Environmental Science & Policy最新文献

Mitigation of black carbon (BC) is a potent short-term measure for climate and environmental policy due to the short lifetime of BC particles in the atmosphere. Fewer BC emissions would decelerate warming especially in the Arctic and bring significant co-benefits particularly in populous countries owing to BC’s negative public health, food security and socio-economic effects. However, scientific knowledge on BC remains uncertain regarding the measurement, monitoring and precise effects of BC while the respective global policy framework is fragmented. To address this situation, we scrutinize the science/policy nexus in BC mitigation on the regional level where some promising openings exist. For this end, our new analytical framework focuses on policy entrepreneurs, their interests and cognitive frames, and the structural environment. Utilising content analysis of expert interviews and document data, three cases are covered with significant policy entrepreneurship on BC. First, we examine Finland ‘s high-profile BC initiative, finding it to frame BC pollution as an Arctic climate threat. Second, Finland’s research, development and innovation cluster, which has substantial expertise on air pollution, frames BC as a public health hazard, and scopes prospects for policy frameworks helping to open markets for mitigation technologies and solutions. Third, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition approaches BC with a wide multipollutant frame, driven by broad socio-economic and developmental interests. The Finnish initiative’s potential is found to suffer from insufficient coordination with the RDI cluster. Both Finland’s BC specific and the CCAC’s wider multipollutant frame can in different ways contribute to abatement.

Biodiversity generally, and freshwater ecosystems specifically, are in decline on a global scale. Human behaviour underlies many threats to waterway health, and decision-makers are increasingly recognising the importance of involving community members in waterway conservation efforts. This research utilised an evidence-based protocol to identify and prioritise behaviours that community members could do to protect and enhance waterways in and around Melbourne, Australia. We identified 31 behaviours that are likely to have the most significant impact on waterway health, and prioritised these behaviours according to current uptake and likelihood of adoption (based on perceived mental effort, financial cost, and time cost). Results highlighted behaviours to target as a first priority – those with high impact / high likelihood / low current uptake – such as reporting pollution, construction site sediment, or stormwater waste to the relevant authority, as well as picking up litter. High priority behaviours that may require more targeted support to encourage adoption – those with high impact / low likelihood / low current uptake – include environmental volunteering, (landholders) installing watering stations in paddocks, and using environmentally friendly cleaning and garden products. Additional research is needed to understand key influences – drivers and barriers – for each behaviour. The findings can usefully inform policies and programs to encourage community participation in waterway conservation behaviours.

Global momentum to address plastic pollution has led to the development of national processes to monitor plastics into and within the environment. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide guidance for reporting on plastic pollution, although compiling national estimates remains a challenge. Data availability remains a key barrier, which could be addressed through engagement with the citizen science community, which collects and maintains data at a resolution suitable for SDG reporting. Here, we demonstrate a process that uses citizen science monitoring of plastic debris on beaches to report on SDGs at the national scale. The study uses the Australian Marine Debris Initiative (AMDI) Database, which is composed of data submissions from over 1400 organisations across Australia. The AMDI was used to provide initial estimates of plastic debris density both nationally and across Natural Resource Management areas (NRMs). Before analysis, the database was filtered for data quality and alignment with guidance for SDG reporting (i.e., SDG Indicator 14.1.1b), resulting in the analysis of 3144 events across 538 sites between 2014 and 2019 (inclusive). The average density of plastic debris on beaches across Australia was between 0.155 and 0.279 counts m⁻², with management relevant trends identified across NRMs. This study demonstrates the potential for the citizen science community to support SDG reporting and management processes, which could inform and enable actions to address plastic pollution.

Nature-based solutions (NbS) are a promising tool for combatting land degradation in the dry-lands of East Africa. These types of solutions are not new, however, and have a long history dating back to the colonial period. An understanding of the successes and failures of past efforts can provide valuable insights for current NbS projects. This study examines two specific dry-land areas of Kenya - Baringo and Kitui - which were the focus of much colonial effort at restoring degraded land. The study uses primary and secondary literature to examine these efforts through the lens of Nature-based Solutions. It then compares these projects with two modern restoration efforts in the same areas - namely sand dams and grazing enclosures. While both of the historical schemes had elements of NbS, they fell short in critical areas with respect to the implementation of the projects. The schemes failed to incorporate local communities into decision making processes to ensure long-term sustainability. Modern efforts overall do a better job at sustainable management - they deliberately seek stakeholder involvement - but they too fall short, often giving these stakeholders very little say in decision making processes. History can provide valuable lessons for implementers of NbS, as many of the solutions enacted today have antecedents in the past. The failure to involve stakeholders at all stages of a project is a lesson from history that continues to be learned.

Co-creation is at the intersection of Nature-based Solutions and Living Lab concepts, which adopt collaboration and innovation amongst different stakeholders to address complex issues such as climate change. Nature-based Solutions have been increasingly recognized for their potential to address diverse societal challenges in a multifunctional, action-oriented, and contextualized manner. Living Labs have proliferated as a participatory approach for the co-development and co-testing of Nature-based Solutions, particularly in Europe. Nevertheless, there is a persistent challenge regarding enhancing stakeholder engagement, which is recognized as crucial for the implementation of Nature-based Solutions. In this article, we examined ten empirical cases of Living Labs applying Nature-based Solutions to increase climate resilience in European coastal cities. We conducted an Interpretive Structural Modelling and Cross-impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification analysis methodology to systematically analyse and interrelate co-creation enablers. We have identified fifteen enablers to co-create Nature-based Solutions in Living Labs across five levels of influence among each other. A key finding is that ‘sharing and learning from real-life examples’ and ‘opening opportunities for informal inputs’ have the most driving power among the studied enablers. Having a robust engagement toolbox also appears to be a crucial point in enhancing co-creation. Exploring the potential of such enablers seems vital to fostering the co-creation of Nature-based Solutions within Living Labs. By understanding how enablers are interlinked and can be prioritized based on their driving and dependence powers, environmental managers can better use their resources and engage with their key stakeholders more successfully.

Trees have been growing on millions of hectares of abandoned farmland in Russia for decades but have only recently become an issue of political and public controversy. This controversy was sparked by a campaign promoting the legalisation and management of these hitherto informal forests and promising multiple socio-economic and ecological benefits by developing what we call “new forests”. Emphasising dormant potential and claiming win-win solutions meant a fundamental discursive shift away from abandoned farmland’s negative framing. We conducted a political discourse analysis of media coverage, campaigns, and legislation around “new forests” from 2013 through 2022. Our approach draws on an analysis of practical argumentation and a Science and Technology Studies (STS)-inspired issue-oriented perspective. We found that the controversy on the future use of this land was one of conflicting visions rather than actual land-use conflicts. Three camps developed, advocating private new forests, state-controlled forestry, and agricultural recultivation. We discuss how the new forest controversy reflects broader rationalities, and tensions between agriculture, forestry, carbon sequestration, and forest conservation that remain relevant even though circumstances for policies of farmland reuse in Russia have changed fundamentally since 2022.

Climate change presents a pervasive global threat to billions of people as well as ecosystems. Global mitigation policy failures mean we must now urgently adapt to projected climate impacts. While local government is expected to play a vital role in climate change adaptation, major breakdowns are occurring in local governments’ ability to implement adaptation responses. Studies point to the importance of two key factors underpinning successful municipal climate change adaptation – supportive leadership and an authorising environment for adaptation. But few studies provide in-depth analysis of these factors and how they play out in practice. This paper reports the results of research addressing this knowledge gap, drawing on analysis of leadership in four Australian local governments (municipal councils). Twenty-five local government elected officials, executive leaders, and staff required to operationalise leaders’ decisions were interviewed. Interviews examined leaders’ role and influence in climate change adaptation and their receptiveness to mainstreaming. Results show that whether leaders consider climate risk on their policy agenda is highly variable and subject to factors such as: public mood and community expectations; issue salience; the presence of dedicated policy entrepreneurs to champion a response; and focusing events that heighten the urgency of adaptation. We identify three concrete opportunities to mainstream municipal climate adaptation responses: enhance issue salience within leaders; leverage networks of influence; and strengthen formal systems of municipal climate governance.

In post-normal science (PNS), the emergence of extended peer communities (EPCs) is a key process to deal with problems involving high uncertainty, high stakes, disputed values, and urgent decisions. However, the challenges and opportunities related to the emergence of EPCs in contentious territories—such as many across the Global South—are poorly understood. Therefore, we conducted an investigation to address two research questions: (1) Are there any indispensable social, institutional, and/or techno-scientific conditions for the emergence of EPCs coherent with PNS? and (2) How can EPCs in contentious territories of the Global South overcome adverse contextual conditions for their emergence and development? We addressed our first question through interviews with world-renowned experts in post-normal science. To answer our second question, we conducted a case study and analyzed a public consultation process led by the municipal government of Morelia, Mexico, as an alleged effort to democratize decision-making regarding local environmental conservation strategies. Our results show that (1) In PNS, EPCs can emerge as evolving problem-resolution processes despite adverse contextual conditions, though they don’t necessarily solve problems or political controversies; and (2) EPCs are bounded by their contextual conditions, which in some contexts of the Global South—like Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America—can include violence, coercion, and large power imbalances. Yet, contextual conditions aren’t inherently challenges or opportunities for the emergence of EPCs. Therefore, we argue that in PNS (and related collaborative science approaches) it is crucial to analyze contextual conditions to strengthen EPCs.

After twenty years of arduous negotiations, in 2019 the European Union (EU) and the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) announced the conclusion of a landmark trade agreement. Celebratory fireworks, however, were soon replaced by less desirable signs of smoke: the burning of the Amazon and Cerrado biomes, which has placed the bi-regional partnership under close public scrutiny. Since then, a lively debate among scholars, policymakers, activists, and private sector stakeholders has unfolded in an effort to assess the economic, social, and environmental implications of the agreement. To contribute to this debate, we use the EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement (EMTA) as a case study to discuss the complexities of transitioning to a global green trade policy paradigm, questioning whether free trade agreements could effectively promote sustainable land use governance. Bearing in mind the current environmental footprint of EU imports of Brazilian commodities, we illustrate the challenges inherent to decoupling international agri-food trade and land conversion, examining the current estimates and projections regarding the EMTA's potential impact on land-use change in Brazil. We also investigate the sustainable development provisions in the EU-Mercosur agreement, reviewing its land conversion-related clauses. While the EMTA has limitations common to other free trade agreements, it could be a useful additional tool for improving sustainability governance in the existing trade between the two regions by establishing a structured and legally stable platform for cooperation and implementing joint initiatives. The EMTA could set a positive benchmark for future free trade agreements that Mercosur might negotiate with other countries that are larger importers of agricultural commodities.

The increased threat of more frequent extreme climatic events (ECEs) poses significant challenges to household crops and livestock production, exacerbated by their weak adaptability. To explore ways to improve households’ adaptation awareness and behaviors, a typical agro-pastoral ecotone on the northeastern QinghaiTibet Plateau (QTP), Gonghe Sandy Land (GSL), was selected as the study area. This study analyses the impact of ECEs, and the adaptation measures taken by households, and innovatively includes the perception of government services from households in the factor system to identify the key driving mechanism of coping strategies. The results revealed that (1) 74.07 % of households experienced an extreme drought, and livestock production was 29.63 % more affected than crop production was; (2) households adopted different adaptation strategies with weather forecasts being the prevailing measure among households for crop (25.93 %) and livestock (42.33 %) production adaptation; and (3) different strategies are key to improving adaptive capacity. We found that production experience sharing, demographic and economic coordination, and early warning system and support by the government can increase farmers' awareness of adaptation strategies. While enhancing cognitive levels regarding measures, optimizing a household’s health, rationally allocating assets, and increasing timely and stable government services can improve adaptive behaviors. On the basis of these findings, this study provides recommendations from the perspective of human well-being, with the aim to achieving the SDGs, enhancing regional climate change adaptation capacity and ensuring the safety and efficiency of crop and livestock production in the QTP.