Cross-national Salience of Marine Environmental Issues: Evidence from UN General Assembly Debates, 1993–2020

In this paper, we examine an important dimension of state preferences regarding the protection of the marine environment, namely the salience of marine environmental problems. To do so, we analyse statements delivered in the annual reviews of ocean affairs and the law of the sea in the General Assembly of the United Nations in the years 1993–2020. In methodological terms, the paper employs topic modelling. The results reveal that the attitudes of states to the importance of specific environmental issues are relatively heterogeneous and the overall salience of these issues also varies significantly. The variation is primarily driven by the geographic characteristics of countries. The ratio of the given country’s marine territory to its land area is positively associated with the salience of climate change, pollution, and the aggregated salience of environmental topics in the country. Also, the absolute size of the marine territory is positively associated with the salience of sustainable fisheries.