Agents and structures

Structures and Agents: Understanding Eco-Governance in Post-communist Transitions
Introduction
Definitions and Interpretations
Theorizing post-communist transformation
Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and environmental reform
Case Studies: Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline and Vlora Energy Park.
Conclusion

Introduction
Focus: Multilateral Development Banks and Civil Society Groups
Approach : Critical Political Economy (Antonio Gramsci and Karl Polanyi)
Argument: Incomplete concept of sustainable development and unilinear understanding of post-communist transition
Question : How can we theorize demo-eco-governance?
Implication(s) : Theoretical and practical

Definitions and Interpretations
Society-Nature as a subject-object relationship.
Environmental Governance: from interstate regimes to multilateral governance.
International Institute for Sustainable Development: the sum of organizations, policy instruments, rules, procedures and norms
Critical political economy: “…the broad range of political, economic and social structures that shape and constrain actors’ behaviour towards environment” (Levy and Newell, 2005)
“ Global Environmental Governance […] is a fundamentally political process involving struggles over who has the authority and legitimacy to propose rules guiding the practices of states, TNCs, social movements and individuals, and who will benefit and lose out through the adoption of particular rules and their implementation .” (Paterson, Humphreys and Pettiford, 2003)

Theories of Post-communist Transition
Known path towards liberal democracy and market liberalization.
The international aspect is approached in one dimension: path-showing
Theorized under the neo-liberal paradigm and the conditionality of International Financial Institutions (IFIs)
IFIs served as main sites of knowledge and expertise for economic policy
They lacked expertise for transforming centrally planned economies to market economies.
Characterised by a teleological and unilinear nature.

The World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Environmental Reform
The World Bank, the first multilateral institution to include more civil society voices and focus on environmental projects
Pressured by NGOs and funding governments
Internal criticism
Important agent for environmental governance (resources, expertise).
EBRD- a European Bank with similar Mission to the World Bank
EBRD has a mandate and special interest on environmentally sustainable economic growth
The first multilateral development bank to have such mandate

Case Studies Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline and Vlora Industrial and Energy Park
Transition Goals : sustained economic growth, improving business environment, improving trade, political stability, improving living standards, tackling poverty, improving governance.
Policies : Importance is placed on infrastructure, power and energy sectors and oil exports.

Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline
Transports oil from Azerbaijan, crossing Georgia into a Mediterranean port in Turkey
BTC is 1760 kilometres, the longest of its kind
It can transport up to 1 million barrels of oil per day
Named as the “project of the century”

Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Source Baku Ceyhan Campaign, 2003

BTC Continued….
In Azerbaijan the pipeline crosses twenty-one major rivers
Impacts a sensitive desert ecosystem
Passes through unstable land with high seismic activity
In Georgia is crosses six major rivers in areas prone to land slide including the national park of Borjomi
Some civil society groups raised concerns for corruption, non-consultation, the lack of transparency

Vlora Industrial and Energy Park
EBRD to support only environmental and energy efficient projects.
Energy Park: to include a thermo-power plant, a hydrocarbons storage, and an outlet for strategic Albania-Macedonia-Bulgaria (AMBO) Pipeline
Civil society denied referendum, concerned with lack of participation, and consultation during environmental impact assessment.
2007 Aarhus Convention finds Albanian government non-compliant
2008 Independent Resource Mechanism concludes that of EBRD failed to comply with its policies.
2009 Inspection Panel finds that World Bank did not comply with its own policies on project appraisal, environmental assessment, cultural property, management and economic assessment.

Conclusion and further questions
The pitfalls of MDBs’ ‘greening’ become apparent in power generation and resource extractive projects
Accountability mechanisms, accessible by civil society operate in a post hoc manner
These undemocratic form of governance are to be born by local communities and future generations

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Agents and structures

by crrcaz on Jul 07, 2010

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Agents and structures — Presentation Transcript