The structural elements of global environmental governance are notoriously difficult to change and align with the needs of a rapidly deteriorating earth system. This, however, only increases the need to focus on the role of agency in this context. This paper does so by taking stock of what we know about agency in relation to International Environmental Agreements (IEAs) and suggests directions for future research. We contribute a conceptual framework to enable the mapping of research on agency related to IEAs and advance more systematic study of agency in this context. The framework differentiates between the negotiation of IEAs, their implementation and outcomes, and includes agency-related and context-related drivers of agency in these processes. We subsequently review articles published between 2003 and 2020 in the journal International Environmental Agreements (as one of the few journals exclusively focusing on IEAs) dealing with actors’ agency and analyse how these articles address agency in the context of IEAs. We conclude firstly by identifying avenues for how further research can fill important gaps, including a need for increased transparency on the methods and theories used in articles, and more comparative research particularly on agency dynamics in implementation; and secondly by highlighting important pointers for policy-makers including the need to re-evaluate the role of national sovereignty and address the forces that counteract equality and justice. Key lessons include the need to improve global south countries' capacity to influence IEA negotiations (input legitimacy), the central role of public and peer pressure on countries to implement commitments, the impact of multilevel governance dynamics and the importance of ensuring that IEAs benefit local communities (output legitimacy).

众所周知，全球环境治理的结构要素很难改变，也很难适应迅速恶化的地球系统的需求。然而，这只会增加在这种情况下关注代理作用的需要。本文通过评估我们对与国际环境协定 (IEA) 相关的代理机构的了解，并为未来的研究提出了方向。我们提供了一个概念框架，以实现与 IEA 相关的代理研究的映射，并在此背景下推进更系统的代理研究。该框架区分了 IEA 的谈判、其实施和结果，并在这些过程中包括与机构相关和与环境相关的机构驱动因素。我们随后回顾了 2003 年至 2020 年间发表在《国际环境协定》（作为少数专门关注 IEA 的期刊之一）期刊上发表的涉及行为者代理的文章，并分析了这些文章如何在 IEA 的背景下处理代理问题。我们首先确定了进一步研究如何填补重要空白的途径，包括需要提高文章中使用的方法和理论的透明度，以及更多的比较研究，特别是关于实施中的代理动态；其次，强调政策制定者的重要指示，包括需要重新评估国家主权的作用并解决阻碍平等和正义的力量。主要经验教训包括需要提高全球南方国家影响 IEA 谈判的能力（输入合法性），