The Effects of Short-termism on Sectoral Problem Shifting

Abstract

Multilateral environmental agreements enacted to protect the environment play a crucial role in promoting sustainability. However, as global environmental domains such as climate and ozone are interlinked, policies implemented to address a narrow problem in one domain can shift environmental problems to another domain. Such displacement of problems is increasingly recognized in academic literature as a fundamental challenge to effective environmental policy. However, while spatial problem shifting has received broad attention in literature, cross-sectoral shifting of problems has not, which has motivated the introduction of the sectoral problem shifting concept. Up until now, literature has failed to show which underlying conditions enable problems to shift from one environmental domain to another. A systematic literature review has revealed that, among others, short-termism potentially causes problems to shift from one environmental domain to another. The idea is that the focus on identifying and implementing short-term fixes for urgent environmental problems tends to discount the risk of worsening other environmental problems. To test the influence of short-termism, one clear case of sectoral problem shifting between the Montreal and Kyoto Protocols has been identified, and incorporated in the following research question: How has short-termism influenced the occurrence of sectoral problem shifting from the Montreal Protocol toward the Kyoto Protocol? To answer this research question, a case study analysis has been used which uses data from case studies and reports of the Montreal Protocol COPs and MOPs. Evidence from the case study analysis suggests that short-termism of the delegates of the Parties under the MEA could have enabled sectoral problem shifting from the ozone to the climate regime. Together with the other findings of the literature survey, which revealed fragmentation, a narrow set of indicators, and power imbalance as other potential causal conditions, a broader discussion is promoted on the enabling conditions of sectoral problem shifting between multilateral environmental agreements.