Bilateral mercury cooperation between China and Norway. A sheltered pathway from science to politics?

Considerable political and scholarly attention has been paid to multilateral environmental agreements (MEA) dealing with climate change and air pollution, with less focus on biodiversity and chemicals. There are however a far greater bulk of bilateral environmental agreements and in this study, we examine the bilateral mercury agreement between (the highly unequal partners) China and Norway. The collaboration has arguable led to an increase in Chinese attention to the Minamata Convention. We propose that there are analytical elements transferable from MEA-studies, and examine the role of science, the role of financial mechanisms, agenda setting, and transparency. Methodologically we apply a range of interviews with key actors and document analysis. There is more to the story than Norway paying for China to reduce its mercury emissions. The case emerges as not very suitable for drawing more general lessons from bilateral environmental agreements. The Norway–China relations are idiosyncratic in many respects – from their greatly uneven sizes, their very different approaches to the Minamata Convention and to the unique situation ensuing from the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize decision, which put Norway in the Chinese freezer for nearly a decade. Still, the scientific collaboration had already been established on equitable terms, involving both Chinese and Norwegian scientists. Moreover, the bilateral agreement grew out of a predominantly scientific collaboration, involving low-level but highly competent administrative bodies with corresponding low political visibility. In conclusion, the study directs attention to the advantages entailed in sheltering key collaborating actors from the global shaming/blaming scene and enabling scientific capacity building outside the global limelight.