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How international standards are transforming the world

Cooperation between countries on sensitive issues is becoming increasingly difficult. International standards may be the solution.

Climate activists form a long line. They perform a ritual for the peoples of the Amazon ahead of the climate summit in Belém, Brazil this November.
Gro Lien Garbo COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER
Presented by: Presented by: Presented by: University of Oslo
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“It may look as if international cooperation is coming apart. At the same time, we have thousands of almost invisible technical standards that set the rules for how we interact,” says Solveig Bjørkholt.

She explains that we are seeing a fragmentation of international cooperation.

Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement and the World Health Organization. He also raised tariffs and signalled a possible trade war.

Standards are about technical solutions

International standards can serve as an alternative platform for cooperation, Bjørkholt believes.

The reason is that standards deal with technical solutions rather than political negotiations.

Bjørkholt has studied the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

It develops international standards for everything from how various tools, programming languages, and medical equipment should be designed, to the size of containers that have revolutionised global trade.

The organisation also develops standards for corporate responsibility and environmental management.

They still have political consequences

Bjørkholt has found that standards that often appear technical and neutral can in fact have political consequences. 

Standardisation can affect the distribution of resources and benefits in society, even if that influence is not always obvious.

“Many of these standards have political implications in practice. But because they operate in a somewhat different arena than, for example, UN negotiations, they often fly under the radar,” says Bjørkholt.

Norway takes the lead: "Being involved in defining what diversity means internationally is no small task," says Solveig Bjørkholt. She has written a PhD on international standardisation.

Those who negotiate standards are usually experts from different countries. They are most often industry specialists who work in large and small companies. 

The experts meet to find common solutions to technical challenges. The result is often international standards.

A standard for container ships gave an international boost

Bjørkholt points to the use of containers on the world’s oceans as one example of this kind of standardisation.

“Standardising containers was a huge boost for global trade. The dimensions had to be coordinated worldwide, and every port had to agree on how ships should be configured, how containers should fit ships, and all the surrounding infrastructure,” says Bjørkholt.

She describes an enormous collaborative project that revolutionised global trade.

It would probably not have happened without the creation of international standards.

Negotiations on standards take place under the radar

Bjørkholt notes that standardisation work often takes an objective, technical approach.

“Rather than bringing together politicians to discuss high-level principles, you bring in experts who are close to the field to discuss what it takes to reach a common standard, for example in technologies for emissions reduction,” she says.

Bjørkholt emphasises that many of the international standards that are agreed upon have political implications in practice. But they do not attract the same level of public attention as political negotiations do.

Sustainability and social responsibility as standards

Bjørkholt finds it particularly interesting that sustainability and corporate social responsibility are concepts that appear increasingly often in the work of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

“ISO is increasingly dealing with the softer topics, such as how to govern a company in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way, and what creates a good social environment in the workplace,” says Bjørkholt.

Some of these types of standards have sparked significant debate.

When ISO created its own standard for corporate social responsibility, it faced strong opposition from the International Labour Organization (ILO).

"The ILO felt that ISO was stepping on their turf. There was more tug-of-war than usual. Nevertheless, ISO managed to create such a standard,” Bjørkholt recounts.

The researcher stresses that international standardisation can also favour some countries over others.

Norway can gain advantages in certain areas

“In Norway, for example, we lead many ISO committees that work on aluminium, That can give us an advantage because we are already strong in that technology,” says Bjørkholt.

Norway has the infrastructure and the technology in place, which makes it easier to set a standard based on its own solutions, she points out.

“For other countries, which may have to replace what they already have, it can be both challenging and expensive,” says Bjørkholt.

She adds that Norway is also at the forefront of developing an international standard for diversity management.

“Playing a role in defining what diversity means internationally is no small task,” she says.

China in the lead, the US and EU close behind

Major global actors are becoming increasingly interested in the work of international standardisation. Bjørkholt finds this interesting.

China has prioritised this work heavily over the past 10 to 20 years. The US and Europe have become more involved in the past couple of years.

“China has its own strategy for international standardisation and is currently leading almost a hundred standardisation processes. In response, both the US and the EU have become highly engaged,” says Bjørkholt.

Three different attitudes towards climate and regulation

She points out that these three have quite different philosophies for how they want to regulate the world through international agreements. Bjørkholt uses climate as an example:

“In China, we see a willingness towards fairly comprehensive regulation in line with the state’s own goals. Chinese authorities have an explicit aim to pursue sustainable development and reduce emissions, and there must be a balance there,” says the researcher.

Bjørkholt believes the US will probably want a different approach. No overarching guidelines and as little regulation as possible – creating minimal obstacles for business.

“They want to be able to innovate on their own terms,” she says. “In the EU, we can expect a stronger willingness to regulate and a greater desire to protect important values. Ethics plays a bigger role in thinking around standards here. There's also more concern for consumer protection.”

Two possibilities for the future

Solveig Bjørkholt emphasises that standardisation is in the process of being discovered as a political opportunity. She envisions two possibilites for the future:

1. That the work on standardisation continues to focus on technical details and that a great deal can be achieved politically through that focus.

“This means agreements need not be overly broad, but can nonetheless secure wide consensus, for example on emissions reduction. The Paris Agreement sets an aim to limit global warming to ‘well below 2 °C,’ which is quite vague," says Bjørkholt. “A standard that provides concrete guidelines on how to implement carbon capture solutions is far more specific.”

2. That the regulations implied by standards are expanded – so that in a few years we may also have standards for issues such as disarmament. 

That in itself would be very positive, the researcher believes.

"But the further standardisation work moves into politically sensitive areas, the more politicised it risks becoming. Then you lose the advantage of operating at a detailed technical level that flies under the political radar,” says Bjørkholt.

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