Radioactive Waste Disposal at Sea: Public Ideas ... - IMO

168 Chapter 9
support controlled commercial whaling, and the Norwegian state has resolutely
protected Norwegian whalers against ENGOs’ interference within
territorial waters (“Greenpeace must pay,” Aftenposten, March 15, 1995;
translation by L. Ringius).
Fourth, ENGOs influence regime development by advocating precautionary
action and protection of the environment. ENGOs that are looked
upon as channels and legitimate representatives of public opinion and environmental
interests have often participated in meetings within environmental
regimes. Increased ENGO presence on national delegations and
ENGO “delegations” at international meetings have shifted the burden of
proof onto polluters, and ENGOs’ participation has resulted in more
emphasis being placed on precaution and nonscientific and ethical factors. 25
ENGOs often participate in scientific and technical working groups established
by regimes, which in turn offers them additional opportunity to
emphasize their concern for the environment, even in the absence of conclusive
scientific proof of environmental damage.
ENGOs are highly influential when the often vague norms and principles
of environmental regimes must be operationalized in order to guide the
formulation of more precise regime policies and policy goals. Interpretation
and operationalization will unavoidably involve value judgments and subjective
forms of risk assessment (Majone 1989). Governments may be under
pressure to allow ENGO participation, but may also find ENGO participation
desirable because ENGOs counterbalance national and international
special-interest groups and because their participation may serve to legitimize
regime rules and regulations. Moreover, there is an unmistakable tendency
toward creating environmental-protection rules and norms at the
level of the lowest common denominator. However, by strongly advocating
precaution, ENGOs expand transnational environmental coalitions; this
attracts governments (e.g., those of Kiribati and Nauru) that join only when
environmental protection is given high priority by regimes.
The global radwaste ban illustrates the significance of ENGOs’ advocacy
of a precautionary approach to protection of the environment.
Scholars often overlook this form of influence, perhaps because of its
more discursive nature, or because its significance might be more difficult
to document accurately. But sometimes ENGOs supply concepts and play
important roles in framing international environmental issues. In the case
of the Antarctic, Greenpeace backed the idea of a World Park (Princen et