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11 Int'l Env't Agreements: Pol. L. & Econs. 1 (2011)

handle is hein.journals/intenve11 and id is 1 raw text is: Int Environ Agreements (2011) 11:1-6 DOI 10.1007/s10784-011 -9146-x I. .I I Editorial Michele Betsill - Philipp Pattberg - Eleni Dellas Accepted: 20 December 2010/Published online: 9 February 2011 © The Author(s) 2011. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract This special issue addresses the analytical problem of agency in earth system governance, an analytical problem that begins with the assumption that the credibility, stability, adaptiveness, and inclusiveness of earth system governance is affected by a wide range of actors, including national governments and their bureaucracies as well as the growing population of non-state actors such as environmental organizations, expert net- works, and corporations. The articles included in this special issue engage with questions of agency in earth system governance from several different theoretical perspectives, complemented by unique empirical cases and/or methodological approaches. Along the way, the authors confront some of the conceptual challenges associated with the study of agency and advance our understanding of this important governance challenge. Keywords Agency - Earth system governance - Social entrepreneurs - Clean development mechanism - Global environmental consultancies Nearly a decade ago, the international scientific community acknowledged that the earth system now operates well outside the normal state exhibited over the past 500,000 years and that human activity is generating change that extends well beyond natural variabil- ity-in some cases alarmingly so-and at rates that continue to accelerate (ESSP 2001). There is an urgent need to establish effective strategies for mediating the relationship between humans and the natural world. Existing institutions, organizations, and M. Betsill (E) Department of Political Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA e-mail: m.betsill@colostate.edu P. Pattberg - E. Dellas Institute for Environmental Studies, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1087, 1081 HV Amsterdam, Netherlands e-mail: philipp.pattberg@ivm.vu.nl E. Dellas e-mail: eleni.dellas@ivm.vu.nl Springer