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program partners

Learn more about IGCC's unique cross-disciplinary partnerships with:

Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories

Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy

International Environmental Policy


As understanding of global environmental degradation and the transboundary effects of pollution grew throughout the 1990s, IGCC initiated a research program in international environmental policy to respond to the need for greater scholarly and policy attention to these issues.

The IGCC research program on the environment generally falls into these main categories:

  • Global environment issues such as biodiversity, ozone depletion, and protection of rainforests. IGCC helped create a UC-systemwide program on global climate change to bring objective scientific and technical expertise to the United Nations climate change negotiations.
  • Transboundary environmental issues such as pollution control, water allocation, control of straddling oil fields, wildlife conservation, and the protection of common resources such as fisheries.
  • Issues involving the interplay between environmental/health concerns and trade agreements and the role of these concerns in determining international lending practices.

Projects currently in development focus on coastal water quality management in Southeast Asia, conservation of biological diversity through forest managment in Malaysia, and the effects of atmospheric pollution on agricultural output.

Past Projects

IGCC projects in International Environmental Policy


Beach Water Quality and Tourism in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia is home to some of the world’s best-known beach and island resorts, which have helped make tourism the region’s fastest-growing industry. Coastal water quality is emerging as an important determinant of the industry’s future growth. Sewage and industrial effluents have degraded water quality throughout the region. At the same time, international tourists have become more aware of the potential health risks they face when vacationing at beaches.

IGCC, in partnership with the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and the World Bank, organized the 2007 international workshop "Beach Water Quality and Tourism in Southeast Asia: What Role for Public Information Programs?" which was held in Penang, Malaysia. Participants included government officials from Cambodia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, regional experts from Hong Kong and India, representatives from NGOs, the media, and the World Bank, and faculty from USM and six campuses of the University of California. The workshop objectives were to: assess the impacts of beach water quality on public health and tourism in Southeast Asia, review experience with public information programs on beach water quality in other parts of the world, and evaluate the role that such programs could play in protecting human health and promoting more sustainable, more profitable recreation and tourism industries in Southeast Asia.

Project Atmospheric Brown Clouds

Under the sponsorship of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), an international program, Project Atmospheric Brown Cloud (ABC), has been created to study brown clouds and their human impacts. The scientific team is led by Professors V. Ramanathan and Paul Crutzen of the Center for Clouds, Chemistry, and Climate at UCSD. IGCC is collaborating with the Center for Clouds, Chemistry, and Climate on a study of the impacts of brown clouds on rice output in the Indian subcontinent.

The initial focus of Project ABC is Asia, where over 50 percent of the world’s population lives and where industrial and demographic growth rates are high. A primary thrust of Project ABC is to assess the impact of brown clouds on the Asian monsoon, which brings live-giving rainfall to the region. Recently, evidence has emerged that an immense and persistent cloud of aerosol pollution has already affected temperature, precipitation, and solar radiation in the region.

Environmental Fellowship Opportunities

Since 1995, IGCC has awarded doctoral dissertation fellowships for work that addresses topics such as transboundary environmental conflicts, regional relations, global environmental policy, and regional approaches to global environmental policy.

 

Selected Publications on International Environmental Policy

Number: Policy Paper 53
Title: European Legal Integration and Environmental Protection
Author(s): Rachel A. Cichowski
Published by: IGCC
Year of Publication: 2000


Number: Policy Paper 46
Title: Fuel and Famine: Rural Crisis in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Author(s): James H. Williams, David Von Hippel, Peter Hayes
Published by: IGCC
Pages: 52
Year of Publication: 2000
Related PolicyPack: http://www-igcc.ucsd.edu/publications/policy_packs/pp46.ppt

Number: Policy Paper 44
Title: Mapping the Hinterland: Land Rights, Timber, and Territorial Politics in Mozambique
Author(s): David McDermott Hughes
Published by: IGCC
Pages: 30
Year of Publication: 1998
Number: Policy Paper 42
Title: Environmental Diplomacy and the Jordan Basin
Author(s): Isha Ray, Gershon Baskin, Zakaria al Qaq, W. Michael Hanemann
Published by: IGCC
Pages: 21
Year of Publication: 2001
Related PolicyPack: http://www-igcc.ucsd.edu/publications/policy_packs/pp42.ppt
Number: Policy Paper 36
Title: Energy and Security in Northeast Asia: Supply and Demand; Conflict and Cooperation
Author(s): Michael Stankiewicz, Fereidun Fesharaki, Wu Kang, Sara Banasak, Susan Shirk
Published by: IGCC
Pages: 62
Year of Publication: 1998


Number: Policy Paper 35
Title: Energy and Security in Northeast Asia: Fueling Security
Author(s): Michael Stankiewicz, Kent Calder, Feridun Fesharaki, Susan Shirk
Published by: IGCC
Pages: 30
Year of Publication: 1998


Number: Policy Paper 32
Title: Emissions and Development in the United States: International Implications
Author(s): Richard T. Carson, Donald R. McCubbin
Published by: IGCC
Pages: 38
Year of Publication: 1998


Number: Policy Paper 30
Title: Economic Integration and Environment in Southeast Asia
Author(s): Raymond Clemencon, Sarwano Kusumatmadja
Published by: IGCC
Pages: 50
Year of Publication: 1997


Number: Policy Paper 29
Title: The Political Economy of International Environmental Cooperation
Author(s): Changhua Sun Rich, Eugenio Bobenrieth, Brian Potter, Heather Carlisle, Paul Williams, Alan Richards, Richard Ackerman
Published by: IGCC
Pages: 106
Year of Publication: 1997


Number: Policy Paper 28
Title: The United States and Global Environmental Risk Reduction
Author(s): Raymond Clemencon
Published by: IGCC
Pages: 28
Year of Publication: 1997

Number: Policy Paper 24
Title: The Northeast Asian Cooperative Dialogue IV: Energy and Security in Northeast Asia
Author(s): Susan Shirk, Michael Stankiewicz
Published by: IGCC
Pages: 68
Year of Publication: 1996


Number: Policy Paper 17
Title: Northeast Asian Cooperation Dialogue III: Regional Economic Cooperation: The Role of Agricultural Production and Trade in Northeast Asia
Author(s): Colin Carter, Hyunok Lee, Daniel Sumner
Published by: IGCC
Pages: 44
Year of Publication: 1995


Number: Policy Paper 14
Title: Promoting Regional Cooperation in the Middle East
Author(s): Fred Wehling, Lewis Dunn, Ali Ghezawi, Yoram Avnimelech, Howard Adelman, Richard Rosecrance
Published by: IGCC
Pages: 42
Year of Publication: 1995


Number: Policy Paper 10
Title: The United States and Japan in Asia
Author(s): Christopher P. Twomey, Michael Stankiewicz, Susan L. Shirk
Published by: IGCC
Pages: 66
Year of Publication: 1994

Number: Policy Paper 05
Title: Regional Cooperation and Environmental Issues in Northeast Asia
Author(s): Peter Hayes, Lyuba Zarsky
Published by: IGCC
Pages: 35
Year of Publication: 1993


Number: Policy Paper 02
Title: Climate Change: A Challenge to the Means of Technology Transfer
Author(s): Gordon J. F. MacDonald
Published by: IGCC
Pages: 54
Year of Publication: 1992

Number: Policy Brief 15
Title: Maintaining Cooperation Under the Pacific Salmon Treaty
Author: Christopher Costello
Published by: IGCC
Pages: 4
Year of Publication: 2000


Number: Policy Brief 13
Title: Running on Air
Author: Richard T. Carson, Nadja Marinova
Published by: IGCC
Pages: 4
Year of Publication: 1999


Number: Policy Brief 11-2
Title: Smoothing the Waters: The Nile in Conflict
Author: Robert O. Collins
Published by: IGCC
Pages: 4
Year of Publication: 1999


Number: Policy Brief 11-1
Title: Smoothing the Waters: The Jordan Rift
Author: Richard T. Carson, Nadja Marinova, David Zilberman
Published by: IGCC
Pages: 4
Year of Publication: 1999


Number: Policy Brief 04
Title: Middle East Environmental Cooperation
Author: Philip Warburg
Published by: IGCC
Pages: 4
Year of Publication: 1995



Number: PolicyPack 63
Title: IGCC Climate Change Program
Author: IGCC
Published by: IGCC
Related Policy Briefs:
Policy Brief 12-5: Climate Change Science: Abrupt Climate Change
Policy Brief 12-4: Climate Change Science: Soil Carbon Sinks
Policy Brief 12-3: Climate Change Science: Critical Omissions for Critical Emissions
Policy Brief 12-2: Climate Change Science: Predicting Twenty-first Century Climate Change
Number of Slides: 11
Year of Publication: 2000


Title: The Journal of Environment and Development
Author(s): Gordon J. MacDonald, founding editor
Published by: Sage Publications
Year of Publication: 1995



Title: Space Monitoring of Global Change
Author(s): Gordon MacDonald, Sally Ride
Published by: IGCC and the California Space Institute
Year of Publication: 1992

Title: Latin American Environmental Policy in International Perspective
Author(s): Gordon J. MacDonald, Marc Stern, Daniel Nielson, eds.
ISBN: 0-8133-2424-6 (paper)
Published by: Westview Press
Year of Publication: 1996


Title: Practical Peacemaking in the Middle East Volume II: The Environment, Water, Refugees, and Economic Cooperation & Development
Author(s): Steven L. Spiegel, David J. Pervin
ISBN: 0-8153-2000-0
Published by: Garland Publishing
Year of Publication: 1995


Title: International Crop Breeding in a World of Proprietary Technology
Author(s): Brian Wright
Published by: CABI Publishing
Year of Publication: 2000


Title: The Value of Plant Biodiversity for Agriculture
Author(s): Robert E. Evenson, Brian D. Wright
Published by: Johns Hopkins University Press
Year of Publication: 2000

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