Research project The impact of international NGO naming and shaming on states environmental policies, 1985-2020

As governments are unable to agree on hard sanctions, various INGOs have turned to naming and shaming to improve countries’ environmental protection. But is naming and shaming effective, despite lacking sanctioning mechanism? When and how does naming and shaming work? We lack sufficient answers to these questions.

This project aims to study environmental INGOs’ naming and shaming of states from 1985 to 2020, covering 201 countries.

The project is the first systematic and longitudinal analysis of the impact of INGO naming and shaming on environmental regulations. Methodologically, it adopts a mixed-methods approach, utilizing statistical techniques and qualitative methods in order to understand broader patterns as well as causal relationships. Empirically, it will generate two unique datasets on INGO naming and shaming and environmental regulations. Theoretically, it will further develop recent theorization on social pressure and apply it to the study of environmental politics. Taken together, its contributions will be manifold and have substantive implications for our understanding of social pressure in international environmental politics.