„PARTNERSTWA DLA ZRÓWNOWAŻONEGO ROZWOJU” JAKO NOWA FORMA WSPÓŁPRACY TRANSNARODOWEJ
Partnerships for sustainable development as a new form of transnational cooperation

Summary/Abstract: The article proposes to fi ll the gap in current research on sustainability partnerships, by explaining the performance of sustainable energy partnerships. It argues that while multi-stakeholder partnerships in the issue area of sustainable development have been hailed as a remedy for the obvious problems of global environmental governance, there is little proof of any notable improvement that these institutions bring about. The author shows that the majority of initiatives registered with the UN DESA Commission on Sustainable Development are inactive or dysfunctional. Those partnerships that do function are in most cases regular non-governmental organizations which puts their proclaimed institutional innovativeness into question. Only a handful of energy partnerships could be evaluated as visible and effective. Most notable among them are the largest multistakeholder partnership – REEEP, and the most politicized one – GFRP. Possible risks in the privatization of environmental governance are also highlighted, while there is very little that can be said of CSD partnerships in positive terms. It is suggested that in order to function properly, a partnership needs to adopt the form of an INGO, with an inclusive executive body providing expertise and an administrative secretariat taking care of the day-to day functioning of the initiative. Particular cases of successful and dysfunctional partnerships are discussed. The empirical analysis is set on the background of a critical review of existing literature on institutions in international politics, as well as a theoretical discussion of the diffi culties an analyst encounters while attempting to assess the effectiveness of a given partnership.

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