Research strategies to assess the effectiveness of international environmental regimes

Despite decades of international efforts to enhance global environmental governance, sustainability issues requiring action beyond single states persist. How can we create international environmental governance systems (typically called regimes) that are successful in addressing problems such as climate change and the loss of biological diversity? What skills do we need to design regimes that are responsive to these challenges? Reflecting on years of research on environmental regimes, this Perspective identifies promising research strategies for continuing efforts to answer these questions (for example, diagnostic procedures and alternative ideas on effectiveness) in a manner that promotes productive relations between academics and practitioners.