Environmental Science & Policy最新文献

Research and practice in climate risk reduction often view marginalized individuals through the lens of vulnerability. However, this perspective lacks specificity of which groups and needs should be incorporated, features narrow wealth-based conceptualization and provides insufficient operationalizable guidance for planning and implementation. This study highlights the theoretical and practical significance of a functional-based approach. It transcends the apparent differences among social groups, instead identifying their shared activity limitations and associated access and functional needs (AFNs) amid climate hazards. Those social groups generally include but not limited to people with disabilities, limited language proficiency, restricted mobility and economic disadvantage, pregnant women as well as children and seniors. We combine quantitative and qualitative analysis to investigate how and why local governments incorporate AFNs in their climate risk reduction. Based on hazard mitigation and climate adaptation plans across local governments in California, our results show that AFN inclusion is consistently predicted by AFN incorporation in higher-level plans, rather than the presence of AFN populations. Besides, plans embracing the functional-based approach achieve greater comprehensiveness and depth of AFN inclusion. We further highlight the commonalities and differences between the two types of plans and conclude with strategic and operational implications for risk reduction efforts.

Policy narrative analyses provide important insight to understand mechanisms and dynamic of policy change but also to explore how narratives shape or bind coalitions in a policy subsystem. The overall aim of our analysis was to check what are the dominant narratives about nature conservation manifested in public debate and who generates them. We applied a Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) that allowed for a systematic analysis of narratives generated in public debate on conservation in Poland. We collected and analyzed over 1200 sources of policy narratives published in the most popular nationwide newspapers in Poland between 2004 and 2020.

Our results illustrate that the public discussion on conservation is focused on policy actors and their actions and beliefs rather than on scientific evidence. While wild nature itself is barely discussed, it is often positioned as an important, active actor in generated narratives. We identified two main coalitions that present different beliefs on nature and human role in natural systems maintenance. Both mutualists coalition and the coalition of traditionalists describe themselves as heroes, knowing the right solutions for conservation challenges, and their opponents as villains - impeding the effective conservation actions.

The study illustrates the applicability of the NPF to explore beliefs and values expressed in policy narratives. The results highlight a polarization of conservation debate in a country in transition.

Gray literature is increasingly considered to complement evidence and knowledge from peer-reviewed literature for science-policy processes and applied research. On the one hand, science-policy assessments need to consider a diversity of worldviews, knowledge types and values from a variety of sectors and actor groups, and synthesize policy-relevant findings that are salient, legitimate and credible. On the other hand, practitioners and scholars conducting applied research are affected by the time lag and biases of academic publication processes. Gray literature holds diverse perspectives informative for science-policy processes as well as practical evidence unfiltered by commercial publication processes. However, its heterogeneity has made it challenging to access through conventional means for a literature review. This paper details one endeavor within the Values Assessment of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) to review gray literature using Google’s Programmable Search Engine. In the absence of a standardized approach, we build on the limited experiential knowledge base for reviewing gray literature and report on the potential applicability of our strategy for future reviews. Gray literature review results contrast findings of our parallel review of academic literature, underlining the importance of mobilizing different knowledge bases in science-policy assessments, evidence-based practices, and applied research.

This is the first global empirical study that specifically explores the perspectives of Indigenous peoples, people working for Indigenous Peoples’ Organisations (IPOs) and people working in other relevant roles (e.g., conveners of large environmental NGOs) on the barriers to meaningful and effective participation in global environmental governance forums. A total of 30 key informant participants were interviewed for this study. Participants were invited based on their engagement with and/or their interest in Indigenous participation and leadership related to environmental governance. Inductive analysis of the interview data revealed that ‘capacity barriers’, ‘representation, grouping and disconnect’, ‘inclusion and exclusion’, and ‘insights for how to proceed in the future’ to be important primary themes for discussion. Secondary themes were also determined for each primary theme to highlight the key issues and to develop implications and recommendations for enhancing meaningful Indigenous leadership and collaboration in international governance forums.

The energy modelling community’s analysis of net zero often relies on approaches that hide the extent of uncertainty. Meanwhile the extent of uncertainty involved in the realisation of net zero is proliferating. Conventional consolidative modelling approaches lack of transparency is distorting decision making and policy design around net zero. This contribution uses the UK’s Committee on Climate Changes 6th Carbon Budget as a case study. An exploratory, Robust Decision-Making approach is used to highlight the fragility of conventional UK modelling approaches in shaping national climate policy. A new suite of tools, orientation of analysis and mixed approaches are needed to address the extent of complexity, uncertainty and emergence in possible net zero futures. Only then will robust, inclusive and realisable climate policy be designed.

This paper undertakes a comprehensive comparative analysis of policy challenges and opportunities for the deployment of low-carbon DH. Through literature review and complementary qualitative analysis of interviews with key institutional stakeholders in the heating sector (n= 20) of Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the UK, the paper draws some important lessons on preconditions for successful roll-out of DH. We find that more governments must create appropriate conditions, provide more support, and speed up actions to enhance the role of DH in heat decarbonisation, to educate, encourage the adoption, and involve citizens, politicians, and other key stakeholders in the heat transition to DH. Amid the current energy price crisis, slow adopters must act fast to develop low-carbon DH networks to ensure the supply of secure, sustainable, and affordable heating sources. They would have to create appropriate conditions to reduce fossil-fuel path dependence, lock-out fossil fuel-based infrastructure and lock-in the diffusion and adoption of low-carbon DH.

To properly address the polycrisis we need to tackle the underlying causes and thereby transition to a long-term sustainable and just society. The current mainstream proposed pathways out of our predicament focus mainly on climate change, and heavily utilise technological solutions. Although addressing the polycrisis holistically is not often the aim of these pathways, the fact that they often transgress other planetary boundaries means they cannot be used to inform us what a truly sustainable society looks like. The widespread assumptions of technological optimism also do not hold up to scrutiny when we consider the equity of their assumptions at the global level, yet are frequently relied on to construct policy. It is vital we acknowledge and then begin to address the knowledge gap left by ruling out incompatible transition scenarios.

While the Anthropocene has seen the dissolution of nature-society dualism, disciplinary barriers have been deep-seated and limited a complete integrated analysis of the environmental crisis. Concerned by the scarcity of literature on structural and institutional barriers that leverage upon and extend this deep-seated duality between natural and social science, this paper maps the broader field of social science research in India. It also explores the epistemic effects of such inequalities on environmental research and its ability to meaningfully engage with interactions between the social and the natural worlds.

The United States is reprioritizing domestic extraction and processing of critical minerals, with billions of dollars of investments. Because of their uses in low-carbon technologies, the mining and processing of these resources falls under the scope of the Justice40 Initiative, the Biden administration’s flagship environmental justice policy. Justice40 prioritizes green investments to benefit communities deemed disadvantaged, including all recognized Tribes. This can lead to the siting of “green” mineral projects in disadvantaged communities (DACs), which is problematic if such projects are unwelcome or reproduce environmental injustices. These unintended consequences are our focus. We analyze how DACs are defined and operationalized, before examining whether and under what conditions critical mineral projects could be considered beneficial for local communities. We suggest three ways to better align Justice40’s spirit with its (currently problematic) application to critical minerals and other controversial projects – (1) centering free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) and the transparency and power restructuring needed to achieve it; (2) incentivizing community ownership to strengthen economic benefits and democratize decision making; and (3) bringing currently-exempted critical mineral activities within the purview of Justice40, particularly for the Department of Defense.

Much of the research on forestry innovation is based on models of economic rationality that are presumed to be universal and “a-gendered.” This article understands that economic processes are not “neutral” and seeks to produce empirical insights into the perceptions of gender in the male-dominated forestry sector. How does perceived gender balance in a forestry-related organisation contribute to its resilience to economic, ecological, climate-related and other contemporary crises, as well as its innovativeness? To examine the importance attributed to gender balance for resilience and innovation, we undertook a representative web survey amongst the principal Austrian forestry-related companies, institutions and agencies. The results show some links between gender and innovation, but not between gender and resilience. We then complemented the survey with in-depth interviews with high-level female representatives from the Austrian forestry sector, focusing on their personal experiences and opinions as both experts and the sole ones who made it in a sector of skewed gender balance and strong misrepresentation. Our findings reveal a contradiction between the survey results on the importance attributed to gender balance within forestry-sector organisations and the inequalities that successful women in high-level leadership positions reported in the interviews. The article discusses how gendered norms are relevant for economic outcomes and must be integrated into all related research efforts. Our findings challenge academic positions that regard economic issues and societal questions like gender balance to be strictly separated.