Transboundary Pollution

Abstract

Transboundary pollution problems have become increasingly important issues on the agenda of politicians, economists, and natural scientists. Transboundary pollution is defined legally as pollution that originates in one country but can cause damage in another country’s environment, by crossing borders through pathways like water or air. The problems of transboundary pollution include issues like the acidification of soils and lakes through acid rain, transboundary air pollution (known variably as smog, haze, or smoke), and downstream river or ocean pollution due to upstream activities. The traditional Westphalian approach that forms the cornerstone of the modern international system is based on the notion of geopolitical units, with borders indicating the limits of state jurisdiction. However, a distinctive characteristic of transboundary pollution problems is that pollution does not remain within political boundaries. Thus, this fluid nature of the environment has posed a challenge for environmental governance within this system. This article provides a bibliographic review of the literature on transboundary pollution as an international relations problem. This review is limited to works analyzing the problem of transboundary pollution through a mainly qualitative lens, mainly using works coming from international law, international relations, and public policy disciplines. After a brief discussion of some general works and issue-based journals, the first substantive section focuses on literature discussing the challenges of single-state regulation of transboundary pollution issues. Due to these difficulties, regulatory authority has gradually shifted from national to more international levels of governance. This is the focus of the second section, which compiles works that focus on developments in international law toward the regulation and governance of transboundary pollution at the international level. This section is broadly divided in two, firstly discussing literature looking at developments in customary international law, and secondly proceeding to look at more formal means through international environmental agreements (IEAs), conventions, and treaties. The third and final section of this bibliography compiles case studies on transboundary pollution governance arranged according to environmental pathways: air and water. While these case studies are not exhaustive, they are those that are most widely covered in the literature, covering regions like North America, Europe, Asia, and to a lesser extent Northeast Asia and Latin America. This work was partially supported by the Singapore Social Science Research Council (SSRC) grant on Sustainable Governance of Transboundary Environmental Commons in Southeast Asia, grant code MOE2016-SSRTG-068.