling or unable to do. For the student of international relations (IR), examining the roles and responsibilities of non-state actors in global environmental affairs is a departure from the ordinary concern of that field - namely, the study of interstate behavior. But for the study of global environmental problems, particularly those problems that are simultaneously global and local, the investigator must map the influence of an even broader assemblage of actors. Little is known about how local level institutions or ordinary citizens fit into global environmental policy processes. Understanding what motivates public demands for global environmental quality is an especially important research task, especially for those pervasive environmental problems like global climate change and complex exhortations like sustainable development that require the attention and acquiescence of ordinary citizens.