Promoting International Environmental Cooperation Through Unilateral Action:When Can Trade Sanctions Help?

摘要

Environmental cooperation is difficult because states disagree on burden sharing and have incentives to free-ride.' If international negotiations fail, environmental leaders-countries with a strong interest in environmental protection-can engage in unilateral action to lay the foundation for future cooperation.Unilateral action refers to enactment of environmental policies to address global problems while other countries remain inactive. Unilateral action can induce future cooperation through technological change, demonstration effects, and normative pressure. How can such strategies be made more effective? In this article, I examine whether trade sanctions-policies that force foreign exporters to comply with domestic environmental regulations-could increase the effectiveness of unilateral action in environmental policy, such as climate mitigation.