Environmental Policy and Governance最新文献

The paper shows that visions of the future can be used as a predictor of cooperation and division between actors in their efforts to shape the institutional environment, specifically policy in socio-technical systems. Accordingly, the paper suggests a new method to analyze visions: a virtual solution space in which visions can be grouped according to their similarity. The similarity of visions is calculated based on cluster analysis. Empirically, the paper focuses on the networks between industry associations in the heating transition in the German building sector. It shows that actors whose visions of future socio-technical system developments overlap are more likely to cooperate with each other. It also suggests that the fragmentation of the residential heating system in Germany is reflected in a fragmented actor network. Furthermore, the authors show that shared technological interests can outweigh similar visions. These fragmented technological interests hinder meaningful cooperation. This is potentially one reason why a powerful low-carbon heating coalition in Germany that could facilitate an accelerated deployment of low-carbon heat systems by driving policy change has not emerged to date. The paper contributes to a better understanding of how niche actors in sustainability transitions use their agency and specifically strategize to bring about institutional change. In this respect, the authors discuss how differing levels of system-fragmentation influence transition dynamics in general and institutional change dynamics in particular.

The reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+) mechanism is a climate change mitigation policy tool widely used in tropical forested countries that faces institutional and governance challenges in its implementation. Peru provides a particularly rich case study to analyze the agency of Amazonian Indigenous Peoples' organizations (IPOs) in the development of a national REDD+ policy. We examine the multi-scalar interaction between the Peruvian State and IPOs in the governance of REDD+, identifying the role of Amazonian Indigenous groups in this process. Drawing on socio-ecological governance and political economy approaches, we analyze data collected through interviews and participant observation. The article provides a case study of how IPOs work within the evolving governance system of REDD+ in Peru—both in responding to opportunities and in shaping the emergent system. Furthermore, it reveals that IPOs' rights and equity frame—deployed through several multi-scalar strategies—has finally found a place in Peru's REDD+ governance. This has resulted in a more pluralistic mode of coordination between the State and IPOs and in the increase of the socio-political empowerment of Indigenous Peoples. Our analysis suggests that Peru's REDD+ policies could progress toward more equitable outcomes through a true operationalization of cohesiveness and inclusiveness that encourages a meaningful relationship building between the state and Indigenous Peoples.

Norway, a significant petroleum producer and exporter, has been a frontrunner within policies for carbon capture and storage (CCS). As CCS is recognized as a key technology for achieving the Paris climate policy targets, there is a clear need for more knowledge about how to design successful projects. Norway's first CCS policy initiative, the ambitious Mongstad project, was the result of a political compromise that was imposed from above, basically with one single company in control. The project was largely seen as a failure and was terminated in 2013. However, instead of dropping ambitions for developing CCS projects, the authorities launched a new policy soon afterwards. This policy evolved with the differently organized Longship CCS project as its core. Using a path-dependency perspective, we find that established institutional structures from the Mongstad project, combined with national interests and expertise, help to explain the fundamental continuity of CCS policies in Norway. This explanation is supplemented by a policy-learning perspective, which helps to explain policy changes and differences between the two flagship CCS projects. The Longship project developed gradually ‘from below’; linked project responsibilities close to competences and interests; dealt with key risks separately to reduce the inherent complexity; and organized clear requirements up front. We hold that this way of designing CCS projects is of relevance to other countries considering CCS projects. Furthermore, by placing the Norwegian case in context of the development of EU and international climate policy we contribute a theoretical framework relevant also for subsequent research.

“Friendship dams” are an explicit, yet underexplored, materialization of hydropolitics that illustrate the potential role of water in international cooperation. Via a case study analysis of the Syria-Turkey Friendship Dam project proposed for the Asi/Orontes river, we trace the process of cooperation that led to the use of this notion of “friendship” in transboundary cooperation. Using a transversal analysis of different phases of cooperation and non-cooperation, we consider broad, big-picture political and diplomatic factors related to water and beyond. Our analysis shows that two key variables shaped how water was used as an instrument of cooperation in this case: (1) security and (2) the dynamics of international cooperation undertaken by the riparians, namely Turkey. The friendship dam label can be considered a manifestation of strategic international friendship that the two riparian countries invoked to achieve security and bilateral cooperation.

The development and implementation of extended producer responsibility (EPR) policies to manage e-waste provide multilevel governance frameworks for achieving greater material circularity. However, the roles and responsibilities that are allocated to various stakeholders under these policies, which are crucial for program effectiveness, often vary across jurisdictions, and consensus is lacking about the best types of relationships and collaboration that should govern municipalities' contributions to EPR programs. Against this backdrop, and since this issue is poorly researched, we conducted an empirical investigation to identify the main drivers and barriers influencing municipalities' collaboration with an e-waste EPR program in a Canadian province where municipalities are free to decide whether or not to engage with the program. Based on our study, we explore policy implications for similar programs in other jurisdictions, and propose questions for further research. Our findings identify key motivations for collaboration, including perceived program legitimacy, program funding, and logistical efficiencies. Conversely, a lack of program transparency, failure to support local employment, a focus on recycling instead of reuse, and limited program scope are identified as disincentives to program participation. Policymaking for e-waste management and circularity need to consider municipalities' interests and contributions to ensure successful implementation.

The literature on policy coherence (PC) examines contradictions and synergies between policies. This systematic review explores factors that facilitate or disrupt PC in the environmental field. Based on 70 empirical studies, this research describes the evolution of the PC literature, identifying eight critical PC factors. Furthermore, this study identifies six avenues for future research on PC, such as methodological innovations and including stakeholders in the policy development process. In addition to drawing on contradictions and synergies for PC analysis, this study suggests an integrative framework of barriers and enablers. These findings have implications for policymakers and program managers in the environmental field.

Effective governance of social-ecological systems (SES) is an enduring challenge, especially in coastal environments where accelerating impacts of climate change are increasing pressure on already stressed systems. While resilience is often proposed as a suitable framing to re-orient governance and management, the literature includes many different, and sometimes conflicting, definitions and ideas that influence how the concept is applied, especially in coastal environments. This study combines discourse analysis of the coastal governance literature and key informant interviews in Tasmania, Australia, demonstrating inconsistencies and confusion in the way that resilience is framed in coastal governance research and practice. We find that resilience is most often framed as (1) a rate of recovery from disturbance or (2) the process of acting in response to, or anticipation of, a disturbance. A third framing considers resilience as an emergent property of SESs. This framing, social-ecological resilience, accounts for multiple configurations of SES, which necessitates adaptation and transformation strategies to address changes across temporal and spatial scales. Coastal managers recognised the value of this third framing for governing coastal SESs, yet the confusion and inconsistency in the literature was also evident in how they understood and applied resilience in practice. Expanding the use of social-ecological resilience is essential for more effective coastal governance, given the dynamics of coastal SESs and the intensity of social, economic, and environmental drivers of change these systems face. However, this requires addressing the unclear, confused, and superficial use of resilience-oriented concepts in research and policy discourse.

The paper investigates the capacity of welfare policies to support sustainability transitions. Welfare policy involves the discussion on public and private responsibilities and choices in public spending. The Finnish government's decision to turn Finland into a carbon neutral welfare society by 2035 is interpreted as a possible sustainability transition. The government launched a social security reform at the same time as the carbon neutrality target was announced. It was assumed that one of the major reforms would be utilised to achieve the carbon neutrality target. The research material consists of administrative, policy and political documents. The chosen documents describe how the issues are presented in policymaking. The qualitative analyses focused on the frames. It was examined how the current problems of the system were framed because the frames guide the possible solutions. According to our analysis, the Finnish government showed strong political will for sustainability transition. However, one of its major reforms was not utilised to create policies to support the shift towards a carbon neutral welfare society. The political will did not convert into action on the social security reform. The main reason seems to be related to the strongly guiding legislative frame in the reform. The legislative frame impacted on the utilised knowledge, which focused solely on the system level of social security. It could have been useful to utilise research knowledge about large-scale reforms and how to formulate them cross-sectionally.

This article focuses on the policy implementation barriers that result in poor adaptation and enhanced risk of exposure to extreme vulnerabilities, based on experiences in Pakistan. A number of policy implementation barriers are identified including: (i) Whether policy development is seen as a closed or open consultation process, (ii) Whether policy is seen as a generic document or an instrument for specific actions, and (iii) Whether policy administration is seen as a central or devolved process. As a case study, Pakistan's national climate change policy was considered. Pakistan is the eighth most climate change impacted country in the world. The results conclude that a prevalent top-down frame of management, centred-around federalism, has created vacuums for misinterpretation, poor understanding amongst policy implementers and false expectations of policy goals. A critical aspect of this disconnect is the lack of inclusivity of critical stakeholder groups in the policy design and development stages thus creating various barriers resulting in mistrust between different governing entities and vice versa. The study also highlights the nature of this problem and recommends a closer examination of the prerequisites of engagement in climate decision-making for better understanding and implementation of adaptation practices in de-centralised governance.

This article assesses how adaptation governance within the eThekwini (Durban) metropolitan municipality, KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa, addresses the vulnerability and adaptation of black African women to flood impacts within the municipality. The article argues that there is an intersectional lens through which black local women's experiences of vulnerability to the impact of climate change disasters need to be understood and addressed. Qualitative research methodologies were employed to collect data through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with local black African women from four areas in Durban who have experienced frequent floods over the past years. Personnel from eThekwini municipality's Environmental Planning and Climate Protection Department and Disaster Management Department were also interviewed. The feminist political ecology perspective was used to unpack the nuances in power relations that engendered black African women's vulnerability and adaptation to flood impacts within the municipality. The study's findings revealed that the overall vulnerability experiences of black African women in Durban are shaped by factors relating to the lack of an ‘intentionally gendered’ approach to adaptation governance in the municipality. Adopting an intentional approach to adaptation governance is essential to inform policies responding to local black Africans' vulnerability and adaptation experiences within the study's context.