Environmental mainstreaming in the World Bank: Rio and beyond

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2018-06-01
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en
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The World Bank has been implementing environmental norms into its policy since the 1970s. In this research, a case study into World Bank policy is conducted, using a combination of process tracing analysis and content analysis to study the development of environmental norm mainstreaming within the organisation. Around the signing of the Kyoto protocol, the World Bank was already mainstreaming these norms into its policy, having reached a transformational outcome of mainstreaming. The Paris Agreement has not resulted in a radical shift in this mainstreaming trend. World Bank policy has, however, become increasingly demand-side based since the Paris Agreement. Ever since the beginning of the implementation of environmental norms into its policy, the World Bank has been explaining these norms in economic terms, applying neo-liberal and market-based instruments to implement them into policy. This norm translation in economic terms has apparently caught on, as ever more countries make use of similar methods to implement environmental norms. This does not mean that the World Bank explains international treaties on the environment purely according to its own logic, however, as many of these treaties have become increasingly economic as well over the years. The World Bank has merely added on to rather elusive treaties in earlier time periods, by interpreting the norms through an economic lens.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen