Write a report on your chosen policy area, in which you answer the following questions. Describe the environmental problem that makes this a political issue. What interest groups, if any, are involved in trying to influence policy on this issue? Have any governments of affected nations taken steps to address this problem area? If so, have the solutions worked as intended? Have there been undesirable side effects (negative externalities) resulting from the solution?
Finally, consider whether this problem is nation-specific or crosses national boundaries. Will inaction on this problem result in harmful externalities for other nations? If so, identify them. If this is a truly cross-national problem, have there been international efforts to address it? (For example, the 1997 Kyoto agreement on global warming; the 2009 Copenhagen framework; the 2015 Paris climate agreement; other international conferences or agreements). If no international action has been taken, what are the prospects for meaningful international action in the future, in your judgment? What political barriers or issue concerns might enhance the prospects for international action? Diminish the prospects for international action?
