Yixian Sun, PhD candidate in Political Science and International Relations and Researcher Assistant at CIES, recently published an article in the journal Global Environmental Politics, a leading journal in political science focusing on environmental issues. Based on Yixian’s master thesis completed at the Graduate Institute in 2014, this article makes original contributions to the study of transnational governance and environmental politics.

This research project aims to address a gap in the literature of environmental governance on regime effectiveness through the lens of regime interplay. Focusing on public-private partnerships (PPPs), the article investigates linkages between hybrid and intergovernmental governance schemes. It develops a new analytical framework, which suggests that transnational PPPs will facilitate policy-makers’ learning and accordingly advance the formation of intergovernmental regimes through enhanced cooperation among stakeholders.

For empirical analysis, the article provides a case study about the influence of the UNEP Global Mercury Partnership on negotiations of the Minamata Convention on Mercury. Drawing on qualitative methods and rich data, the analysis shows that technical and scientific information from this partnership helped relevant policy-makers understand the problems to be addressed and some appropriate solutions, thereby accelerating the consensus-making process and shaping the features of certain provisions. It further compares the influences of different partnership areas, revealing that inclusive stakeholder engagement and boundary coordination between different governance schemes are two important conditions for transnational partnerships to promote cooperation in intergovernmental fora.

Getting published in Global Environmental Politics requires a long review process and is far from an easy task. Therefore, Yixian would like to thank CIES’ support for his research, and in particular, advice and encouragement of Prof. Liliana Andonova.