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In the lite ra tu re Beyond Politics (1997). They noted the value of keep ing pace w'ith the important elements Mixing Private Action and Climate Policy of "institutional realignment that are occurring in society'. Notably, the role of government is narrowing, the private By G. Tracy Mehan III sector's responsibilities are broadening, and nongovernmental organizations, from think tanks to activist groups, are D istinguishing government from governance, identify ing the separate yet comple or privatization. She demonstrated that user-managed fish stocks, pastures, woods, lakes, and groundwater basins, increasingly' important policy' actors." Michael P. Vandenbergh and Jona than M. Gilligan, respectively, profes mentary roles of the private and pub in many countries and cultures, are able sors of law' and engineering at Vander lic spheres, say, in the realm o f envi to establish norms of behavior, sophis bilt University, argue strenuously for ronmental m anagement, and think ticated rules for decisionmaking, and private action and governance spe ing seriously about the opportunities evert enforcement mechanisms. Her cifically, in the context of the climate and barriers of an integrated or col classic book on the subject is Governing change and the flagging efforts of laborative approach to confronting the Commons: The Evolution o f Institu governments, especially' the United the challenges of the day -- none of tionsfo r Collective Actions (1990). States, to take meaningful action. They this would have made any sense to a Given the state of environmental are not anti-governmental action. But citizen o f the Rom an Em pire in the protection today', with many problems they' believe that time is ffying and pri time of Augustus. dispersed throughout society', the land vate action provides a realistic, interim The classical view did not recognize scape, the air- and watershed, involving strategy' until an effective political anything like civil society beyond the numerous small sources or causes of consensus develops before catastrophe Empire itself encompassing both po harm, all within the control o f private befalls the world. Their Beyond Poli litical, social and religious tics: The Private Governance aspects. It was only after Response to Climate Change centuries of struggle between Beyond P o litics. The P rivate is an imposing work o f aca Church and Empire, state and society, and the emer Beyotxi Politics G overnance R esponse to C lim a t e C h a n g e . By Michael demic scholarship (e.g., over 200 footnotes in one chapter gence o f varying degrees of individualism, did the con SS" | P. Vandenbergh and Jonathan M. y* | Gilligan. Cambridge University alone). But their engaging, accessible writing style makes cept o f a civil order and in Press; 467 pages; $99.99 the slog a pleasant one for the stitutions (church, family, | (Amazon Prime). diligent reader. It might have community, labor unions, corporations), antecedent to and independent of the state, come to pass. Without civil society, gov w been subtitled M aking a Vir tue o fNecessity given the reali ties of climate politics, global aspirations for economic grow'th, and the complexity' ernment and governance are of the science. essentially the same. With In the very first line of civil society government is simply part parties, households, farms and institu their preface, Vandenbergh and Gilli of the complex web of governance by' tions, the old top-down, hierarchical gan cite Gallup for the proposition that which a society' orders itself as well as model, driven by a federal government two thirds o f Americans believe that the state. Thus, no longer is governance much less revered now than in the big government is the greatest threat viewed as a synonym for government. 1970s, seems inadequate. facing the United States. So any sys The late Elinor Ostrom of Indiana Writing in 1997, Daniel Esty and tematic regulation to mitigate climate University, the first woman to receive Marian R, Ghertow o f Yale, called for change faces predictable resistance. The the Nobel Prize in economics, did the "next generation" of environmental authors seem to believe that the T um p pioneering research on a plethora of policies "that are not confrontational administrations rollback on carbon collaborative approaches to resource but cooperative, less fragmented and regulation is a temporary phenome management -- governance if you more comprehensive, not inflexible non, but they' astutely' observe that the will -- around the world in ways that but rather capable of being tailored to 2009 Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade mitigate the Tragedy of the Com mons fit varying circumstances.5' See intro bill failed "even though the party that not imagined by' Garrett Hardin, who duction to Thinking Ecologically: 7he espouses support for climate mitiga reduced everything to either regulation6 Next Generation ofEnvironmentalPolicy tion controlled the White House and 6 !T H E ENVI RONMENTAL FORUM Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA Tier 5 ED 002061 00182334-00001 In the lite ra tu re both bodies of Congress -- a failure public and private governance. In our that seems remarkable until it is viewed view, they are complementary7, and we against the backdrop of two decades should pursue both." with only one major new pollution control statute." "'Only in the past several years have scholars begun to recognize that a fun damental shift has occurred away from T he authors cite many instanc es o f effective private action, notably7 m ajor institutions federal legislation as a social response and corporations such as Walmart, to environmental threats, a shift that M icrosoft, Google, and the like, cor became much more apparent with porate giants which can lean on their the 2016 elections," write the authors. suppliers for emission reductions, They might also have noted the 1997 practices that could be scaled up vote of 95-0 in favor o f the Byrd-Hagel nationally and internationally. They Resolution in the LJ.S. Senate against take heart in Elinor O strom 's con signing onto the Kyoto Protocol. cept o f "polycentric governance to Vandenbergh and Gilligan make a reduce G H G emissions" which she sincere, passionate, even eloquent case first applied to the m anagem ent o f to both conservative and liberal skep water resources and the provision of tics, the former skeptical as to climate municipal services. This refers to the policy in general and big government use of multiple scales of government in particular, the latter concerned and nongovernmental organizations about undermining the case of strong to address collective action problems, governmental action on climate. such as m anaging com m on pool re Essentially, these authors see zero sources. chance of the community' of nations Readers o f T h e E n v ir o n m e n t a l meeting the goal of stabilizing global F o r u m may recall Professor Vanden temperature at 2 de bergh s article, "The grees Celsius as called for in the Paris Agree ment. In fact, the Filling the gap between what government can Drivers of Corporate Climate Mitigation," in the January/Febru- Paris .Agreement, even achieve and a realistic ary issue, providing a if all commitments are fulfilled, will allow temperature goal succinct statement of the case for private ac an increase in global tion in that realm. emissions of roughly 34 to 46 percent Big fans of Pope Francis and his in 2025 over 1990 levels," Even with 2016 encyclical addressing the moral full implementation of all Paris com dimension of climate change, they mitments, the globe is likely to see view' the Catholic Church as not just an temperatures of more than 3 degrees influence): on government, but also "a Celsius above pre-industrial ones. private regulator of its energy7suppliers The Vanderbilt professors look to and emissions in and of itself. ' Based private action to achieve "a significant on their back-of-the-envelope calcu fraction of the necessary reductions lations, Catholicism, w7ith its many -- carbon dioxide emissions equiva churches, schools, hospitals, orphanag lent to roughly 1 billion tons out of es, and missions, would be among the the 5-5 billion tons per year o f reduc top 50 largest emitters in the world if it tions necessary over the next decade were a country7. Whether or not such a to close the Paris Gap." They view' this vast collection o f bishoprics, dioceses, strategy' as "buying time for a more religious orders, lay institutions, and comprehensive government response" the like could ever be subject to such at some indeterminate point in the fu centralized management, not with- ture, presumably post-Trump. They'do standing its unity' o f doctrine and prac not posit "an all-or-nothing argument tice, it is an interesting thought experi that the world must choose between ment, as the Germans say. Vandenbergh and Gilligan aim to ground their optimism on sound rea soning, to wit: "Our view that marry households and corporations will re spond to private initiatives by7reducing emissions does not require unrealistic assumptions about altruism. Instead, the opportunity arises because private initiatives can stimulate efficiency7 im provements that have not yet been exploited because o f market and be havioral failures. Private initiatives also can draw on existing levels of support for climate mitigation in ways that gov ernments cannot. These initiatives also can address solution aversion among moderates and conservatives, bypass ing resistance to government climate efforts that arises from concerns about big government. At the international level, private governance initiatives can supplement the slow and cumbersome international negotiations process. Pri vate initiatives also can harness supply chains to transfer pressure for lowercarbon goods and services across in ternational boundaries, circumventing sovereignty and free-trade concerns and increasing support for mitigation in de veloped and developing countries. ' The "principal barrier" is "concep tual," i.e., "the need for opinion lead ers, corporate and N G O leaders, and philanthropists to grasp the magnitude of the opportunities available to them." Beyond Politics is provocative and challenging, well-sourced and full of insights as to motivational approaches to household and institutional behav ior. Yet, no where in the dozen or so pages o f the books index will the read er find any references to either adapta tion or resilience in the face o f climate change. The authors chose to focus ex clusively on mitigation. Society, how ever, may7 be forced to consider other options given the stark political and economic realities of climate policy. G. Tracy Mehan III is an adjunct professor at the Antonin Scaiia Law School, George Mason University, and executive director for government affairs a t the American Water Works .Association. He may be reached a t tm ehan@ aw w a.org. Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA Tier 5 MAY/JUNE 2018 I 7 ED 002061 00182334-00002