Pub Date : 2025-06-02DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2025.100264
Magdalena Bexell , Basil Bornemann , Enayat A. Moallemi , Ha B. Vien
Despite a growing body of research on the role of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the local level, knowledge on how they are taken up in local governance processes remains limited. This article contributes to knowledge on SDG implementation by examining how the SDGs can contribute to governance change at the local level. We develop a process-oriented analytical framework that examines SDG-induced governance change along four stages: how the SDGs affect local governance arrangements (exposure), set them in motion (resonance), and change their structures (adaptation) and mode of operation (transformation). On this basis, we analyze existing empirical case studies to identify patterns of SDG-induced governance change, as well as facilitating and constraining factors. We identify three overarching tensions - between global aspirations and local realities, institutional continuity and change, and long-term and short-term policy horizons, that shape SDG-induced local governance change and must be navigated to accelerate SDG implementation.
{"title":"Accelerating the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals at the local level: Unpacking governance processes and tensions","authors":"Magdalena Bexell , Basil Bornemann , Enayat A. Moallemi , Ha B. Vien","doi":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100264","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100264","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite a growing body of research on the role of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the local level, knowledge on how they are taken up in local governance processes remains limited. This article contributes to knowledge on SDG implementation by examining how the SDGs can contribute to governance change at the local level. We develop a process-oriented analytical framework that examines SDG-induced governance change along four stages: how the SDGs affect local governance arrangements (exposure), set them in motion (resonance), and change their structures (adaptation) and mode of operation (transformation). On this basis, we analyze existing empirical case studies to identify patterns of SDG-induced governance change, as well as facilitating and constraining factors. We identify three overarching tensions - between global aspirations and local realities, institutional continuity and change, and long-term and short-term policy horizons, that shape SDG-induced local governance change and must be navigated to accelerate SDG implementation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33685,"journal":{"name":"Earth System Governance","volume":"25 ","pages":"Article 100264"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144195132","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-05-28DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2025.100254
Jamie Michaels , Jean-Frédéric Morin
This Perspective examines the interplay between natural and political systems. Drawing on first-hand experience and recent studies, it employs various graphic novel techniques to illustrate feedback loops that connect the expansion of extractive industries into the urban-wildland interface, the incidence of human-induced wildfires, the use of prohibition policies in wildfire management to protect specific assets, the accumulation of combustible materials, the emission of greenhouse gases from wildfires, and the acceleration of climate change. However, it challenges the notion of endless self-reinforcing vicious cycles by demonstrating how shifts in asset valuation can catalyze a new politics of climate change. Forestry might become a potential vanguard example of an industry shifting its self-perceptions and political alignments in the face of more climate change induced wildfires. This transdisciplinary artistic Perspective builds on and speaks to research in the fields of forest management, climate politics, wildfire sociology, and human ecology.
{"title":"Assets and Ashes: Wildfire management and the politics of climate change","authors":"Jamie Michaels , Jean-Frédéric Morin","doi":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100254","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100254","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This Perspective examines the interplay between natural and political systems. Drawing on first-hand experience and recent studies, it employs various graphic novel techniques to illustrate feedback loops that connect the expansion of extractive industries into the urban-wildland interface, the incidence of human-induced wildfires, the use of prohibition policies in wildfire management to protect specific assets, the accumulation of combustible materials, the emission of greenhouse gases from wildfires, and the acceleration of climate change. However, it challenges the notion of endless self-reinforcing vicious cycles by demonstrating how shifts in asset valuation can catalyze a new politics of climate change. Forestry might become a potential vanguard example of an industry shifting its self-perceptions and political alignments in the face of more climate change induced wildfires. This transdisciplinary artistic Perspective builds on and speaks to research in the fields of forest management, climate politics, wildfire sociology, and human ecology.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33685,"journal":{"name":"Earth System Governance","volume":"25 ","pages":"Article 100254"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144146703","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-05-24DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2025.100256
Amandine Orsini, Juan Felipe Duque
{"title":"Where are Global South youth? Youth interest, identities and participation in global biodiversity governance","authors":"Amandine Orsini, Juan Felipe Duque","doi":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100256","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100256","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":33685,"journal":{"name":"Earth System Governance","volume":"25 ","pages":"Article 100256"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144125123","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-05-24DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2025.100261
Vincent de Gooyert , Senni Määttä , Sandrino Smeets , Heleen de Coninck
Emission reductions needed to reach the Paris Agreement goals rely heavily on carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS). However, CCS implementation is lagging due to complex interactions of societal and technological factors. Attempts to enhance CCS implementation focus primarily on lowering technological and economic barriers, assuming that societal support will develop if public awareness is increased. This, however, overlooks the interdependence between CCS public support, policy action and industrial implementation. Productive interaction between these factors requires mutual trust between stakeholders. Scaling up the technology will thus require appreciating the mutual dependencies and nurturing trust. Genuine investments in public trust go beyond ‘educating the public’, supporting deliberative initiatives instead and allowing for real influence of relevant stakeholders. Our recommendations include designing inclusive engagement processes, safeguarding public participation rights, involving independent scientific expertise, supporting deliberative initiatives like citizen assemblies, and fostering transparency through community-led platforms to build trust in CCS implementation.
{"title":"Investing in trust is crucial for a well-functioning European carbon market","authors":"Vincent de Gooyert , Senni Määttä , Sandrino Smeets , Heleen de Coninck","doi":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100261","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100261","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Emission reductions needed to reach the Paris Agreement goals rely heavily on carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS). However, CCS implementation is lagging due to complex interactions of societal and technological factors. Attempts to enhance CCS implementation focus primarily on lowering technological and economic barriers, assuming that societal support will develop if public awareness is increased. This, however, overlooks the interdependence between CCS public support, policy action and industrial implementation. Productive interaction between these factors requires mutual trust between stakeholders. Scaling up the technology will thus require appreciating the mutual dependencies and nurturing trust. Genuine investments in public trust go beyond ‘educating the public’, supporting deliberative initiatives instead and allowing for real influence of relevant stakeholders. Our recommendations include designing inclusive engagement processes, safeguarding public participation rights, involving independent scientific expertise, supporting deliberative initiatives like citizen assemblies, and fostering transparency through community-led platforms to build trust in CCS implementation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33685,"journal":{"name":"Earth System Governance","volume":"25 ","pages":"Article 100261"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144125129","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-05-20DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2025.100259
Fariborz Zelli
With 23,000 registered participants and unprecedented media attention, the 16th conference of the parties (COP) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Cali, Colombia, was the largest in the 32-year history of these biannual meetings.
In terms of successes, the Cali conference established a new subsidiary body to protect concerns of indigenous communities and local populations as defenders of nature, along with a new voluntary mechanism on benefit-sharing. The Cali COP may also be remembered for its civil society zone which turned into a vibrant platform of social and cultural encounters.
On a more critical note though, negotiations in Cali shared the fate of the climate COP in Baku just two weeks later and, arguably, of inflated environmental summits in general. They were slowed down by typical bargaining strategies and stalemates and failed to address crucial implementation, financing and review gaps.
While the conference was suspended unceremoniously on November 2, 2024, the much more concise resumed sessions in December 2024 and February 2025 achieved crucial breakthroughs on these matters.
A lesson learned from these turnarounds is to complement larger COPs more regularly with smaller and solution-oriented meetings with decision-making power – instead of using such formats only for firefighting. Moreover, to avoid exaggerated greenwashing and lobbying like in Cali, future COPs should exhibit a more equitable representation of non-governmental actors and benefit from a more careful selection process of conference venues.
{"title":"Groundhog Day at the 2024 United Nations biodiversity conference: What COP 16 can teach us for reforming environmental summits","authors":"Fariborz Zelli","doi":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100259","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100259","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With 23,000 registered participants and unprecedented media attention, the 16th conference of the parties (COP) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Cali, Colombia, was the largest in the 32-year history of these biannual meetings.</div><div>In terms of successes, the Cali conference established a new subsidiary body to protect concerns of indigenous communities and local populations as defenders of nature, along with a new voluntary mechanism on benefit-sharing. The Cali COP may also be remembered for its civil society zone which turned into a vibrant platform of social and cultural encounters.</div><div>On a more critical note though, negotiations in Cali shared the fate of the climate COP in Baku just two weeks later and, arguably, of inflated environmental summits in general. They were slowed down by typical bargaining strategies and stalemates and failed to address crucial implementation, financing and review gaps.</div><div>While the conference was suspended unceremoniously on November 2, 2024, the much more concise resumed sessions in December 2024 and February 2025 achieved crucial breakthroughs on these matters.</div><div>A lesson learned from these turnarounds is to complement larger COPs more regularly with smaller and solution-oriented meetings with decision-making power – instead of using such formats only for firefighting. Moreover, to avoid exaggerated greenwashing and lobbying like in Cali, future COPs should exhibit a more equitable representation of non-governmental actors and benefit from a more careful selection process of conference venues.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33685,"journal":{"name":"Earth System Governance","volume":"25 ","pages":"Article 100259"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144089917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-05-16DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2025.100258
María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés
{"title":"Beyond Vulnerability: Reimagining the Global South's agency in environmental governance","authors":"María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés","doi":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100258","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100258","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":33685,"journal":{"name":"Earth System Governance","volume":"25 ","pages":"Article 100258"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144071145","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-01DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2025.100253
Carlos Andres Gallegos-Riofrío , Mario A. Moncayo-Altamirano , Andrea Terán-Valdez , Gustavo Redin-Guerrero , Carlos Varela , Stephen Posner , Amaya Carrasco-Torrontegui
Pachamama, Mother Earth, faces a mass extinction threat. A radical transformation in human systems is essential, guided by equity and justice at local and global scales. This transformation must reconfigure the World-System's power structures, impacting the ecosphere (ecological functions, biodiversity, and resource regimes) and the ethnosphere (ontological, epistemological, and legal pluralism). Together, these shape the Pluriverse—a planet of many worlds. The status quo is unsustainable. Effective solutions must prioritize a just transition that integrates the pluriverse. Alternatives from the so-called Global South offer valuable tools for this shift, such as the Rights of Nature, which views nature as a rights-bearing entity, not merely an object of regulation. The Llurimagua case—a dispute over a mining concession in Ecuador's cloud forest—illustrates this approach, providing a unique opportunity to rethink Earth System Governance and address the Anthropocene Gap (i.e., disconnect with Earth System Law), crucial for tackling planetary health challenges.
{"title":"Frogs, coalitions, and mining: Transformative insights for planetary health and earth system law from Ecuador's struggle to enforce Nature's rights","authors":"Carlos Andres Gallegos-Riofrío , Mario A. Moncayo-Altamirano , Andrea Terán-Valdez , Gustavo Redin-Guerrero , Carlos Varela , Stephen Posner , Amaya Carrasco-Torrontegui","doi":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100253","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100253","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Pachamama, Mother Earth, faces a mass extinction threat. A radical transformation in human systems is essential, guided by equity and justice at local and global scales. This transformation must reconfigure the World-System's power structures, impacting the ecosphere (ecological functions, biodiversity, and resource regimes) and the ethnosphere (ontological, epistemological, and legal pluralism). Together, these shape the Pluriverse—a planet of many worlds. The status quo is unsustainable. Effective solutions must prioritize a just transition that integrates the pluriverse. Alternatives from the so-called Global South offer valuable tools for this shift, such as the Rights of Nature, which views nature as a rights-bearing entity, not merely an object of regulation. The Llurimagua case—a dispute over a mining concession in Ecuador's cloud forest—illustrates this approach, providing a unique opportunity to rethink Earth System Governance and address the Anthropocene Gap (i.e., disconnect with Earth System Law), crucial for tackling planetary health challenges.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33685,"journal":{"name":"Earth System Governance","volume":"24 ","pages":"Article 100253"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143850097","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-01DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2025.100255
W. Pieter Pauw
{"title":"The three missed opportunities of the UNFCCC's New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance","authors":"W. Pieter Pauw","doi":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100255","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100255","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":33685,"journal":{"name":"Earth System Governance","volume":"24 ","pages":"Article 100255"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143830094","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-03-25DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2025.100251
Augusto Heras , Joyeeta Gupta
On the G77's 60th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of the Declaration for a New International Economic Order, this paper explores the enduring complexities of North-South relations in development and climate governance. We ask: What is the continuing relevance of the North-South narrative in Earth System Governance and climate change? Utilising North-South literature, this paper examines these relations and responsibilities, emphasising the need to decolonise ESG by challenging entrenched power structures in climate governance. The analysis concludes: (a) the North-South dynamic is a flexible dichotomy reflecting the dominance of powerful nations/actors over the less powerful; (b) recurring patterns of North-South behaviour in controlling forums, agendas, and decisions marginalise Southern perspectives; and (c) such imbalances result in failures to govern ecological and social problems, while the North risks losing control over them. Without a more just approach addressing the North-South dichotomy, we all risk losing a stable and predictable climate.
{"title":"North-south relations, responsibilities, and agendas in Earth System Governance: Have these changed in the Anthropocene?","authors":"Augusto Heras , Joyeeta Gupta","doi":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100251","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100251","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>On the G77's 60<sup>th</sup> anniversary and the 50<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the Declaration for a New International Economic Order, this paper explores the enduring complexities of North-South relations in development and climate governance. We ask: <em>What is the continuing relevance of the North-South narrative in Earth System Governance and climate change?</em> Utilising North-South literature, this paper examines these relations and responsibilities, emphasising the need to decolonise ESG by challenging entrenched power structures in climate governance. The analysis concludes: (a) the North-South dynamic is a flexible dichotomy reflecting the dominance of powerful nations/actors over the less powerful; (b) recurring patterns of North-South behaviour in controlling forums, agendas, and decisions marginalise Southern perspectives; and (c) such imbalances result in failures to govern ecological and social problems, while the North risks losing control over them. Without a more just approach addressing the North-South dichotomy, we all risk losing a stable and predictable climate.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33685,"journal":{"name":"Earth System Governance","volume":"24 ","pages":"Article 100251"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143696992","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-03-19DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2025.100252
Matteo Roggero , Jan Kilian Fjornes , Klaus Eisenack
Cities have taken center stage in the fight against climate change. Research identified key conditions shaping how cities tackle climate change but hasn't yet addressed how such conditions interact in order to reduce emissions. The present paper contributes to filling this gap through a crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis of 34 CDP-reporting cities, identifying combinations of institutional and socioeconomic factors that are systematically associated with emission reductions. Results show emission reductions both in presence and in absence of favorable socioeconomic conditions. Under favorable socioeconomic conditions, institutions seem central to the task of steering the capacities of the local business community and reaping scale benefits. Under unfavorable socioeconomic conditions, institutions seemingly play a key role in gathering resources, reaching out to broader networks on the international stage. Implications for policy and research are explored.
{"title":"Explaining emission reductions in cities: Configurations of socioeconomic and institutional factors","authors":"Matteo Roggero , Jan Kilian Fjornes , Klaus Eisenack","doi":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100252","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100252","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cities have taken center stage in the fight against climate change. Research identified key conditions shaping how cities tackle climate change but hasn't yet addressed how such conditions interact in order to reduce emissions. The present paper contributes to filling this gap through a crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis of 34 CDP-reporting cities, identifying combinations of institutional and socioeconomic factors that are systematically associated with emission reductions. Results show emission reductions both in presence and in absence of favorable socioeconomic conditions. Under favorable socioeconomic conditions, institutions seem central to the task of steering the capacities of the local business community and reaping scale benefits. Under unfavorable socioeconomic conditions, institutions seemingly play a key role in gathering resources, reaching out to broader networks on the international stage. Implications for policy and research are explored.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33685,"journal":{"name":"Earth System Governance","volume":"24 ","pages":"Article 100252"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143654667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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