| dc.description.abstract | The Greenpeace Brent Spar campaign aimed to halt Shell’s decision to dump the oil-installation Brent Spar in the Northeast Atlantic and to place the wider issue of dumping offshore-installations on the agenda of the NSMC, the LC and OSPAR. This thesis researches the connection between, on the one hand, the Greenpeace campaign and, on the other hand, Shell’s changed decision to decommission the platform on-shore and the OSPAR-convention, which, with amendment 98/3, included a general ban on dumping offshore-installations. The research is based on primary sources from the Greenpeace archives that have not been used in previous research on this topic. In this study the Brent Spar campaign is viewed trough a transnational lens and this thesis employs a new theoretical framework, with special attention for the normative power of Greenpeace, four variables that contribute to NGO influence and five context-related factors that are important to study NGO influence.
This approach leads to the conclusion that Greenpeace altered the deep-sea decommissioning practices in the late 90’s in the Northeast Atlantic. While the marine-legislation agenda was already heading towards a general ban, in the wider context of sustainable development, a ban was not included in the 1992 OSPAR-convention draft. Moreover, the UK and Norway were aiming to push this agenda in the opposite direction. While dumping became less acceptable in the 1958-1992 period, it was not yet unacceptable. The Greenpeace campaign altered this and served as a ‘tipping-point’ that led to the establishment of the norm that dumping was unacceptable by North Sea politicians. The Brent Spar campaign can be directly connected to Shell’s U-turn regarding the dumping. The public mobilization and political pressure elicited by Greenpeace overwhelmed multinational Shell.
This dissertation adds to the historiography studying the 1998 OSPAR-convention, NGO influence and the Brent Spar case in several ways. This thesis adds to the Brent Spar historiography by contesting authors, like Jordan, who do not fully account the Shell decision and OSPAR 98/3 to Greenpeace’s Brent Spar campaign and view the issue through a national lens. Moreover, this thesis shows that public mobilization can play an important role in deciding NGO influence in international issues, while the literature accounts more importance to provision of information and access to IEN’s. Thus, showing the importance of context for the effects of these variables. Lastly, this thesis shows the interconnectedness of the Brent Spar campaign and the OSPAR-convention, underlining the need to study both topics to truly understand the significance of the Brent Spar campaign and the history behind the OSPAR-convention. | |
