Transparency in global environmental governance : critical perspectives / edited by Aarti Gupta and Michael Mason.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Machine generated contents note: pt. I Transparency in Broader Context
1.A Transparency Turn in Global Environmental Governance /​ Michael Mason
2.The Lost Innocence of Transparency in Environmental Politics /​ Arthur P. J. Mol
3.The National Context for Transparency-Based Global Environmental Governance /​ Bharath Jairaj
pt. II State-Led Multilaterally Negotiated Transparency
4.So Far but No Further? Transparency and Disclosure in the Aarhus Convention /​ Michael Mason
5.Global, Pesticide Governance by Disclosure: Prior Informed Consent and the Rotterdam Convention /​ Milou Dubois
6.Risk Governance through Transparency: Information Disclosure and the Global Trade in Transgenic Crops /​ Aarti Gupta
7.Transparency in the Governance of Access and Benefit Sharing from Genetic Resources /​ Justyna Pozarowska
8.Making REDD+ Transparent: The Politics of Measuring, Reporting, and Verification Systems /​ Till Pistorius
Contents note continued: pt. III Public-Private and Private Transparency
9.The Political Economy of Governance by Disclosure: Carbon Disclosure and Nonfinancial Reporting as Contested Fields of Governance /​ David Levy
10.Tamed Transparency and the Global Reporting Initiative: The Role of Information Infrastructures /​ Margot Eichinger
11.Transparency in Energy Governance: The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and Publish What You Pay Campaign /​ James Van Alstine
12.Learning through Disclosure: The Evolving Importance of Transparency in the Practice of Nonstate Certification /​ Lars H. Gulbrandsen
13.Transparency and Environmental Equity: The International Finance Corporation's Disclosure Practices /​ Dimitris Stevis
14.Transparency Revisited /​ Aarti Gupta.

Transparency -- openness, secured through greater availability of information -- is increasingly seen as part of the solution to a complex array of economic, political, and ethical problems in an interconnected world. The "transparency turn" in global environmental governance in particular is seen in a range of international agreements, voluntary disclosure initiatives, and public-private partnerships. This is the first book to investigate whether transparency in global environmental governance is in fact a broadly transformative force or plays a more limited, instrumental role. After three conceptual, context-setting chapters, the book examines ten specific and diverse instances of "governance by disclosure." These include state-led mandatory disclosure initiatives that rely on such tools as prior informed consent and monitoring, measuring, reporting and verification; and private (or private-public), largely voluntary efforts that include such corporate transparency initiatives as the Carbon Disclosure Project and such certification schemes as the Forest Stewardship Council. The cases, which focus on issue areas including climate change, biodiversity, biotechnology, natural resource exploitation, and chemicals, demonstrate that although transparency is ubiquitous, its effects are limited and often specific to particular contexts. The book explores in what circumstances transparency can offer the possibility of a new emancipatory politics in global environmental governance.