International Networks for Sustainable Development: The World Bank and Russian Flaring Legislation

Introduction. This paper deals with the international environmental norms on combatting the flaring of Associated Petroleum Gas (APG) and its adoption by Russia (decrees no. 7 and 1148). Flaring, or the systematic burning of associated gas during oil production, leads to the release of carbon dioxide and other harmful substances, endangering the surrounding and global environment. Methods. The authors use qualitative methods resting upon the analysis of primary and secondary documents, including articles from the media, legal texts, official communications and scholarly literature, to trace back the conditions that brought about the emergence of a distinct international norms condemning flaring. Analysis. The analysis of the norm through its life cycle reveals that the multi-faceted framing strategies employed by the Transnational Advocacy Network allowed the issue of flaring to gain salience in a relatively short timeframe. The flexible, durable, technical and apolitical approach adopted by the World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Reduction Private Public partnership explains the Russian Government’s willingness to address the issue of flaring and to legislate on APG utilization. Results. The findings suggest that international campaigning for environmental protection need not be confrontational and that transnational advocacy networks may gain in efficiency if they adopt targeted strategies and systematically recode their message for each group of actors they plan to sensitize. Authors contribution. This article is based on research carried out by one of the authors, Anne Crowley-Vigneau for her dual doctoral thesis on international norms and Local Content policies completed at MGIMO University and the University of Reading. As the coordinating author she gathered the primary data through expert interviews. Andrey Baykov participated in coding, triangulating the data and studying legal documents. Prof. Yelena Kalyuzhnova, the supervisor of this research, provided guidance and created the research methodology. The writing of the paper was a joint effort of all three authors.