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Climate change will result in large challenges that require societies to adapt to and manage increased risks. Regional practices of climate adaptation often take shape within multilevel governance networks in which representatives of different levels of government, policy sectors, public and private parties may discuss and negotiate potential measures. This paper aims to explore the role of leadership in enhancing the adaptive capacity of multilevel governance networks and in supporting regional practices of climate adaptation. The paper reviews two initiatives toward climate adaptation, the WaalWeelde initiative in the Netherlands and the Manhood Peninsula Partnership in the UK, based on policy documentation and analysis of in total 17 semistructured interviews with public and private actors. The study illustrates both the large differences in organization of water management, spatial planning, and flood risk policies, as well as strong similarities in the way in which leadership may contribute to the development of initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing new road infrastructure can be problematic in the face of environmental quality ambitions. These conflicts can even undermine the development of such new infrastructure, as occurred, for example, in the Netherlands in the mid-2000s as a result of European Union air quality standards. To govern the conflict between transport policies and air quality regulations, a National Cooperation Programme on Air Quality (NSL) was developed in The Netherlands. This programme relies on a collaborative governance approach between various government agencies on national, regional, and local levels. As such, it involves a relative shift away from central government coordination towards a reliance on more decentralized governance networks. Within these networks, coordination is expected to result from bottom-up self-governance processes by interacting actors that emerge from either competition and market processes or active actor participation. Theory shows two important risks of such a shift: (i) actors might behave opportunistically, and (ii) in case of problems, assigning problem ownership and responsibility to specific actors may be difficult. This paper aims to gain insight into the NSL's response to these risks. We monitored the NSL from 2009 to 2012, mainly through a series of interviews and expert workshops. Our research shows that the NSL contains the kind of 'checks and balances' that allows it to respond to the first risk. However, we will show that these mechanisms are merely expressions of intent. Furthermore, the NSL proves to be prone to the second identified risk, in that it is unclear who is responsible for the follow-up on these intentions, while rewards or sanctions are nonexistent. As it is, the NSL teaches us that, in order for more collaborative and decentralized forms of governance to function, involved actors on both central and lower levels of government paradoxically require coordinative instruments to enable coordination, to hold each other accountable for their performance, and to establish rules and sanctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we address the way boundary organizations can accommodate tensions in the science-politics interface. Literature on boundary organizations suggests that this type of organization can provide stability in science-politics interaction, but how these organizations function over a longer period of time is not a point of theoretical or empirical attention. We study a boundary organization, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (MNP), by analyzing the ideas that guided the foundation of the MNP and by analyzing two cases in which the MNP advised Dutch policy makers. In both cases the MNP had to adjust its boundary orientation because of changes in its institutional context. These findings show that the dynamics involved in boundary organizations should be included in academic research. We conclude by discussing two conceptual frameworks that may help to capture these dynamics: the notion of 'learning organizations' and a typology of roles of experts in politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in environmental policy integration (EPI) has recently been strong, both in the literature and in practice. We explore Dutch initiatives to integrate noise management into spatial planning policy in light of the body of literature on EPI. The main approaches of EPI are translated into a conceptual framework consisting of organizational, procedural, and contextual factors. The objective of this literature review is to relate paradigm shifts and policy innovations regarding noise management and spatial planning to empirical windows of opportunity for and barriers to implementation of EPI. It shows how instruments allowing a flexible approach and deviation from standards at the local level fit in with the discourse on decentralized and area-oriented policy. The analysis suggests that procedural and decision-making rules and organizational arrangements can bridge implementation gaps in local-level planning practice. However, EPI in the Netherlands has not solved the noise problem, and the number of affected inhabitants is increasing. We conclude the paper by examining the conceptual and normative issues affecting the integration and prioritization of noise management policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In water management and in spatial planning there is a debate on the fundamental underlying discourses of the policy domains. In Dutch water management an emergent discourse of ‘accommodating water’, which is competing with the traditional ‘battle against water’ discourse, can be seen. In Dutch spatial planning there is a debate on new practices of area-specific development planning, which are considered to reflect new ideas on spatiality better than the traditional Dutch planning doctrine. The authors discuss these recent developments, and attempt to analyse institutional changes with the help of the perspective of policy arrangements. The analysis is focused on the interrelations between the two policy arrangements, and both new ‘rules of the game’ and new policy practices are considered. The question is posed as to whether these practices are forerunners of new arrangements or do they merely reflect a revised policy and planning agenda of the existing institutional order? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Negotiated agreements are relatively new in the field of energy and environmental policies. In order to support the design of future negotiated agreements it is useful to discuss how environmentally effective negotiated agreements can be designed. Based on rational decisionmaking and economic theory, the OECD has put forward eight recommendations for designing pollution abatement schemes through negotiated agreements that set ambitious targets, ensure target achievement, and reach targets in an efficient way. Based on three cases of negotiated agreements regulating industrial energy consumption in Denmark, the Netherlands, and France, the adequacy of the OECD recommendations will be discussed. It is found that the recommendations should pay more attention to the question of efficiency of agreements and to the difficulties in defining unambiguous targets. Apart from these deficiencies it is concluded that the recommendations cover all phases, are soundly based in theory, and give a meaningful evaluation of negotiated agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines voluntary agreements, an environmental policy instrument in providing incentives for technological innovation on businesses in Netherlands. Effects of environmental taxes on firms innovations; Distinction between collective and individual voluntary initiatives; Accounts on the environment and economic theory of innovations.

Discusses policymaking in the Netherlands, in relation to fiscal centralism and local environmental policy. Examination of decentralization and resistance to reform; Analysis of fiscal centralism and environmental policy; Implementation of environmental policy in the urban areas.

Focuses on the decision by the Netherlands to combine spatial planning and certain policies in its environmental planning process. Objectives of this development; Indepth look at the conflicts associated with spatial planning and environmental policy; Information on the history of spatial planning in the Netherlands.