Setting international standards

In a globalized world, the role of national governments is increasing limited. But the difficulty in setting international standards lies in getting a culturally and economically diverse international community to agree on what those standards should be. There is abundant evidence that legally-binding standards set internationally are lower than those the societal need demands. For example, during the negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol, nations were unable to agree even the minimum targets advocated by the scientific community, mostly due to economic arguments.

Technical standards developed by international standard bodies like ISO, ETSI and CIEC are examples whereby public accountability and democratic institutions are substituted by private bodies dominated by representation from industry. International standard bodies are pretending to involve all stakeholders. This is not the case since only standard institutes from the developed world and large companies can afford participation. International standard bodies should not be entrusted with the task of developing standards for the purpose to harmonise regulation.