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The Privatization of Global Environmental Governance: ISO 14000 and the Developing World

1998; Lynne Rienner Publishers; Volume: 4; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1163/19426720-00403004

1942-6720

Jennifer Clapp,

Quality and Management Systems

oluntary codes of conduct for firms and private standards-setting bodies are growing in number and are increasingly gaining recog nition and public status by states and intergovernmental organiza tions. This has led to a growth in what some have labeled as mixed regimes of a hybrid nature, whereby both states and private authorities are heavily involved in the creation and maintenance of international princi ples, norms, rules, and decisionmaking procedures. In such hybrid re gimes, the boundary between public and private spheres is blurred.1 In the environmental realm, the ISO 14000 series of environmental management standards recently adopted by the International Organization for Standard ization (ISO) is illustrative of a hybrid private-public regime. These stan dards, intended to help firms take environmental considerations into ac count in all aspects of their operations by establishing an environmental management system (EMS) and other operation guidelines, were recently adopted by the membership of the ISO as official international standards. Though strictly voluntary for firms, the ISO 14000 standards are extremely important, as their impact goes beyond private industry. States are plac ing great hope in voluntary industry efforts to help improve environmental quality.2 The ISO 14000 standards in particular are being adopted by stan dards-setting bodies in some states, either whole scale or in part, as na tional EMS standards. Moreover, these standards are now recognized by the World Trade Organization (WTO) as legitimate public standards and guidelines and in effect create an international ceiling for EMSs.3 Industry has also been very supportive of the ISO 14000 standards, as it hopes that adherence to them may preempt, or at least soften, present and future state determined environmental regulations.4 While industry-based voluntary environmental measures such as ISO 14000 have gained initial encouragement from public organizations, de bates have emerged over whether they are actually capable of meeting en vironmental goals such as the promotion of clean production processes in both industrialized and less industrialized countries, as outlined in Agenda 21. Industry advocates see these new environmental codes of conduct as