We thank Cary Coglianese, Kenneth Hanf, Madeleine Hösli, Rudy Lewanski, Martin List, John Odell, Tom Princen, Arild Underdal, Albert Weale, and two reviewers for International Organization for helpful comments. Val Bowers's editorial assistance is greatly appreciated. In addition, Detlef Sprinz gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Institute for the Study of World Politics in Washington, D.C., the Population-Environment Dynamics Project, School of Public Health, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. We gladly accept the responsibility for all remaining errors and omissions.

¹ See Singer, J. David, “The Level-of-Analysis Problem in International Relations,” in Knorr, Klaus and Verba, Sidney, eds., The International System: Theoretical Essays (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1961), pp. 77–92.Google Scholar

² The term “abatement costs,” as used in this article, reflects the resource outlays associated with a governmental position. It does not reflect damage costs. For international comparisons, abatement costs are expressed as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) or gross national product (GNP) so as to reflect a country's “relative effort.”

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⁵ The term “epistemic community” refers to a knowledge-based transnational network of specialists whose members share common views about the causes of environmental problems and the policies to control them. See Haas, Peter M., Saving the Mediterranean: The Politics of International Environmental Cooperation (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990).Google Scholar

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⁸ See Sprinz, Detlef F., “Why Countries Support International Environmental Agreements: The Regulation of Acid Rain in Europe,” Ph.D. diss., Department of Political Science, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, (1992).Google Scholar

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¹⁵ The LRTAP Convention serves as an umbrella convention for the international regime on the regulation of transboundary acidification (acid rain) in the member states of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). Canada and the United States are members of the UNECE as are all European countries.

¹⁶ For examples of the literature on the LRTAP, see Jackson, C. Ian, “A Tenth Anniversary Review of the ECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution,” International Environmental Affairs 2 (Summer 1990), pp. 217–26Google Scholar; Rosencranz, Armin, “The ECE Convention of 1979 on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution,” in Zeitschrift für Umweltpolitik 4 (December 1981), pp. 511–20Google Scholar; Prittwitz, Volker, Umweltaussenpolitik: Grenzüberschreitende Luftverschmutzung in Europa (Foreign environmental policy: Transboundary air pollution in Europe) (Frankfurt a.M.: Campus, 1984)Google Scholar; and Wetstone, Gregory and Rosencranz, Armin, Acid Rain in Europe and North America National Responses to an International Problem (Arlington, Va.: Environmental Law Bookcrafter, 1983).Google Scholar

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¹⁸ The study by Boehmer-Christiansen and Skea, Acid Politics, shows an explicit comparative research design, but the number of explanatory factors exceeds by far the number of cases. Therefore, the conclusions are unlikely to be robust unless different research methods are employed.

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²⁴ We refer to the knowledge available to decision makers in the early 1980s rather than since the late 1980s. Only after the conclusion of the Montreal Protocol did it become evident that the thinning of the stratospheric ozone layer disproportionally affects the polar regions.

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²⁷ Quoted from Whitney, Craig R., “EC Official Says Europeans Soon Can Shield Ozone Layer,” International Herald Tribune, 6 March 1989, p. 5.Google Scholar

²⁸ Skin cancer may also be caused by other factors. However, given the small number of cases, a multiple regression analysis of the various causes of skin cancer appears not to be feasible.

²⁹ Heimsoeth, Harald, “The Protection of the Ozone Layer,” Environmental Policy and Law 10 (April 1983), pp. 34–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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⁴⁴ Unfortunately, no data are available on the rate of skin cancer in the mid-1970s for Austria or for the Netherlands.

⁴⁵ Stoel, Thomas B. Jr., Miller, Alan S., and Milroy, Breck, Fluorocarbon Regulation: An International Comparison (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath, 1980), p. 221.Google Scholar

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⁵⁰ Dickman, Steven, “West Germany Strides Towards CFC Elimination by 2000,” Nature 327 (14 May 1987), p. 93Google Scholar. A similar observation has been made by Benedick. In explaining the differences in 1990 within the EC on the policy toward regulation, Benedick remarks that the FRG announced that it will phase out CFCs in 1995 and other ozone-depleting substances before the end of the century. This took place after the federal government of the FRG had concluded that alternatives to the major harmful chemicals were close to commercial feasibility for nearly all applications. See Benedick, , Ozone Diplomacy: New Directions in Safeguarding the Planet, pp. 164–65.Google Scholar

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⁵⁷ Geographically small countries or those with extremely small emissions have been excluded from the analysis. Canada, Turkey, and the United States were not included in the analysis since they are not (or are insufficiently) covered by EMEP. In addition, EMEP monitors only the European part of the former Soviet Union.

⁵⁸ The interviews of experts were undertaken by Detlef Sprinz as part of a larger research effort on the international regulation of transboundary air pollution in Europe. For details, see Sprinz, “Why Countries Support International Environmental Agreements.”

⁵⁹ Hettelingh, Jean-Paul, Downing, Robert F., and Smet, Peter A.M. de, Mapping Critical Loads for Europe, Coordination Center for Effects (CCE) technical report no. 1 (Bilthoven: CCE, National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection, the Netherlands, 1991).Google Scholar

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⁶² Ibid., pp. 2 and 3, respectively.

⁶³ It must be noted that the UK objected to 1980 as the reference year since it would have easily fulfilled the obligations with a base year chosen from the early 1970s; personal communication.

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⁶⁶ The 30 percent level was chosen for purely political reasons and is not based on (narrow) ecological considerations.

⁶⁷ See Prittwitz, , Umweltaussenpolitik—Grenzüberschreitende Luftverschmutzung in Europa, p. 143Google Scholar; and Boehmer-Christiansen, and Skea, , Acid Politics, p. 216.Google Scholar

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⁷¹ They were normally supported by Austria, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.

⁷² This applies both to the Vienna and the LRTAP Conventions.

⁷³ See Inglehart, Ronald, The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Styles Among Western Publics (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977);Google Scholar and Inglehart, Ronald, Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990).Google Scholar

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