The limited influence of global civil society: international environmental non-governmental organisations and the Methyl Bromide Controversy in the Montreal Protocol

Governance scholars have demonstrated that the agendas, discourses, and actions of global civil society groups are affected by powerful states. In neoliberal globalisation, powerful states push for market-based schemes to resolve global environmental problems, and civil society groups often contribute to that agenda. Through the lens of governmentality, scholars have shown how civil society acts in ways that relegitimise and sustain state power/influence at the global scale. This study illustrates how international environmental non-governmental organisations operating in the Montreal Protocol contribute to the neoliberalisation of ozone governance, in some cases changing tactics to fit the neoliberal discourse of the treaty. Consequently, some international environmental non-governmental organisations have recently abandoned discourses of global environmental health, global security, and general welfare to address neoliberal concerns of individualism, competition, and transparency in ozone politics.