Network Governance - Role in Environmental Governance

Role in Environmental Governance

In the wake of apparent failures to govern complex environmental problems by the central state, "new" modes of governance have been proposed in recent years. Network governance is the mode most commonly associated with the concept of governance, in which autonomous stakeholders work together to achieve common goals.

The emergence of network governance can be characterised by an attempt to take into account the increasing importance of NGOs, the private sector, scientific networks and international institutions in the performance of various functions of governance. Prominent examples of such networks that have been instrumental in forming successful working arrangements are the World Commission on Dams, the Global Environmental Facility and the flexible mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol. Another ongoing effort is the United Nations Global Compact which combines multiple stakeholders in a trilateral construction including representatives from governments, private sector and the NGO community. (p. 6)

One main reason for the proliferation of network approaches in environmental governance is their potential to integrate and make available different sources of knowledge and competences and to encourage individual and collective learning. Currently, environmental governance faces various challenges that are characterised by complexities and uncertainties inherent to environmental and sustainable problems. Network governance can provide a means to address these governance problems by institutionalising learning on facts and deliberation on value judgements. For example, in the realm of global chemical safety, transnational networks have formed around initiatives by international organisations and successfully developed rules for addressing global chemical issues many of which have been implemented by national legislations. Most notably, these transnational networks made it possible to avoid the institutional apathy that is typically found in political settings with many actors of conflicting interests, especially on a global level.

Through integration of actors from different sectors, governance networks are able to provide an innovative environment of learning, laying the way for adaptive and effective governance. One particular form of networks important to governance problems is ‘epistemic communities’ in which actors share the same basic casual beliefs and normative values. (p. 3) Although participation in these epistemic communities requires an interest in the problem at stake, the actors involved do not necessarily share the same interest. In general, the interests are interdependent but can also be different or sometimes contesting, stressing the need for consensus building and the development of cognitive commodities. (p. 26)

The main argument in the literature for the advantage of network governance over traditional command and control regulation or, alternatively, recourse to market regulation, is its capacity to deal with situations of intrinsic uncertainty and decision making under bounded rationality. This is typically the case in the field of global environmental governance where one has to deal with complex and interrelated problems. In these situations, network institutions can create a synergy between different competences and sources of knowledge allowing dealing with complex and interlined problems.