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This paper presents a comparative analysis of the use of climate science for adaptation policy in Queensland, Australia and the UK. We examine policy players’ perceptions of climate science alongside prevailing political influences on evidence-based policy making. In Queensland, the evidence-based mandate has been weakened by partisan politics so that the political acceptability of evidence is a foremost concern for policy makers. In the UK, the evidence-based mandate is enshrined in the Climate Change Act (2008), yet here too political forces have sought to limit the acceptable use of climate science for policy making. Both cases reveal normative and political tensions in the interpretation and use of climate science, suggesting that important political challenges must be overcome by the scientific community to ensure the ongoing utility of climate science for policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability policymaking presents numerous challenges to local governments. Municipal leaders, especially in smaller cities and towns, report that they lack the fiscal capacity and/or technical expertise to adopt many environmental protection policies. This paper investigates whether the more than 2000 municipally owned utilities in the United States have the potential to mitigate those problems. Data from two surveys of USA local governments (n = 861), modeled in a pair of negative binomial regressions, find a positive correlation between those cities with municipal power companies and those with an increased number of community-wide sustainable energy policies. Follow-up interviews with officials reveal the potential mechanisms driving sustainability by local governments that own power companies. These mechanisms are the increased capacity that publicly owned utilities provide by virtue of income generated and access to energy-specific grants as well as the local nature of their operations, which allows a better fit of sustainable energy measures to local circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper uses a policy integration (PI) approach to analyse forest sector reforms in tropical countries, using the case of reforms that affected the northern Bolivia forest economy. The paper provides a brief overview of PI and then analyses the various reforms that all contributed to reshaping Bolivia's forest sector. The major related reforms are not only forestland tenure reforms, a new forestry law, but also important public administrative and democratic reforms. The case of democratic reforms linked with land and forestry reforms in northern Bolivia makes it possible to discuss environmental PI in a tropical context, and thus to review some of the key postulates that have been formulated on the topic, but which are to date largely based on empirical experiences from the northern hemisphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss various reports within the issue on topics including forest policy, climate change and environmental policy.

Snapshot views of environmental policy integration (EPI) practices fail to consider the stability of EPI over time – both as aspiration and performance. This paper reviews the evolution of EPI over more than two decades at the national level in the agriculture and energy sectors in Sweden – an EPI pioneer. We study how the extent of EPI stability can be explained partly by shifting political priorities by governments and partly by underlying governance models (actors and organizational landscape and policy instruments used). Comparing the two sectors, the institutionalization of EPI appears to be stronger in the energy sector. In the agricultural sector, the current reform of the Common Agricultural Policy seems to imply decreasing prominence of EPI – due to shrinking budgets for environmental targets along with greater policy goals complexity. Overall, observed shifts in governance have been mildly conducive to EPI by providing an infrastructure, but further enhancements require clear political priority awarded to the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agrienvironmental schemes (AES) have been a predominant manifestation of environmental policy Integration in the EU. However, rather than strictly following formal AES policy, farmers across Europe have taken various other initiatives to integrate environmental and agricultural practices. Mostly, these integrative initiatives were based on dynamic actor networks at various levels, responding to local problems and challenges. Compared with situations where, from the top down, one (mostly weaker) policy domain is integrated into another, the kind of integration taking place in these examples may be called more ‘fundamental’. Here, integration is already embedded in the practical outcomes envisioned in specific places. The parts of the outcome require each other. However, this fundamental form of integration may render problems at other levels and sectors of governance. In this paper we present a case study of an initiative called Farming for Nature. The initiative aimed to integrate farming and nature more thoroughly than EU and national policies and incorporated some important other characteristics of the area, such as its water dynamics and relationships with the urban environment. However, it also involved some key differences from mainstream policy; and although it resonated with EU support for participative governance, these differences rendered a lengthy process towards implementation lasting more than half a decade. We use the concept of ‘landscape governance’—operationalized as the interplay of discourses, institutional practices, and natural–spatial conditions—to understand the politics of scale involved when mainstream government policies and local integrative initiatives meet. Particular attention is paid to how the local ideas toned down some of their integrative ingredients in order to comply with mainstream sectoral policy discourse. We find that the type of landscape governance implemented shaped the initiatives into a form that contributed to their implementation, but simultaneously displaced and contained political conflict in a way that prevented public debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy integration is a processes by which a particular policy, and the objectives, principles and values on which it is based, is intentionally integrated into a whole – a broader and more holistic set of policies – where the former did not previously exist. We may call this whole the integer, a term used in mathematics for a whole number. The integer denotes the broader set of policies of a polity or political system and the set of instruments used to promote and implement these policies. We may call that which is to be integrated the integrant, a term used to denote a part of a whole. The integrant may be defined as a particular policy and the set of instruments used to promote and implement that policy which, it is intended, should be integrated into an integer. So environmental policy integration is a policy process to integrate a stipulated integrant (an environmental policy) throughout an integer (a broader set of policies). Environmental policy integration is first and foremost a normative enterprise that seeks to shift the normative vector (the overall normative ‘pull’) of the integer on to a more sustainable basis. However, the extent to which environmental policy integration can be successful in doing this is limited when integrants are shaped and influenced ab initio by the principles and values of the integer. The paper argues that contemporary environmental policies are dominated primarily by neoliberal principles. The result is that while environmental policy integration has achieved some limited successes it is an essentially reformist approach that takes as its point of departure mainstream policies that routinely degrade the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is substantial evidence that the global governance of climate change must pass through cities. While formal networks offer cities a means of generating effects that extend beyond their own borders, it remains unclear as to whether such networks can address collective action barriers and implementation gaps. City-networks, after all, are limited in their efforts to govern and must rely on information, service provision, and soft forms of coercion if they are to steer their members past these considerable challenges. This article contributes to extant efforts to assess their ability to do so by addressing two gaps in the literature. First, the article focuses on the Partners for Climate Protection (PCP), a city-network that has received little attention to date. Second, through analysis of two Canadian cities (Toronto and Winnipeg), the article provides an empirical illustration of the limitations of network authority and influence, and offers some thoughts on what this means for networked urban climate governance in Canada and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores whether and how frames used within different sectors in Sweden concerned with bioenergy from forest products are driven by environmental objectives. It complements existing research on environmental policy integration (EPI) in bioenergy policies of political-administrative Swedish sectors by conducting a frame analysis of articles published in three journals in Sweden that represent the energy, agricultural and forestry sectors. Ten frames that were used consistently across the three sectors in the time period from 2001 to 2010 were identified. Environmental rhetoric, one of the prerequisites for EPI, was identified; however, it plays only a secondary role given that bioenergy frames focus mainly on economic objectives, presenting bioenergy as a means of increasing profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been little policy effort to address sea level rise in coastal states in the US. It is important to examine, at the state level, how the multitude of different (and changing) actors with different preferences and perspectives contribute to such inertia. This study examines state-level legislative inaction with regards to sea level rise. Using Kingdon's multiple streams framework, we draw a picture of the policy landscape in Virginia as one where the problem of sea level rise is perceived as a low priority, with little consensus on achievable policy solutions, and is politically controversial. We find that policy inertia in Virginia is a result of (1) fractious viewpoints regarding sea level rise as a problem, (2) a lack of clear consensus on policy solutions, and (3) conflicting perspectives of the role of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite signing the Mayors Climate Change Agreement, few US cities have made significant progress in either climate mitigation or adaptation. For the most part, European cities have been more effective, albeit with assistance from the European Union and their national governments. Several of the most successful European cities have implemented eco-districts, which have offered many lessons for overall sustainability planning. Using Malmö, Sweden as a case study, we ask how planners and elected officials learned from implementing an eco-district, focusing on experimentation with new technologies and approaches to planning. We identify how “double-loop learning”, a term coined by Argyris and Shön, was at play in changing planning practice. As eco-districts are catching on in North American cities, there is much to be learned from European practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of new environmental policy instruments (NEPIs) has launched a debate about the continued relevance of traditional regulatory approaches. Previous research examining the relationship of regulations and NEPIs has shown that regulations can compel engagement with voluntary approaches. In this paper, we demonstrate that the linkages between regulation and voluntary approaches need not be coercive. Through a study of sediment pollution in northern California, we show that regulatory processes have facilitated learning and motivated landowners to undertake voluntary actions. We suggest three elements that are fundamental to the success of this process: (a) the voluntary action must benefit the landowner, (b) resources must be available to reduce the implementation burden, and (c) the regulatory process must involve open and respectful communication between the landowner and the regulator. While not a panacea, this process of regulatory spillover offers a promising pathway for extending the reach of existing regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The total quantity control and trading of carbon emission permits (CEPs) are important means to promote the development of a low-carbon economy, and the key is the initial allocation of the CEPs. For the initial allocation problem of CEPs in China, we analyze the disadvantages of the existing free allocation method, namely, that it cannot stimulate the polluters to declare their real marginal-cost information and so it is difficult to achieve effectiveness in resource allocation. Considering these disadvantages, we design an incentive auction mechanism for allocating CEPs based on the theory and methods of a divisible-good auction, to achieve the optimal supply strategy of the government and the equilibrium bidding strategies of polluters. The theoretical proof shows that this auction mechanism has properties such as stimulation of information and validity of allocation.The auction mechanism is applied to the problem of CEP allocation in fourteen cities in the Hanjiang River Basin in China. From the allocation results of this application example, we make some suggestions for improving the implementation of the CEP trading system and the design of future environmental policy in a low-carbon economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities worldwide have taken the lead in addressing climate change; however, this does not tell the full story in understanding the puzzle of local climate action. Rather than in isolation, city actions occur in the context of a complex of other government arrangements. Whereas the majority of the literature concerning subnational responses to climate change in the US is addressed in the literatures of federalism and diffusion, we offer an explanation of climate actions through a multilevel governance approach. Multilevel governance allows us to consider the horizontal city-to-city influences on climate action while also considering the vertical influences of state-to-local action. We conduct a large quantitative study of climate actions in all US cities with populations greater than 50,000 people. We find that cities' and states' climate action efforts are complementary, rather than attenuating; however, we note that horizontal influences are generally stronger than vertical influences in motivating climate action at the local level. We conclude that, in spite of the potential for an increased role of federal and state governments in climate action in the United States, city-to-city networks are likely to remain important in motivating cities to mitigate climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea that ‘wicked’ environmental and social problems can be resolved with ‘clumsy’ solutions has been increasingly supported by empirical evidence. Clumsy solutions emerge from a new type of dialogue-based problem-solving strategy, derived from what Funtowicz and Ravetz call ‘post-normal science’. How, then, can such dialogues best be organised? We offer an answer by combining the framework from which the notion of clumsy solutions was derived – namely Mary Douglas’ cultural theory – with the many decision-making procedures for addressing wicked problems proposed in policy and organisational studies. Employing the former theory, we explore 17 widely applied decision-making processes. The analysis identifies six methods most likely and seven methods least likely to successfully initiate post-normal dialogue. Moreover, the analysis suggests four processes that ‘almost’ fulfil the criteria for generating clumsy solutions. The paper then explores and suggests ways of extending and augmenting these ‘almost’ cases to enable post-normal dialogues and clumsy solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the rationale for a research focus on how meaning emerges from the interfaces between research, policy, and practice. In exploring where different constructions of risk, resilience, and landscape occur in the policy and practice discourses surrounding current developments in Victorian bushfire policy, this paper goes beyond simply advocating better science–policy–practice relationships by demonstrating the challenges of operationalising adaptive governance principles. Our findings stress that change can arise from interacting discourses on the policy–practice interface. Yet, although this may be the most adaptive moment in the policy process, producing multiple insights and alternative options, it is vulnerable to institutionalised discourses that obstruct flexible practice. Complex socioecological issues such as bushfire, we argue, require more explicit engagement with the processes of practice inherent in policy formulation. The paper offers coproductive research strategies as contributing to more flexible governance arrangements to improve adaptive policy design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the collaborative natural resource governance literature, stakeholder participation is most often treated as instrumental to the normative legitimacy and, thus, effectiveness of the environmental state. This study adds a perspective of stakeholder legitimacy as the outcome of competition among groups with differential power operating under the influence of powerful systemic forces. Stakeholders with differential capacities engage in a politics of visibility to determine what is and is not made transparent. What remains invisible is the result of privileged accounts, supported by broader societal values regarding economic development. The research for this paper stems from ethnographic field work of a campaign by conservation and recreational fishing interests to ban the use of commercial gill nets in North Carolina. Conservation and recreational fishing interests gained a greater degree of legitimacy in fishery decision making processes by utilizing a politics of visibility that reinforced destructive patterns of environmental rights and resource use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of framing on approaches to climate change adaptation is receiving increased attention. Using case study data, this paper proposes that appreciating how a policy sector currently frames itself can not only facilitate insights into how that sector may frame adaptation but also into a sector's adaptive capacity. From a new institutional perspective, this paper argues therefore that a frame reflective practice can aid policy sectors in building their capacity for adaptive, robust approaches to adaptation planning. A frame reflexive practice could enable policy sectors to appreciate how their current framing directs action towards particular policy options, potentially ignoring others, and how exploring the sector's issues through different frames could reveal a greater array of policy options than currently considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interventions to ‘improve’ the human condition through democratic and capitalist ideals increasingly draw on capital and markets to influence governance in line with Western mandates of state building. As a major recent example, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation ‘plus’ (REDD+) develops new market regimes to govern, finance, and trade carbon in line with donor discourses of civil liberties, market expansion, and, more broadly, state building. Emerging REDD + networks that aim to finance and trade carbon now align with the conditionality and ideals of democratic governance, transparency, and accountability through processes of institution building (for state stability). This paper examines the connection between REDD + projects and state-making ideals in policy and practice as bilaterals and NGOs fuse the conditions and governance of one with the other. In the Lao PDR we argue that the governance machinery and interventions associated with REDD + facilitate governance agendas to manage people, goods, and carbon in line with Western narratives of robust governance, free markets, and integrity. We contend that the adoption of REDD + will nudge local markets and governance in this postsocialist bureaucracy toward such principles, but in ways that partly reinforce the state's longer term political and economic objectives. We conclude that, rather than conserve carbon per se, REDD + governance reflects a tempered, less absolute ‘extraterritoriality’, where its transnational influence is differentiated depending on how assumptions and ideals align with state motives in the context of forest governance, democratic reform, and rural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ontological differences between terrestrial and marine environments from a spatial perspective and reflects on the usefulness of the application of established ideas of terrestrial spatial planning in marine spatial planning, using the UK system as the main reference. Through a critical review of the literature an analytical framework is developed that is informed by four interlinked deficiencies, namely disciplinary, conceptual, legitimacy and knowledge deficits. The paper provides two main conclusions. First, as a discipline and profession, planning must reassess the suitability of present approaches to marine spatial planning and provide innovative thinking to a complex and different potential area of planning theory and practice. Second, that marine spatial planning should develop its own responses to the particular needs of the marine environment and take into consideration influences from various disciplines and perspectives to ensure appropriate and adequate consideration of marine-based concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented which discusses the associations between Europeanization and the evolution of environmental governance in the Western Balkans and South East Europe.

For over two decades, municipal climate progress has been inventoried and analysed using a common reporting framework. While useful for highlighting the extent of municipal engagement in greenhouse gas mitigation efforts, we know little about how comprehensive this reporting framework is. Are municipal governments engaging in mitigation activities outside this framework? And what about climate adaptation activity for which no long-standing milestone reporting framework has existed? Based on results from a national survey of municipal governments in Canada, the paper reveals that municipal governments are engaged in many climate activities and processes that common inventories and reporting systems do not capture. The paper argues that these ‘in between activities’ – the not-yet counted climate actions that take place between and outside of milestone initiation and completion – have practical importance for future climate action and theoretical importance by complementing growing evidence about the nature of municipal climate activities and climate governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ‘interpretive turn’ in policy analysis has greatly enhanced understanding of policy process dynamics. However, it has not afforded much attention to explaining the currency of novel concepts where open dispute appears absent in policy discussions. This paper seeks to address this lacuna by employing an innovative discourse analysis approach to examining the emergence of green infrastructure planning policy in the Republic of Ireland. Whereas the analysis accounts for the rhetorical force of language, it reveals that those advocating the green infrastructure concept were not passive actors in receiving a static discourse. Instead, it demonstrates that such agents actively sought to negate opposition and advance their policy objectives by exploiting the discourse's flexibility and consensus-building potential, as well as strategically identifying and employing a range of dissemination opportunities. Drawing lessons from this case, a new framework for understanding the interpretive analysis of seemingly unopposed novel policy concepts is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

This article examines environmental governance in Kosovo, with a particular focus on the energy sector. The article considers the degree to which the emerging model of environmental governance is characterised by hierarchical and non-hierarchical modes of coordination. We examine the roles of a number of domestic institutions and actors – ministries, agencies, and regulatory bodies– and the influence of external actors, including the European Union, the United States, and Serbia. The European Union is building Kosovo’s own hierarchical governance capacity by strengthening domestic institutions, whilst the United States focuses primarily on market liberalisation, whilst simultaneously supporting European Union efforts. Moreover, environmental policy change is not wholly or predominantly driven by domestic actors, which can partly be attributed to Kosovo’s limited domestic sovereignty. We conclude that the emerging model of environmental governance in Kosovo is characterised by a weak hierarchy, partly as a result of external actor involvement, which disincentivises the government from responding to domestic non-state actor pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One way to achieve more sustainable spatial development and deal with pressures on space is through integrated or multifunctional land use. Achieving effective integration, although attractive, presents governance challenges. One challenge is how to deal with boundaries. Actors from different backgrounds need to coordinate across and manage their boundaries to realise effective integration of land-use functions. We develop a framework to analyse how actors construct, maintain, challenge, and reconstruct boundaries in their (inter)actions, and we apply the framework to a case analysis of a multifunctional development. The analysis shows that, although integration seems to suggest only boundary crossing, actors also actively defend and reconstruct boundaries. We reflect on how the process of achieving effective integration is not only about overcoming boundaries but also about reconstructing and respecting joint boundary demarcations. These demarcations help to create a sense of order and clarity in terms of responsibility and accountability, and hence enable implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environment acquis are, by common consent, amongst the most technically and politically demanding that a state aspiring to EU membership must transpose. SEE states confront a major ‘gap’ between the policies and institutions they have and what they must achieve. Transposition requires the creation of policy networks involving a broad range of state and non-state actors. This paper examines the efforts of Croatia and Macedonia to adapt to EU environmental policy. Using social network analysis the paper focuses on institutional creation and evolution and argues that effective governance depends on the prior creation of effective hierarchies. Networks exist but capacities and capabilities are in short supply and this reinforces the centre and government over civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Establishing structures of environmental governance is an important goal of external policy actors but a notoriously difficult one to achieve in states with weak regulatory capacities. Building on newer developments in governance research, this contribution offers contextual specifications for factors mediating external regulatory influence. The paper analyses the emergence and the effectiveness of environmental governance in two explorative case studies dealing with the provision of drinking water and, respectively, nature protection from Romania. The main finding is that external influence can lead to the emergence of new modes of environmental governance if supported by capable sectoral administration and pro-change stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Empowerment' is a term much used by policy makers with an interest in improving service delivery and promoting different forms of neighbourhood governance. But the term is ambiguous and has no generally accepted definition. Indeed, there is a growing paradox between the rhetoric of community empowerment and an apparent shift towards increased centralisation of power away from the neighbourhood in developed economies. In this paper we explore the literature relating to empowerment and identify two broad conceptions which reflect different emphases on neoliberalism. We go on to discuss two models illustrating different levels of state intervention at the neighbourhood level and set out evidence from two neighbourhood councils in Milton Keynes in central England. In conclusion, it is argued that those initiatives which are top-down, state-led policy initiatives tend to result in the least empowerment (as defined by government), whereas the bottom-up, self-help projects, which may be partly state enabled, at least provide an opportunity to create the spaces where there is some potential for varying degrees of transformation. Further empirical research is needed to test how far localist responses can challenge constraints on empowerment imposed by neoliberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of proenvironmental behaviour change (PBC) has been the subject of an increasing volume of research. Much of this has either sought to make PBC 'work better' or offered critiques of the concept. This paper uses an ethnography of the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' Sustainable Behaviours Unit to understand PBC as a practice of government. Drawing on a governmentality framework, in this paper I explore how PBC can be thought of as a heterogeneous array of elements. I demonstrate not only the intellectual labours behind PBC but also how agents have sought to make it practicable. In exploring the coming together of PBC, I try to critically examine a practice which seeks to govern the way we 'choose to behave'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydropower development is occurring at a rapid, though controversial, pace in the Mekong. We highlight the role of scientific assessment in shaping the Mekong hydropower debate, taking the strategic environmental assessment of the twelve planned mainstream dams as a case study. While environmental impact assessments are designed as science-based decision-making tools, they have often been criticized in practice as a political means to justify already made development decisions. In this case we demonstrate how the Mekong River Commission, operating in a constrained political environment, has instead used environmental impact assessment as a way of providing political space and opening the discussion on dams to a wider public. The main argument of this paper is that scientific assessment can be politically maneuvered to shape governance alliances at both national and transboundary levels, and to a certain extent democratize decision-making processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequent adjustments of environmental regulations usually cause business and investment risks, resulting in significant challenges for policy effectiveness. This paper examines how regulatory uncertainty affects decision making through an empirical study of the 'Pay for Permit' policy in the Tai Lake Basin in China. The results show that firms' willingness to decrease pollution is positively influenced by their perceived attitudes, social pressure, and perceived behavioural control. In addition, perceived regulatory uncertainty has significant impacts on social pressure and attitudes toward pollution control. Firms that perceive less regulatory uncertainty are more inclined to adopt antipollution strategies under the Pay for Permit policy. To reduce regulatory uncertainty, China's policy makers should maintain a consistent level of environmental regulations, set clear and reliable long-term policy targets, and strengthen policy enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I set the emergence of 'coinquiry' approaches to public engagement in the context of the apparent inability of conventional arrangements to contribute effectively to the transition to environmental sustainability. I explicate characteristics of coinquiry, which is distinguished from 'upstream engagement', in so doing developing criteria with which to evaluate its application. Examining documentary sources, I identify and critically review projects funded by the UK Beacons for Public Engagement on the topic of environment and sustainability. The conclusion highlights the factors limiting the capacity of the Beacon initiative--and possibly that of similar national initiatives to be undertaken in the future--to attain stated objectives relating to public engagement with environment and sustainability matters and the practice of coinquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between governance and representation is examined using the development of river basin management plans (RBMPs) in Scotland as a case study. We used a longitudinal ethnographic approach to explore the (1) remit and rationale for representation choices; (2) representative characteristics and claims; and (3) influence of nonparticipating interests on representatives. The invite-only 'advisory group' members represent a network of state, private, and third-sector interests. The members make claims to represent others on the basis of authority, accountability, shared identity, and epistemic values. These claims are made for specific although often multiple and overlapping constituencies. These representation claims suggest that representative, rather than traditional, legitimacy is being defended. However, members were also concerned about how the RBMP advisory groups coexisted with traditional and direct democratic processes. The results need to be considered within the overall system of environmental governance within Scotland, the UK, and Europe. The findings are relevant to multiple fields of environmental management, including protected area management and coastal management. [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]

Assessments of environmental issues are often expected to tackle the perceived disconnect between scientific knowledge and environmental policy making. However, their actual influence on processes of knowledge communication and use remains understudied. We provide one of the first studies of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment (NEA), itself one of the first national-level assessments of ecosystem services. We explore expectations, early experiences, and implications for its role in promoting knowledge use, drawing on both documentary evidence and qualitative analysis of interviews with NEA authors and potential users. Many interviewees expected instrumental use; that is, facts directly assisting problem solving. This matches the rhetoric surrounding the NEA's creation. However, we found more early evidence of interacting conceptual uses (learning), and strategic uses (sometimes deemed misuse). Such uses depend not only on assessment outputs, such as reports, but also on the processes of communication and interaction by which these are created. Thus, planning and analysis of such assessments should deemphasise instrumental use and instead focus on the complex knowledge 'coproduction' processes by which diverse and interacting forms of knowledge use may be realised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, held in June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, was probably the largest event in a long series of megasummits on environmental protection and sustainable development. Roughly 44000 participants descended on Rio de Janeiro to take part in ten days of preparatory committee meetings, informal consultations, side events, and the actual conference. Yet despite this unprecedented high attendance by participants from governments and civil society, the outcome of the conference is less than many had hoped for. In this paper I review the outcomes of the 2012 Rio conference in detail, with a special focus on its contributions towards the reform of the institutional framework for sustainable development. Following this review, I discuss the way ahead and options for structural reform to restrengthen earth system governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The local was institutionalised as a key scale for environmental action at the Earth Summit, and remains salient in discourse, policy, and action. However, given both real changes and geographical insights into the politics of scale in the past twenty years, we suggest it is time to (re)consider this focus. We assess local sustainability through the lens of scalar politics, arguing for the need to consider what challenges particular scale frames foreground and which they silence. We focus on three changes which have occurred in the last twenty years--the growing salience of the Global South, shifts from environmentalism to sustainability, and new governance patterns--and reflect on the significance of these changes for local sustainability. We suggest the local frame occludes questions of international responsibility and justice, and that the changes since Rio require that we reconsider the scalar frame of local sustainability. We conclude by questioning who benefits from the local frame, and when, where, and for whom a focus on local sustainability may be relevant and ethical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of a group of developing countries with shared characteristics, challenges, and needs, distinct from those of developed countries, has been central to sustainable development discourse and policy for decades. However, in the years since the original Rio conference it has become increasingly apparent that it is difficult to sustain this notion of a single developing world. Within the context of unfolding diversity, a central claim of the present paper is that lumping all countries together under the expansive category of 'developing' risks obfuscating the complex challenges, solutions, and fragmented geopolitics of sustainable development. Instead, it is necessary to use the terms developing country, countries, or world far more selectively, mindful that they may conceal just about as much as they reveal. In the paper I proceed to consider a number of alternative national, subnational, and transnational spatial categorisations which might be deployed to better describe and/or analyse the evolving nature, effective governance, and politics of sustainable development challenges across space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With this paper we explore the potential of committees in parliamentary systems of government to influence environmental public policy making. We draw on delegation theory to argue that parliamentary committees are crucial ex post mechanisms used by the legislature (the principal) to monitor the activities of the executive (its agent). To examine this relationship in depth, we focus on the United Kingdom's Environmental Audit (select) Committee (EAC), which is an innovation as the world's first cross-cutting environmental parliamentary committee. We find that delegation theory provides fresh insights into the relationship between the EAC, the legislature, the executive, and the wider public. We find that an incomplete system of delegation in the United Kingdom has left an accountability deficit, meaning that the EAC's ability to exert influence on the executive's environmental policy is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is based on a research project that engaged with and intervened in flood risk management in national policy and in two localities. Building on recent work in STS, we develop a framework for political analysis that complements existing understandings of environmental governance by focusing on the materiality of an issue and the ways in which it is articulated through various sites, shifting between different political modalities (its political trajectory). Each modality represents a different way in which an issue is framed such that it is opened to questioning and contestation, or subject to closure and containment. We conclude that differing understandings of what makes an environmental issue political mean that researchers need to pay close attention to how their own work is political and to different meanings and constitutions of 'the public', as well as looking for more ways of engaging with the politics of environmental issues in different modalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relevance of various leadership concepts for climate change adaptation. After defining four main leadership challenges which are derived from the key characteristics of climate adaptation issues, a review of modern leadership theories addressing these challenges is presented. On the basis of this review we develop an integrative framework for analyzing leadership for climate change adaptation. It distinguishes between various leadership functions which together contribute to climate change adaptation: the political-administrative, adaptive, enabling, connective, and dissemination functions. Each function requires the execution of specific leadership tasks which can be performed by different types of leaders, such as positional leaders, ideational leaders, sponsors, boundary workers, policy entrepreneurs, or champions. The framework can be used to analyze or monitor the emergence and realization of specific leadership functions and to specify the need for strengthening particular functions in practices of climate adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses a gap in our understanding of how links between states and nonstate actors intersect with North-South dynamics. It draws together the literatures on NGOs with the debates on privatised forms of global governance to provide a deeper understanding of the growing role of nonstate actors in managing transnational environmental issues. I argue that the inclusion of nonstate actors can serve to reinforce and deepen existing global inequalities. I use the example of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to shed light on the complex dynamics that surround (apparently) interstate environmental governance mechanisms. The CITES is one of the earliest examples of engagement with nonstate actors as shapers and drivers of environmental governance. As such, it provides us with important lessons about the problems associated with including a wider range of actors in global environmental governance mechanisms, especially engagement with Southern partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the fact that mainstreaming of climate change into existing EU sectoral policies is a key aim, empirical knowledge of how it works in practice remains scarce. With this paper we explore the degree to which climate considerations are taken into account in the implementation of one of the most influential pieces of European water legislation, the Water Framework Directive and, more importantly, we assess possible explanations for the geographical variability in levels of mainstreaming observed. Our empirical research is based on an analysis of both EU and local policy documents, as well as more than forty in-depth interviews, and shows that, for various reasons, the degree of mainstreaming that has taken place differs widely. We conclude that timely incentives and clear guidance will be necessary to ensure progress is made by all, but that a residual fear that the adaptation agenda is open to abuse by those seeking to rationalise failures to fully implement the Water Framework Directive has put a brake on the mainstreaming agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of its increasing use in policy formulation regarding planning obligations, we discuss a number of problematic issues in the application of development viability appraisal modelling in the UK planning system. The increased use of planning obligations to provide affordable housing and to mitigate the effects of negative externalities generated by new development is discussed. The methodology of development viability appraisal modelling is also outlined. Three types of problem are identified. First, there is a set of issues related to intrinsic model and input uncertainty that are problematic in the application of development viability modelling whatever the context. Second, there are problems that are specific to modelling for estimating or justifying planning obligations. In particular, a crucial input that remains contested and uncertain is threshold land value. Clear guidance can resolve this issue. Finally, and more fundamentally, due to spatial and temporal variation in the capacity of development sites to generate financial surpluses for planning obligations, policies that set rules or fix targets on planning obligations without regard to prevailing site and/or market conditions can reduce the supply of development and/or be prone to rapid obsolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the links between environmental change, human migration, and adaptation in the relatively mature governance system of the European Union (EU). It is shown that these connections are limited and, when made, tend to be security focused. This situation inhibits scope for migration (both internally within states and internationally between states) to be understood as a form of adaptation to economic, social, political, demographic, and environmental change. We assess the underlying dynamics of EU environmental policy, note the main modes and instruments used, and identify some of the chief dynamics in this policy field. Finally, conclusions are drawn with respect to how, in future, the EU might interact with nonmember states on environment and migration-related issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With this paper I seek to identify the conditions under which a shift occurs from hierarchical decision making towards new modes of environmental governance in a case of weak statehood (Bosnia-Herzegovina), where an external agency (the EU) exerts significant influence alongside foreign consultants and international financial institutions (the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development--EBRD). The Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) undertaken as part of the development of the trans-European road network across the country are used here as case studies for examining emerging patterns of environmental governance in a state under the shadow of EU conditionality. The data suggest that whilst over a period of time the adoption of new EU-compliant formal procedures and frameworks (eg, EIA laws) does seem to be generating new modes of governance interaction and citizen involvement, the impact is contingent upon the critical didactic role played by (in this case) the EBRD in making the formal procedures effective and in building knowledge capacity within the state administration. Thus, a simple correlation between EU conditionality and substantive political change cannot be assumed, particularly where state agencies possess limited policy knowledge and nonstate actors (environmental NGOs) lack mobilisation capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is widely acknowledged as a key business risk. Companies around the globe are taking action to mitigate their carbon emissions, develop climate-friendly products and services, and prepare for the negative impacts of climate change for their operations. Financial investors, on their part, are becoming more concerned about business responses to climate change and begin to demand concrete risk management strategies. In this context an increasing number of private initiatives are seeking to change business behaviour in a more sustainable direction. Key instruments used are governance by disclosure. This paper explores the agency of nonstate actors in manufacturing climate change into a key business risk, a development that enabled the use of disclosure-based governance mechanisms in global climate politics. [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]

Water pollution trading (WPT) is considered a cost-effective policy instrument for controlling water pollution. Since the late 1990s the Chinese government has piloted WPT programs at different levels in an attempt to reduce water pollution. However, the implementation of WPT programs has not achieved the results expected. Policy overlap, or conflict, is thought to be one of main factors blocking the deployment of effective WPT projects in China. This research takes the WPT pilot program in the Tai Lake Basin as a case study to assess the problem of incoherent policies in this area and to explore the general feasibility of WPT programs in China. We review and analyze the water pollution control system in the Tai Lake Basin as well as the regulation and practices of the WPT Tai Lake pilot program. The results of this study indicate that the WPT program in the Tai Lake Basin conflicts fundamentally with other environmental regulation regimes, such as the Environmental Impact Assessment system and the Five-Year Plan target, and that the prospects for WPT in China are not optimistic. Finally, we outline suggestions for reforming China's WPT mechanism to eliminate these conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]