What are the roles of national and subnational states in environmental policy-making and enforcement, especially in the Global South, and how do international environmental treaties affect domestic environmental politics, including design and enforcement of domestic policy?

Currently, environmental social science scholarship is dominated by studies of the impact of environmental degradation on communities and modes of resistance (sociology, anthropology) or processes of agreeing upon and signing international treaties (international relations). Comparatively, there is too little scholarship on the roles of national and subnational states in environmental politics. Given that international treaties are currently insufficient to ensure responsible environmental governance, an understanding of the interplay of conflicting domestic interests and the state in national environmental politics, especially in the Global South–which contributes ever more greatly to climate change and biodiversity loss–is essential to comprehending the possibilities for, and limits to, effective international cooperation and enforcement of treaties.

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