Environmental Policy and Governance最新文献

A growing interest in the justice implications of sustainability transitions among politicians and other decision-makers as well as researchers has given rise to a wealth of case studies, analyses and theorisations of justice in transition governance. Many of these provide much-needed insight into the roles of (in)justice in processes of societal change, suggesting that the translation of justice into practice reaches far beyond the distributive question of who needs to be compensated or supported. In this discussion piece, we take a discursive perspective to unpack some of the tensions arising from the complex, normative aspirations of a just transition and show how discursive performances of the just transition and its negotiation in concrete policy terms hinder the realisation of its visionary potential. To do so, we synthesise findings from seven empirical studies to examine the discursive structures and strategies that interact in the making of a ‘just transition’ in Scotland and Sweden. In particular, we explore three sites of discursive struggle that represent, as we argue, fundamental challenges around justice in transition governance, namely questions related to (i) justice for whom, (ii) compensation and a focus on distribution instead of recognition, and (iii) justice versus (carbon) effectiveness of governance interventions. Our analysis traces how these sites of struggle are constituted by an interplay between discursive manifestations of both ‘justice’ and ‘transition’ as well as closely related concepts such as ‘freedom’, which together work to stifle a more diverse, open, and change-oriented societal debate on the meaning of a just transition.

Through the Just Transition Fund, the EU aims to support regions that face unemployment and declining welfare due to the green transition, primarily by supporting diversification of the economy. In northern Sweden, the fund targets the steel industry. We investigate how the allocation of the Fund is understood and justified by the EU, Swedish national-level authorities, the steel industry, and residents, including workers, to support a sector not at direct risk of closure and already dominating the regional economy. Our study finds that the following assumptions underlie this allocation: that the green transition means reducing emissions; and that achieving justice in transition means supporting large industries, such as the steel industry, to secure regional jobs. Taken together, justice in transition is framed as climate-change mitigation support for high-emitting companies to ensure regional welfare. Described as rational and effective, actors at all levels view this as a logical choice for allocation. This frame is challenged, however, as residents fear that prioritizing large-scale industrial development risks deepening local injustices, through deteriorating public services, increasing local tensions around Sámi land rights, shortages of housing and labour force, and growing power asymmetries between industry and municipality. Our study shows what ‘justice’ and ‘transition’ are made to be in the implementation of the Just Transition Fund in northern Sweden, and how these reflect but also diverge from the overarching narrative of the European green transition.

Transnational municipal networks (TMNs) such as C40 or ICLEI have been posited to foster city-to-city learning in accelerating climate change mitigation and, thereby, facilitating the transition to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. However, the existing literature on the role of climate networks has hardly examined the relationship between membership and climate change mitigation outcomes and impact, without which it is premature to be optimistic about TMNs role in the net-zero transition. In this article, we address this gap through a mixed methods analysis in the case of the C40 cities initiative. We combine a staggered difference-in-differences regression to shed light on the relationship between membership in the C40 initiative and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions during 2002–18 in over 700 OECD cities with a qualitative cross-case analysis of Bogotá, Colombia and Copenhagen, Denmark to unpack how and when the C40 initiative influences climate action at the city level. Results show that there is no statistically significant relationship between C40 membership and CO₂ emissions, indicating that cities in the C40 initiative may not have reduced CO₂ emissions more than other OECD cities, after controlling for socioeconomic characteristics, weather, country characteristics, city fixed effects, time fixed effects, and city-specific annual time trends. Furthermore, the complementary qualitative analysis showed the C40 network's direct intervention is limited to increasing or maintaining the ambition of cities; the network was found to have limited influence on city-level policy planning and implementation. There is a need to further study and address local policy implementation for realizing net-zero in relation to TMN membership.

A mounting body of scientific evidence emphasizes the necessity of sufficiency as a sustainability strategy in view of intensifying global ecological crises. To enable and promote sufficiency implementation with the necessary speed and scope, efforts at all policy levels are needed. This includes the municipal level, which has received relatively little attention from sufficiency scholarship thus far, and when it has, the rural context has been excluded. To address this research gap, we pose the following questions: What sufficiency policies can we identify in rural municipalities and, more specifically, which sectors, sufficiency types, and policy measure types are covered? What are the enablers and barriers for sufficiency policies in rural municipalities? Taking Switzerland as an example, we conducted 46 semistructured expert interviews with decision-makers from 46 rural municipalities and analyzed the data using qualitative content analysis. We identified and categorized 542 municipal sufficiency policy measures in various sectors, encompassing different types of sufficiency and policy measures. Most of these relate to the mobility sector and employ the instrument of public spending. Enablers of sufficiency policy include pro-environmental attitudes and individual resources of elected politicians, co-benefits of sufficiency measures, and appropriate communication and participation. The barriers we identified include a lack of municipal resources, low acceptance—and the apprehension thereof—among local citizens, social norms, and habits opposing sufficiency, and the absence of a legal mandate. Despite the large number of small-scale measures, a general policy orientation toward sufficiency cannot be identified.

Hofmann, B., M. Fischer, K. Ingold, E. Lieberherr, and S. Hoffmann. 2025. “Knowledge Cumulation at Science-Policy Interfaces: Opportunities for Environmental Governance Research.” Environmental Policy and Governance 35: 538–546. https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.2155.

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The emerging “Blue Economy” and “Blue Growth” paradigms, focusing on economic growth, innovations, and environmental sustainability, have increasingly dominated discussions on marine and coastal development. However, in this discourse, the future of small-scale blue food systems often remains underemphasized and increasingly uncertain. This paper explores the potential of social innovation approaches as tools to support a collective and inclusive transformation within blue food systems in the blue economy. We draw on a case study of a female-led social enterprise in The Gambia—the TRY Oyster Women's Association (TRY)—to highlight the social innovation pathways for small-scale blue food systems transformation. The study shows that social innovation through institutional changes, participatory governance, emerging institutional entrepreneurs, and financial resource mobilization and support facilitates effective natural resources management, environmental stewardship, and social and economic inclusion within small-scale blue food systems. Importantly, the granting of TRY's exclusive user rights through a national Fishery Act has facilitated community engagement in sustainable management of the oyster shellfish and mangroves in The Gambia. Also, TRY promotes community empowerment and social cohesion through social learning and capacity-building initiatives with financial and technical support from external partners enabling the association to thrive as a social enterprise. The paper underscores the significance of social innovation in steering successful transformation within small-scale blue food systems, fostering environmental and inclusive resource management in the blue economy with applicability in similar geographical contexts.

The scale of energy service demands and the efficiency with which they are provided determine the size of energy systems. As most modern energy systems are powered predominantly by fossil fuels, the size of the system determines the scale of the decarbonisation challenge enshrined in net-zero targets. It is commonly acknowledged that energy demand reduction, and the consequent reduction in size of the energy system, represents the lowest-cost, lowest-risk option for lowering emissions. Energy demand reductions arise from increasing the efficiency of providing energy services and avoiding such services in the first place. In the United Kingdom, however, government support for such energy demand reduction has stalled in recent years, especially in the context of housing. Expanding and diversifying energy supply resources, technologies and markets, on the other hand, receive strong political support, and increasingly so following Russia's invasion of the Ukraine and associated energy security challenges. The nature of this increasing policy asymmetry between energy demand and supply in the United Kingdom vis-à-vis the EU27 between February and October 2022 is analysed using comparative secondary data in the context of the quasi-natural experimental conditions imposed by Russia's invasion. Primary data, mainly derived from interviews, is used to identify the drivers of this policy asymmetry in the United Kingdom with a particular focus on ideology and institutions. The results indicate to that extreme free-market ideologies and institutions have been significant drivers of energy policy asymmetry during this period to the detriment of both the efficiency of the residential building stock and energy system decarbonisation.

In this study, we analyze how energy efficiency actions, policies, and outcomes are tied to wider socio-economic and political contexts that are important from a sustainable energy transition perspective. In our two-part study, we first conduct a bibliometric analysis of 206 publications to identify some of the dominant discourses in the literary construction of energy efficiency actions and outcomes from a sustainable energy transition policy perspective using keywords–energy efficiency, energy policy, sustainable transition, political, conflict, consumption, and equity. Next, we identify and take up five comparatively understudied themes to understand the how and why questions surrounding residential energy efficiency actions, policies, and outcomes for sustainable transition-(i) efficiency versus consumption; (ii) barriers and conflicts at the individual, household, and institutional levels; (iii) policy processes and heterogeneity; (iv) demonstrable savings versus normative ethics and equity ideals; and (v) public policy and market-based frameworks. Using a multi-disciplinary lens, we explore the underlying paradigms, dynamics, synergies, and trade-offs between different actors, institutions, and situational contexts influencing complex energy efficiency policy processes. We note the role of bargaining, negotiations, and political dynamics as important elements of policy processes that influence adoption, applicability, and jurisdictions of energy efficiency policies. Our study also highlights the need for policies that target absolute energy consumption and careful balancing of socially equitable objectives with economically efficient outcomes in a market-based framework. We believe that a better understanding and comprehensive discussion of these challenges will inform policymaking and ensure better outcomes.