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The European Union (EU) has historically sought to influence environmental policies of other countries through multilateral environmental agreements. Under its 7th Environmental Action Plan and Trade for All strategy it now seeks to extend its environmental policy projection through trade; its recent free trade agreements now contain chapters addressing environment and sustainable development. However, by adopting high environmental standards the EU can also advance its own economic interests suggesting an ambiguous motivation. The recent Korean, Japanese and Canadian FTAs and the Mercosur agreements are examined in order to place the extent of this environmental turn within the context of economic advantage. The finding is that while environmental protection provisions in these FTAs may have environmental benefits, they may also serve EU domestic economic interests. This motivation has implications for new FTA negotiations, such as those with New Zealand and Australia, and now the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since Confederation in 1867, official Canadian settler government policy on the environment has sought to simultaneously preserve “wilderness” and exploit natural resources for market gain. In the 1960s, the nascent North American modern environmental movement pushed for stronger regulation on pollution and toxics - and a more institutionalised state-led response to environmental problems emerged. Throughout the last five decades, three principal “eras” of federal government reaction have emerged in response to mounting scientific evidence and public pressure to act on environmental issues. The first, from the late-1960s to mid-1980s, saw the development and implementation of early environmental policy and programmes. The second era, from the mid-1980s to mid-2000s co-occurred alongside the rise of the sustainable development paradigm, and is marked by the Canadian government’s attempt at leadership on the global stage. The third era, from the mid-2000s to 2015, demonstrates a shift from environmental regime-building and multilateral collaboration toward rollbacks and obstructionism. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the government of Canada reversed decades of progress and cooperation on the environment and sustainable development through its muzzling of government scientists, superficial co-optation of climate policy, rollbacks of environmental legislation and disparagement of environmental activists. In total, by shifting the federal government from a position of ineffective benevolence on environmental issues to one of contention and antagonism, the Harper government’s approach represents a departure from Canadian environmental governance norms and sought to remake the identity of Canada as an energy superpower inextricably tied to its oil and gas industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban sustainability is a priority for cities, challenging public administrators to coordinate action on environmental policy, economic development and social policy. Multilevel governance is now a popular theoretical framework but research must illuminate the constraints on local administrators. This case study reviews efforts of public administrators in the City of Ottawa and Canada's national capital region to implement sustainability policies with collaborative governance, but new governance relationships are constrained by traditional intergovernmental relations. Case study research illuminates the challenges of multilevel governance for local governments and provides insights on the pursuit of sustainability with environmental programs, land use, and urban and development by Crown corporations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canadian scholars know by heart the exhortation to think globally and act locally. Fewer, however, are familiar with the expansion of scientific knowledge and state policy that made it possible to think of the world as a global system and act on those beliefs. This article explores this interplay of scientific expertise, state power, and environmental politics by analyzing the Science Council of Canada (scc)'s "conserver society" of the 1970s. My research reveals how the scc, a Crown corporation, became a key player in Canadian environmentalism when it used the oil crisis and the Trudeau government's rationalizing reforms as an excuse to pioneer alternative development and to help Canadians grapple with the challenge of long-term sustainability. The article asserts that state experts played a central role in the construction of early forms of sustainability. Their efforts also highlight the multifaceted character of sustainable development as it promised to catalyze national growth, social change, and scientific achievement even as it protected Canadians' ecological future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines two fundamental and inter-related tensions relating to environmental assessment between the desire to be proactive, promoting sustainable development and the more traditional practice of preventing harm, as well as the need to balance a predictable, expeditious and efficient process with transparency and inclusive deliberation. Proposed reforms to the environmental assessment process in Ontario, Canada, are examined as a case in point, showing how the recommendations in Ontario are consistent with international trends. In particular, over-arching principles need to be embedded in more precise sector-specific policies to enable environmental assessment processes to meet these competing goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]