THE INTEREST-BASED EXPLANATION OF INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL-POLICY

While scholars and politicians alike pay increasing attention to international environmental problems, we still lack theories that explain why some states support strict international environmental regulation and why other countries are reluctant to do so. The interest-based explanation of governmental support for international environmental regulation provides a partial answer to this research question. We suggest classifying countries as ''pushers,'' ''draggers,'' ''intermediates,'' or ''bystanders'' in international environmental negotiations on the basis of a country's ecological vulnerability and the costs of abatement. We assess the theoretical expectations and performance of countries in a comparative case study of the negotiations leading to the 1987 Montreal Protocol (stratospheric ozone layer) and to the 1985 Helsinki Protocol (''acid rain'' in Europe).