Cooperation Theory and the Environment: A Case Study of Climate Change and Ozone Depletion

Climate change and ozone depletion are instructive examples of the difficulties that must be overcome to achieve cooperation in the global commons. Several factors affect the prospects of cooperation for global environmental issues. Broadly defined, these economic, political ecological and geopolitical factors are important to understand why and how cooperative outcomes emerge in an anarchic world system in which the incentives for free-riding are numerous. The purpose of this thesis is to better understand why these factors matter and to construct an appropriate theoretical framework for the purpose of detailed analysis.