Review Mechanisms in the Effective Implementation of International Environmental Agreements

This report is part of a research project on how the process of implementation influences the effectiveness of international environmental agreements. One way that agreements can be made more effective during implementation is if they include implementation review mechanisms (IRMs). Broadly, IRMs are the means by which data is exchanged and gathered, reviewed and assessed in the context of an international agreement, and by which problems of compliance and inadequate performance are managed. Here we review all the major pathways by which the operation of an IRM might influence the effectiveness of an agreement. We describe the ways that IRMs might affect how states calculate their interests and thus what kinds of international agreements they seek; we explore the ways that the operation of IRMs might promote learning; and we examine how IRMs operating at the international level might affect domestic politics. In many of these areas there are well-developed bodies of existing research t..