Kirsten, My International Environmental Agreements database is a comprehensive and systematic effort to count them. The major sources of variation in counts are two-fold: A) each group counting them has different definitions that they use for inclusion or exclusion (what is multilateral, what is environmental, what is agreement) and most don't explicitly tell you what their definitions are and B) even armed with a good definition, it's very hard to know if you have all the agreements. The main website: http://iea.uoregon.edu/ Brief summary with count at: http://iea.uoregon.edu/page.php?query=home-contents.php (Currently 961 multilaterals and 1526 bilaterals -- but read definitions page to see what is included in those numbers). Of the 961 multilaterals: 455 are original agreements 179 are protocols to such agreements 327 are amendments to original agreements Definitions page: http://iea.uoregon.edu/page.php?query=static&file=definitions.htm Article summarizing the problem: http://iea.uoregon.edu/page.php?file=2003-AnnualReview.pdf&query=pdf List of all multilaterals at: http://iea.uoregon.edu/page.php?query=base_agreement_list&where=start&Inclus ionEQ=MEA You can get other counts by looking at the summary information at the top of each search you do, via the links on the left of the website. If you have more specific queries, feel free to contact me directly. Best, Ron
-----Original Message----- From: owner-gep...@listserve1.allegheny.edu [mailto:owner-gep...@listserve1.allegheny.edu] On Behalf Of kirstenw...@email.dk Sent: Monday, April 20, 2009 4:56 AM To: gep-ed@listserve1.allegheny.edu Subject: Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) Dear gep-eds, Can anyone help me with an accurate number of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). The number varies considerably dependent upon the source. I believe this can be explained by by the fact that the account sometimes include regional environmental agreements and sometimes not. Thank you in advance Kirsten Worm, M.A., Ph.D, Associate professor University of Copenhagen Department of Political Science Denmark
