The global compact, environmental principles, and change in international environmental politics.

• Author: Akhtarkhavari, Afshin

Unlike rules, international lawyers commonly ignore the potential that environmental principles have to create change in international law and politics. Transnational actors do not easily conform to abstract and open-textured environmental principles because they do not prescribe a specific way of behaving and compliance with them is difficult to enforce. The Global Compact initiative of the United Nations relies on principles" to create a regime applying to transnational corporations. It is structured around encouraging corporations to socially learn rather than to comply with norms. In this context environmental principles within the Global Compact have the potential to create significant change in international politics but one that is better assessed in terms of how they frame ideas during the interactions of participants and stakeholders within the regime. This interplay between environmental principles and the social influence of ideas is an important steering mechanism for the kind of learning that potentially is taking place within the Global Compact. It also distinguishes the Global Compact from other attempts to consider the role of internationally developed voluntary codes as a common frame for multinational corporations to self-regulate themselves. Notably, it highlights an important role and function for environmental principles, which are often discounted in their potential to contribute to change at the international level.

1. INTRODUCTION

   In December 2005, the 191 Member States of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) officially endorsed the Global Compact (GC) initiative that the former Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, established within his office in 2000. (1) In a much generalized but useful summary of its mission, the GC seeks to establish "corporate citizenship among companies" in the world. (2) The GC is now a complex initiative that is coordinated by the Global Compact Office (GCO) and is part of the Secretary-General's Office at the United Nations (UN). (3) As of September 2007, the GC had 4600 participants and stakeholders from around 120 countries in the world. (4) This compares with 2900 participants and stakeholders in March 2006 when the GCO last reported on the growth of the initiative. (5) This is not to suggest that the GC is without its challenges or criticisms. (6) The "symbolism of the Global Compact's creation and its established brand as a major initiative of the Secretary-General" is, however, "surprisingly influential." (7)

   The core idea behind the GC initiative is to establish a set of ten principles that aim to influence the values of corporations in relation to human rights, labor, the environment, and corruption, and "give a human face to the global market." (8) The environmental principles that are a part of the GC are listed as: the precautionary approach to environmental challenges; promoting greater environmental responsibility; and encouraging the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies. (9) In 2004, McKinsey & Company were commissioned by the GCO to complete an "impact assessment" of the GC initiative. (10) This study singled out as the main focus for its empirical investigations the adoption by companies of the nine principles as they were in 2004. (11) It found that in the four years since its establishment, the:

   Global Compact has had noticeable, incremental impact on companies, the UN, governments and other civil society actors and has built a strong base for future results. The Compact has primarily accelerated policy change in companies, while catalyzing a proliferation of "partnership projects," development-oriented activities that companies undertake with UN agencies and other partners. The Compact has also developed a solid participant base and local network structure, establishing itself as the largest voluntary corporate citizenship network of its kind. (12) Figure 1, which is from the McKinsey & Company study, provides more perspective on these comments in that 51% of those surveyed said that the GC initiatives helped them to make the decision to engage with the principles easier as opposed to initiating their interest in them. Despite this, the study highlights that the principles used by the GC have the potential to socialize individual actors into changing their preferences in some way.

   The difficulty of studying principles by simply asking whether companies or other stakeholders have complied with or internalized them is that it is easy to ignore the abstract and open-textured nature of these norms. (14) Whether corporations have been socialized into adopting them does not actually mean that different corporations associate with the norm in the same way. In other words, we are no better off knowing what function or role norms play within the Global Compact itself because of the variety of different ways that companies can interpret them.

   Instead of assessing the significance of the principles in terms of how well actors comply with them or feel obligated to change their behavior based on their normative pull, this article takes a different perspective on such issues. (15) It examines whether the GC framework coordinated through the GCO is potentially changing and instantiating a collective culture globally whereby environmentally conscious approaches to consumption and production constitute the way corporations will view their relationship with nature. (16) This is not a normative argument about whether the initiative is good or bad for the environment, but rather an expression of the kind of deeper cultural change in international politics that this initiative potentially is creating if it continues to develop. (17) It is argued that in this sense the role and function of environmental principles within the GC is better assessed in terms of how they flame ideas during the interactions of participants and stakeholders within the regime. This interplay between environmental principles and the social influence of ideas is an important steering mechanism for the kind of learning that potentially is taking place within the GC. It also distinguishes this discussion from other attempts to consider the role of internationally developed voluntary codes as a common flame for multinational corporations to self-regulate themselves. (18)

   This article begins by describing the GC, highlighting the way some of the initiatives of the GCO give structure to the engagement of corporate participants and stakeholders. The GC was selected for this study because, through it, transnational and other kinds of corporations directly and diffusely engage with each other and stakeholders at the international level using environmental principles. It is also because it embeds the principles within an institutional structure that relies more on social influence than coercive mechanisms that emphasize immediate gains. The environmental principles of the GC are examined as abstract and open-textured norms. The article then argues that collective learning is in fact possible for multinational corporations at the international level. It examines what it means for them to instantiate a collective culture of responding in an environmentally responsible way to consumerism and production. The following sections discuss two different social processes facilitated by the GC to influence corporations to act in a way that will instantiate the collective learning of a culture of stronger environmental stewardship by corporations. This article concludes by discussing how, through social influence, environmental principles can help instantiate a collectively understood culture that moves away from excessive consumerism and production. This type of change deeply influences the nature of international cooperation amongst states and corporations, as well as normative developments in the system.

2. THE GLOBAL COMPACT, THE UNITED NATIONS, AND ENVIRONMENTAL PRINCIPLES

   As far back as 1974, the UN, through the Commission on Transnational Corporations, took initiatives to develop a Code of Conduct for transnational corporations to establish a legal framework of some form to regulate what they do. (19) It has been argued that the "UN's attempt to regulate transnational companies through its Code of Conduct produced 20 years of debate and negotiations, but yielded no results." (20) The failed attempts to agree on how to manage corporations are seen as the reason for an absence in the international political economy literature of discussions of codes of conduct for transnational corporations of any sort between the 1980s and 1990s. (21) Only in the late 1990s, with the resurgence of discussions on corporate responsibility built around the Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights, (22) did UN bodies develop a renewed interest in international codes of conduct. The GC initiative needs to be viewed in this context, particularly its adoption of the softer approach through the ten principles mentioned earlier. The overall mission and objectives of the GC are defined broadly as follows: "[To] be the world's most inclusive voluntary initiative to promote responsible corporate citizenship, ensuring that business, in partnership with other societal actors, plays its essential part in achieving the United Nations' vision of a more sustainable and equitable global economy." (23)

   Two objectives which the GCO seeks to pursue in giving shape to this mission are stated as:

   * Making the Compact and its principles on human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption an integral part of business operations and activities everywhere.

   * Encouraging and facilitating dialogue and partnerships among key stakeholders in support of the ten principles and broader UN goals, such as the Millennium Development Goals. (24)

   The mission statement and the objectives of the GC confirm the fact that it seeks to do...