Pub Date : 2025-02-01DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104010
Roberto Falanga , Tiago Carvalho
Extinction Rebellion (XR), founded in 2018, advocates for citizens' assemblies (CAs) on the climate and ecological crisis. This demand underscores XR's aim to enhance democracy “beyond politics” and promote inclusive, effective decision-making to achieve change. The article explores XR's understanding of politics and the democratic legitimacy of CAs in driving change. It examines XR's discourse and repertoire of action by triangulating document analysis, consultation of media resources and interviews with some activists in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Portugal. By situating this research within the broader context of global environmental activism and emerging connections with democratic innovations, this article discusses an emerging paradox inherent in XR's support for CAs. XR simultaneously critiques electoral politics and supports CAs, which maintain a strong connection to party politics though. Moreover, while invoking social pressure beyond the realm of CAs, questions arise about what democratic legitimacy the movement attributes to this type of deliberative mini-publics in the pursuit of change.
{"title":"What change? Assessing the Extinction Rebellion’s support for climate assemblies","authors":"Roberto Falanga , Tiago Carvalho","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104010","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104010","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Extinction Rebellion (XR), founded in 2018, advocates for citizens' assemblies (CAs) on the climate and ecological crisis. This demand underscores XR's aim to enhance democracy “beyond politics” and promote inclusive, effective decision-making to achieve change. The article explores XR's understanding of politics and the democratic legitimacy of CAs in driving change. It examines XR's discourse and repertoire of action by triangulating document analysis, consultation of media resources and interviews with some activists in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Portugal. By situating this research within the broader context of global environmental activism and emerging connections with democratic innovations, this article discusses an emerging paradox inherent in XR's support for CAs. XR simultaneously critiques electoral politics and supports CAs, which maintain a strong connection to party politics though. Moreover, while invoking social pressure beyond the realm of CAs, questions arise about what democratic legitimacy the movement attributes to this type of deliberative mini-publics in the pursuit of change.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"164 ","pages":"Article 104010"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143099466","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Citizen science has emerged as a collaborative model that engages non-professional scientists in scientific research, leveraging their contributions to achieve large-scale data collection and fostering community engagement. Despite its successes, participant retention remains a critical challenge. Drawing upon the Octalysis Framework, this study examines the effectiveness of four intervention strategies—creation of an online ‘Community’, ‘Gamification’, highlighting the importance of ‘Individual Contribution’, and ‘Social feedback’—on sustained participation in an agricultural citizen science project. Data analysis revealed that ‘Community’, ‘Gamification’ and ‘Individual contribution’ significantly improved overall participation and reduced drop-out rates compared to the control group. Moreover, ‘Community’ demonstrated a particularly high retention rate during the challenging flowering stage, attributed to collaborative support. Regression analysis highlighted the influence of age on intervention effectiveness, with younger participants (18−34) responding most positively to ‘Gamification’, while middle-aged (46−55) participants responded very negatively to ‘Social feedback’, and senior participants (65 +) positively benefited from all interventions. These findings suggest that tailored intervention strategies can enhance long-term engagement in citizen science projects. By addressing both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations through targeted design interventions, project leaders can improve participant retention, ensuring the sustainability and success of citizen science initiatives. This study provides practical recommendations for optimizing engagement strategies across different project stages and demographic groups, offering valuable insights for future citizen science projects.
{"title":"Testing four design interventions for sustained participation in an agricultural citizen science project","authors":"Birgit Vanden Berghen, Iris Vanermen, Liesbet Vranken","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103981","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103981","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Citizen science has emerged as a collaborative model that engages non-professional scientists in scientific research, leveraging their contributions to achieve large-scale data collection and fostering community engagement. Despite its successes, participant retention remains a critical challenge. Drawing upon the Octalysis Framework, this study examines the effectiveness of four intervention strategies—creation of an online ‘Community’, ‘Gamification’, highlighting the importance of ‘Individual Contribution’, and ‘Social feedback’—on sustained participation in an agricultural citizen science project. Data analysis revealed that ‘Community’, ‘Gamification’ and ‘Individual contribution’ significantly improved overall participation and reduced drop-out rates compared to the control group. Moreover, ‘Community’ demonstrated a particularly high retention rate during the challenging flowering stage, attributed to collaborative support. Regression analysis highlighted the influence of age on intervention effectiveness, with younger participants (18−34) responding most positively to ‘Gamification’, while middle-aged (46−55) participants responded very negatively to ‘Social feedback’, and senior participants (65 +) positively benefited from all interventions. These findings suggest that tailored intervention strategies can enhance long-term engagement in citizen science projects. By addressing both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations through targeted design interventions, project leaders can improve participant retention, ensuring the sustainability and success of citizen science initiatives. This study provides practical recommendations for optimizing engagement strategies across different project stages and demographic groups, offering valuable insights for future citizen science projects.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103981"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143102250","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-01DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103971
Alhassan Ibrahim, Keith Marshall, Esther Carmen, Kirsty L. Blackstock, Kerry A. Waylen
Working with people is inherent to Nature-Based Solutions (NbS). The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions (NbS) requires interventions to work with and for society, acknowledging and integrating stakeholder views in all aspects of NbS in landscapes. However, existing guidance on NbS does not fully reflect all the insights and guidance available from an extensive literature on stakeholder engagement, empowerment, participation and related concepts. This paper provides guidance on achieving stakeholder engagement in NbS, by using the literature to analyse the role of stakeholder engagement in eight NbS criteria of the IUCN Global Standard. Each criterion represents themes orienting engagement, briefly: (1) societal challenges, (2) design at scale, (3) biodiversity net-gain, (4) economic feasibility, (5) inclusive governance, (6) balancing trade-off (7) adaptive management and (8) sustainability and mainstreaming. We show it is imperative to clearly differentiate stakeholders and their differing roles in different aspects of NbS. Hence, for each criterion there should be: a clearly defined rationale (why), the different stakeholder groups (who), the stage of the project (when) and the appropriate pathways (how) by which stakeholders will be engaged. We conclude with a discussion on the implications of the framework for those planning, resourcing and enabling nature-based solutions. We emphasise stakeholder engagement as multidimensional, requiring reflexibility and attention to inclusivity, equity and transparency. We also highlight the wicked problems of stakeholder engagement, in terms of the need for political support, resource commitment and competence to make engagement in NbS fit-for-purpose.
{"title":"Raising standards for stakeholder engagement in Nature-based Solutions: Navigating the why, when, who and how","authors":"Alhassan Ibrahim, Keith Marshall, Esther Carmen, Kirsty L. Blackstock, Kerry A. Waylen","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103971","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103971","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Working with people is inherent to Nature-Based Solutions (NbS). The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions (NbS) requires interventions to work with and for society, acknowledging and integrating stakeholder views in all aspects of NbS in landscapes. However, existing guidance on NbS does not fully reflect all the insights and guidance available from an extensive literature on stakeholder engagement, empowerment, participation and related concepts. This paper provides guidance on achieving stakeholder engagement in NbS, by using the literature to analyse the role of stakeholder engagement in eight NbS criteria of the IUCN Global Standard. Each criterion represents themes orienting engagement, briefly: (1) societal challenges, (2) design at scale, (3) biodiversity net-gain, (4) economic feasibility, (5) inclusive governance, (6) balancing trade-off (7) adaptive management and (8) sustainability and mainstreaming. We show it is imperative to clearly differentiate stakeholders and their differing roles in different aspects of NbS. Hence, for each criterion there should be: a clearly defined rationale (why), the different stakeholder groups (who), the stage of the project (when) and the appropriate pathways (how) by which stakeholders will be engaged. We conclude with a discussion on the implications of the framework for those planning, resourcing and enabling nature-based solutions. We emphasise stakeholder engagement as multidimensional, requiring reflexibility and attention to inclusivity, equity and transparency. We also highlight the wicked problems of stakeholder engagement, in terms of the need for political support, resource commitment and competence to make engagement in NbS fit-for-purpose.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103971"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143102692","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-01DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103975
Ludovica Principato, Gaetano Pice, Alberto Pezzi
The adoption of Sustainable Healthy Diets (SHDs) plays a crucial role in both environmental sustainability and nutritional adequacy, preventing malnutrition, obesity, and natural resource degradation. Despite extensive research on sustainability, nutrition, and human behaviors related to food consumption, gaps remain in understanding how to effectively promote the adoption of SHDs, especially among vulnerable populations. This systematic literature review (SLR) identifies and analyzes drivers and barriers that influence the adoption of SHDs in high- and upper-middle-income countries, offering insights for policymakers and stakeholders to develop informed actions. A total of 156 studies were analyzed to extract insights into the ecological, economic, human health, and sociocultural dimensions, revealing 19 key driver themes, such as environmental and nutritional education and awareness, financial incentives, and community engagement. Conversely, 22 barriers were identified, including the high costs of adopting SHDs, social and cultural resistance to dietary changes, and limited access to nutritious options, especially in low-income areas. The proposed “SHDs Barriers & Drivers” framework offers an intuitive representation of these multifaceted factors, highlighting the central role of human behavior. Limitations include the potential exclusion of relevant studies due to specific keyword selection and the focus on high- and upper-middle-income countries. The research contributes to the existing literature by offering an innovative view of how to leverage the importance of tailored and multidisciplinary approaches to foster sustainable nutrition and achieve both global health and sustainability goals.
{"title":"Understanding food choices in sustainable healthy diets – A systematic literature review on behavioral drivers and barriers","authors":"Ludovica Principato, Gaetano Pice, Alberto Pezzi","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103975","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103975","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The adoption of Sustainable Healthy Diets (SHDs) plays a crucial role in both environmental sustainability and nutritional adequacy, preventing malnutrition, obesity, and natural resource degradation. Despite extensive research on sustainability, nutrition, and human behaviors related to food consumption, gaps remain in understanding how to effectively promote the adoption of SHDs, especially among vulnerable populations. This systematic literature review (SLR) identifies and analyzes drivers and barriers that influence the adoption of SHDs in high- and upper-middle-income countries, offering insights for policymakers and stakeholders to develop informed actions. A total of 156 studies were analyzed to extract insights into the ecological, economic, human health, and sociocultural dimensions, revealing 19 key driver themes, such as environmental and nutritional education and awareness, financial incentives, and community engagement. Conversely, 22 barriers were identified, including the high costs of adopting SHDs, social and cultural resistance to dietary changes, and limited access to nutritious options, especially in low-income areas. The proposed “SHDs Barriers & Drivers” framework offers an intuitive representation of these multifaceted factors, highlighting the central role of human behavior. Limitations include the potential exclusion of relevant studies due to specific keyword selection and the focus on high- and upper-middle-income countries. The research contributes to the existing literature by offering an innovative view of how to leverage the importance of tailored and multidisciplinary approaches to foster sustainable nutrition and achieve both global health and sustainability goals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103975"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143102254","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-01DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103964
Leyang Liu , Kwok Pan Chun , Ana Mijic
The significant differences between quality of life and resource use characterise a sustainability imbalance in current global development. Evidence shows that infrastructure development, environmental capacity, and resource dependence are three driving factors. These three factors should be investigated to reduce the imbalance in future development, so that people in all countries can live a better life supported by adequate resources, without causing significant environmental degradation over the globe. This study conceptualises and quantifies the three driving factors in the water-food-land nexus based on the global social-environmental datasets. The three factors are aggregated into a sustainability imbalance index as a national-scale indicator. Then we investigate statistical correlations among the factors to uncover their interdependencies as driving mechanisms. Results indicate that achieving a sustainability balance at a global scale needs to significantly narrow the infrastructure development gap, with countries’ resource dependence informed by their environmental capacity. We propose ‘responsible’, ‘moderate’, ‘ambitious’, and ‘flexible’ development pathways towards the sustainability balance and discuss their practical implementation constraints. Our results highlight the importance of coordinating the key development drivers, which should be supported by systems-level information. Implementing the pathways needs more enhanced global collaborations towards a brighter future for people and our precious planet.
{"title":"Towards sustainability balance in water-food-land nexus global development","authors":"Leyang Liu , Kwok Pan Chun , Ana Mijic","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103964","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103964","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The significant differences between quality of life and resource use characterise a sustainability imbalance in current global development. Evidence shows that infrastructure development, environmental capacity, and resource dependence are three driving factors. These three factors should be investigated to reduce the imbalance in future development, so that people in all countries can live a better life supported by adequate resources, without causing significant environmental degradation over the globe. This study conceptualises and quantifies the three driving factors in the water-food-land nexus based on the global social-environmental datasets. The three factors are aggregated into a sustainability imbalance index as a national-scale indicator. Then we investigate statistical correlations among the factors to uncover their interdependencies as driving mechanisms. Results indicate that achieving a sustainability balance at a global scale needs to significantly narrow the infrastructure development gap, with countries’ resource dependence informed by their environmental capacity. We propose ‘responsible’, ‘moderate’, ‘ambitious’, and ‘flexible’ development pathways towards the sustainability balance and discuss their practical implementation constraints. Our results highlight the importance of coordinating the key development drivers, which should be supported by systems-level information. Implementing the pathways needs more enhanced global collaborations towards a brighter future for people and our precious planet.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103964"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143102680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-01DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103972
Jofri Issac , Robert Newell , Runa Das
Food systems are highly vulnerable to the effects of anthropogenic climate change and environmental degradation. At the same time, food systems contribute significantly to the production of greenhouse gases that negatively impact ecosystems. Such a vicious cycle of cause and effect demands a transition to sustainable food systems, and this is best done through integrated planning and policy perspectives that tackle interconnected socioeconomic and environmental concerns and goals. This research applies systems thinking to map relationships among food systems planning and other sustainability priorities, namely those related to climate, biodiversity, and health. The study engaged stakeholders in the Comox Valley region, British Columbia, to develop a causal loop diagram, which was subsequently analyzed using the Girvan-Newman community detection algorithm to identify closely connected nodes or 'clusters'. The results of this work provide a comprehensive understanding of how local food systems' challenges and opportunities connect and integrate with other local and regional sustainability objectives. The research identified 123 systems nodes, which were organized into five categories: food, climate, biodiversity, health, and governance. The community detection method was applied to reveal 15 clusters among these nodes. The methodology employed in this research, integrating the development of a causal loop diagram and applying community detection, is novel and contributes to the growing body of literature advocating for an integrated planning approach to address the complex challenges facing local and regional food systems.
{"title":"A systems thinking approach to examine local food systems planning through a climate-biodiversity-health lens: A Comox Valley case study","authors":"Jofri Issac , Robert Newell , Runa Das","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103972","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103972","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Food systems are highly vulnerable to the effects of anthropogenic climate change and environmental degradation. At the same time, food systems contribute significantly to the production of greenhouse gases that negatively impact ecosystems. Such a vicious cycle of cause and effect demands a transition to sustainable food systems, and this is best done through integrated planning and policy perspectives that tackle interconnected socioeconomic and environmental concerns and goals. This research applies systems thinking to map relationships among food systems planning and other sustainability priorities, namely those related to climate, biodiversity, and health. The study engaged stakeholders in the Comox Valley region, British Columbia, to develop a causal loop diagram, which was subsequently analyzed using the Girvan-Newman community detection algorithm to identify closely connected nodes or 'clusters'. The results of this work provide a comprehensive understanding of how local food systems' challenges and opportunities connect and integrate with other local and regional sustainability objectives. The research identified 123 systems nodes, which were organized into five categories: food, climate, biodiversity, health, and governance. The community detection method was applied to reveal 15 clusters among these nodes. The methodology employed in this research, integrating the development of a causal loop diagram and applying community detection, is novel and contributes to the growing body of literature advocating for an integrated planning approach to address the complex challenges facing local and regional food systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103972"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143102249","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) have gained global attention for their transformative potential to simultaneously address biodiversity loss, climate change, and human well-being. However, there are concerns that dominant framings reinforce vested interests, marginalise alternative perspectives, and lead to persistent patterns of inequality and injustice. While participatory governance of NbS is widely acclaimed to support more equitable and ‘just’ outcomes, it is unclear to what extent the necessary changes can occur within dominant framings and approaches. To address this gap, this paper foregrounds the messy, contested, and discontinuous politics of sustainability transformations to explore how different framings influence the transformative potential of NbS. Drawing from interviews and a survey with NbS practitioners and policy makers in the UK, we critically unpack the interplay between techno-scientific and market-oriented approaches, risk and uncertainty, and participatory governance processes in shaping transformative NbS. Our findings demonstrate that, despite numerous efforts to rethink and reframe NbS, there remains a need to make space for different conceptualisations, practices, and alternative approaches to transformation. We suggest that this requires transcending dominant techno-market framings that demand certainty and control over sustainability outcomes, and caution against “democracy washing” through NbS that perpetuates superficial participation and unequal power relations. These debates indicate that transformational NbS will require an explicit recognition of these power inequalities and a commitment to cultivate and open up - rather than control and close down - alternative perspectives, pathways, and possibilities that foster justice and well-being for both humans and nature.
{"title":"Unpacking the politics of Nature-based Solutions governance: Making space for transformative change","authors":"Caitlin Hafferty , Emmanuel Selasi Tomude , Audrey Wagner , Constance McDermott , Mark Hirons","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103979","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103979","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Nature-based Solutions (NbS) have gained global attention for their transformative potential to simultaneously address biodiversity loss, climate change, and human well-being. However, there are concerns that dominant framings reinforce vested interests, marginalise alternative perspectives, and lead to persistent patterns of inequality and injustice. While participatory governance of NbS is widely acclaimed to support more equitable and ‘just’ outcomes, it is unclear to what extent the necessary changes can occur within dominant framings and approaches. To address this gap, this paper foregrounds the messy, contested, and discontinuous politics of sustainability transformations to explore how different framings influence the transformative potential of NbS. Drawing from interviews and a survey with NbS practitioners and policy makers in the UK, we critically unpack the interplay between techno-scientific and market-oriented approaches, risk and uncertainty, and participatory governance processes in shaping transformative NbS. Our findings demonstrate that, despite numerous efforts to rethink and reframe NbS, there remains a need to make space for different conceptualisations, practices, and alternative approaches to transformation. We suggest that this requires transcending dominant techno-market framings that demand certainty and control over sustainability outcomes, and caution against “democracy washing” through NbS that perpetuates superficial participation and unequal power relations. These debates indicate that transformational NbS will require an explicit recognition of these power inequalities and a commitment to cultivate and open up - rather than control and close down - alternative perspectives, pathways, and possibilities that foster justice and well-being for both humans and nature.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103979"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143102252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-01DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103958
Lina Hertzberg , Magnus Bergquist , Olorondu Winner Obianuju , Andreas Nilsson
Annually, millions of tons of plastic waste end up in rivers and the oceans, obstructing the surrounding ecosystems and resulting in substantial environmental degradation, as well as unforeseeable negative consequences for several species, including humans. In tackling this plastics crisis, the United Nations Environmental Assembly has decided to draft international legally binding instruments targeting the manufacture and use of problematic types of plastic waste. The implementation of plastic policies is considered a key component in tackling the ongoing plastic crisis and, with this, prevent future catastrophic consequences on the ecosystem caused by plastic pollution. Nevertheless, people’s willingness to accept these policies is paramount in achieving the intended goal. In this study, we examined social norms, institutional trust, and generalized trust as predictors of the acceptability of plastic policies in Sweden (N = 2006) and Brazil (N = 2002). Multiple hierarchical regression analyses showed that institutional trust, generalized trust, and social norms positively predicted acceptance in both countries. Consistent across countries, we found that social norms explained a noticeably larger proportion of the variance in acceptability than both institutional trust and generalized trust. These results advance past research on policy acceptability by a) assessing acceptability of a plastic policy, b) providing cross-cultural data, and c) showing that the well-studied determinant trust was less influential than the less-studied determinant social norms. These results stress the role of social norms, both for future research and for practical applications, encouraging further study on how social norms can be implemented to encourage acceptability of environmental policies.
{"title":"Acceptability of plastic policies: Cross-cultural insights on social norms and trust","authors":"Lina Hertzberg , Magnus Bergquist , Olorondu Winner Obianuju , Andreas Nilsson","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103958","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103958","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Annually, millions of tons of plastic waste end up in rivers and the oceans, obstructing the surrounding ecosystems and resulting in substantial environmental degradation, as well as unforeseeable negative consequences for several species, including humans. In tackling this plastics crisis, the United Nations Environmental Assembly has decided to draft international legally binding instruments targeting the manufacture and use of problematic types of plastic waste. The implementation of plastic policies is considered a key component in tackling the ongoing plastic crisis and, with this, prevent future catastrophic consequences on the ecosystem caused by plastic pollution. Nevertheless, people’s willingness to accept these policies is paramount in achieving the intended goal. In this study, we examined social norms, institutional trust, and generalized trust as predictors of the acceptability of plastic policies in Sweden (<em>N</em> = 2006) and Brazil (<em>N</em> = 2002). Multiple hierarchical regression analyses showed that institutional trust, generalized trust, and social norms positively predicted acceptance in both countries. Consistent across countries, we found that social norms explained a noticeably larger proportion of the variance in acceptability than both institutional trust and generalized trust. These results advance past research on policy acceptability by a) assessing acceptability of a plastic policy, b) providing cross-cultural data, and c) showing that the well-studied determinant trust was less influential than the less-studied determinant social norms. These results stress the role of social norms, both for future research and for practical applications, encouraging further study on how social norms can be implemented to encourage acceptability of environmental policies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103958"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143102679","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-01DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103977
Emily Cox , Robin Lim , Elspeth Spence , Melissa Payne , David Beerling , Nick Pidgeon
When upscaling novel techniques for Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), public attitudes are crucial, yet there is a serious lack of social science research outside of Western nations. CDR research can clearly benefit from maximising inclusion and opening up to diverse perspectives, including those of local communities, and ideally should involve public insight into the questions we should be prioritising. This paper reports results from a major deliberative study on public perceptions of CDR in Malaysia. We demonstrate a novel, transferrable methodology called “Question-Led Innovation”, in which lay public and local stakeholders are empowered to ask actionable questions on a novel intervention or innovation. These questions are then used as the basis for identifying priorities for future scientific research. We apply the methodology to a case study of CDR via Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) on tropical palm oil agriculture in Sabah. We find that much of the current research on ERW is actually in-line with what our participants most wanted to know about, particularly regarding the rock resource and its sources. Nevertheless, significant knowledge gaps remain, particularly on life-cycle CO2 emissions and sequestration, and impacts on aquatic life. Many questions also related to socio-economic factors, particularly around governance, regulation, and cost, therefore we argue that such topics should be a priority for future research. Embedding Question-Led Innovation into an ongoing programme of scientific research shapes the future of ERW research to prioritise questions which matter most to people on the ground.
{"title":"Question-Led Innovation: Public priorities for enhanced weathering research in Malaysia","authors":"Emily Cox , Robin Lim , Elspeth Spence , Melissa Payne , David Beerling , Nick Pidgeon","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103977","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103977","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>When upscaling novel techniques for Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), public attitudes are crucial, yet there is a serious lack of social science research outside of Western nations. CDR research can clearly benefit from maximising inclusion and opening up to diverse perspectives, including those of local communities, and ideally should involve public insight into the questions we should be prioritising. This paper reports results from a major deliberative study on public perceptions of CDR in Malaysia. We demonstrate a novel, transferrable methodology called “Question-Led Innovation”, in which lay public and local stakeholders are empowered to ask actionable questions on a novel intervention or innovation. These questions are then used as the basis for identifying priorities for future scientific research. We apply the methodology to a case study of CDR via Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) on tropical palm oil agriculture in Sabah. We find that much of the current research on ERW is actually in-line with what our participants most wanted to know about, particularly regarding the rock resource and its sources. Nevertheless, significant knowledge gaps remain, particularly on life-cycle CO<sub>2</sub> emissions and sequestration, and impacts on aquatic life. Many questions also related to socio-economic factors, particularly around governance, regulation, and cost, therefore we argue that such topics should be a priority for future research. Embedding Question-Led Innovation into an ongoing programme of scientific research shapes the future of ERW research to prioritise questions which matter most to people on the ground.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103977"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143102248","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-01DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103960
S. Archie , K. Hardaway , R. Peer , J. Fleming , TM. Logan
Many communities worldwide are retreating or preparing to retreat from hazardous areas due to climate change, but where they should relocate to needs careful consideration. The focus to date of “managed retreat,” has been on reducing detrimental and undesirable consequences. However, relocation also presents opportunities. Managing retreat should account not only for where people should be moved from but also where they could be moved to, in order to leverage the potential co-benefits and minimise the associated trade-offs. In this research article, we apply a multi-objective spatial optimisation methodology to Christchurch, New Zealand, to address these key research gaps. Our results demonstrate the trade-offs of various retreat strategies, illustrating the risks of pursuing myopic strategies. For instance, we show that a narrow coastal-retreat focus could lead to less accessibility to infrastructure than a more holistic retreat plan and, in fact, be in direct conflict with district zoning plans. However, too much focus on optimising accessibility leaves communities exposed to hazards. Our spatial optimisation approach highlights places for the government to prioritise development while managing retreat and establishes a fundamental tool for stakeholder engagement. Through this process, we present a way for communities to leverage synergistic opportunities for achieving adaptation, sustainability, and access for people, among the other, wide-ranging values of communities. The results make it clear that managed retreat planning needs to actively engage with the complexity of balancing risk exposure with wider societal goals.
{"title":"Strategic retreat: Balancing risk and societal goals in land-use planning","authors":"S. Archie , K. Hardaway , R. Peer , J. Fleming , TM. Logan","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103960","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103960","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Many communities worldwide are retreating or preparing to retreat from hazardous areas due to climate change, but where they should relocate to needs careful consideration. The focus to date of “managed retreat,” has been on reducing detrimental and undesirable consequences. However, relocation also presents opportunities. Managing retreat should account not only for where people should be moved from but also where they could be moved to, in order to leverage the potential co-benefits and minimise the associated trade-offs. In this research article, we apply a multi-objective spatial optimisation methodology to Christchurch, New Zealand, to address these key research gaps. Our results demonstrate the trade-offs of various retreat strategies, illustrating the risks of pursuing myopic strategies. For instance, we show that a narrow coastal-retreat focus could lead to less accessibility to infrastructure than a more holistic retreat plan and, in fact, be in direct conflict with district zoning plans. However, too much focus on optimising accessibility leaves communities exposed to hazards. Our spatial optimisation approach highlights places for the government to prioritise development while managing retreat and establishes a fundamental tool for stakeholder engagement. Through this process, we present a way for communities to leverage synergistic opportunities for achieving adaptation, sustainability, and access for people, among the other, wide-ranging values of communities. The results make it clear that managed retreat planning needs to actively engage with the complexity of balancing risk exposure with wider societal goals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103960"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143102681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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