The impacts of the equator principles as private self-regulation in environmental development in a developing country

Abstract

This thesis explores the Equator Principles (EP) framework as an alternative measure to raise environmental standards in developing countries where state regulation fails to handle environmental problems effectively. The EP framework requires private financial institutions to incorporate environmental and social consideration into their business decisions, assigning them the role of regulators in terms of rejecting loans for projects which fail to meet the EP environmental and social standards. As private regulation, the EP regime has some advantages in addressing transnational environmental problems which state regulation generally fails to do due to their national boundary limits. However, the issues of legitimacy, accountability and transparency challenge the implication of the EP framework in promoting sustainable development. The thesis focuses on EP regulation by applying the concept of reflexive governance as an academic framework to discuss the implication and effectiveness EP regulation. The thesis examines European Union (EU) environmental governance as a model of environmental regulation which adopts the idea of reflexive governance. In order to investigate whether and how the EP regime can raise environmental standards in a developing country, the thesis applies Thailand as a case study. On account of political instability and the national policies which prioritise economic growth, environmental development in Thailand has not been the area that receives much attention from the government. The thesis explores particular conditions of Thailand in terms of political backgrounds, culture and social values, and then discusses how the EP framework can apply to raise environmental standards under such conditions. In the end, the thesis makes suggestion for the EP institutional design to ensure that the EP’s learning-based approach can achieve its goal in encouraging sustainability and preventing environmentally harmful projects, as well as to address the concerns on its legitimacy, accountability and transparency of the regime.

Date of Award	21 Jun 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Clair Gammage (Supervisor) & Tony Prosser (Supervisor)