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With China's commitment to achieving a carbon peak and carbon neutralisation by 2030 and 2060, respectively, the government's requirements for enterprises to adopt green technology are becoming increasingly urgent. We established a tripartite evolutionary game model of an enterprise, government and bank. We analysed conditions for the existence of stable points and factors affecting the choice of stakeholder's strategy. The influence of the change in each parameter on the evolutionary stable strategy was further studied. We found that the government's reward, subsidy and taxes for enterprise's green technology innovation can increase the willingness of enterprises to implement green technology innovation, and the role of taxes is greater than that of subsidies. The preferential interest rate for green innovation is conducive to stimulating enterprises to engage in green innovation, but the increase in the cost of green credit will reduce the willingness of banks to provide green credit. With the increase in the subsidy, incentives and the cost of environmental regulation, the policy burden of the government will gradually increase, thus reducing the willingness of the government to implement environmental regulation policy. The research presented in this paper furthers work on the theoretical modelling of green credit and environmental regulation policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental sustainability has been a key policy goal of the European Union (EU), particularly under recent EU Cohesion Policy strategic frameworks. This paper contributes to the analysis of the relevance of EU Cohesion Policy-related environmental sustainability investments, by assessing the impacts of the Operational Programme for Sustainability and Use of Resources (POSEUR 2014–2020), in the Portuguese North NUTS II. In detail, the impact scores of the following five analytical dimensions related to this programme were obtained: (i) low-emissions economy, (ii) adaptation to climate change, (iii) risk prevention and management, (iv) environmental protection and (v) resource efficiency. The analysis was supported by a territorial impact assessment methodology (TARGET_TIA) which was complemented by an online analytic geographic information system (GIS) policy evaluation platform (Impact-WEB_GIS). The results showed that the POSEUR's regional implementation efficiency fell short of the stakeholders' expectations. This can be explained by factors such as the obstacles posed by the prior underdeveloped infrastructural conditions, coupled with the panorama created by the Covid-19 outbreak. Nonetheless, the risk prevention and management dimension had a solid positive impact score that reflected the efficacy of POSEUR in tackling environmental threats, mostly in rural ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is little knowledge of how policymakers manage governance networks ("metagovern") within climate policy and especially at non-executive levels of public management. One strategy to metagovern is through using intermediary actors such as funding bodies. However, as novel actors within climate governance, such "climate intermediaries" are under-researched. We address these gaps by exploring the metagovernance through an intermediary actor, namely the Norwegian "Klimasats" Fund. We find that the logic of funding bodies lends itself to "carrots" as opposed to "sticks", weakening the potential for transformation. Funding bodies can also increase existing differences in climate action between larger and smaller local authorities. However, funding bodies have a beneficial bi-directional functionality, incentivising local innovation whilst feeding lessons both up to and across government. Funding bodies also have the power to make local actors into intermediaries in their own right and can influence policy discourses. Thus, in assessing metagovernance at the non-executive level and using intermediary actors such as funding bodies, we reveal significant challenges, but also surprising opportunities, for the low-carbon transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of Europeanisation on domestic policies is often associated with the alignment of European policies and discourses with national ones. The Habitats Directive mandating wolf protection entailed heated debates across the EU, suggesting diverging values and interests at various levels of policy-making. I present an analysis of wolf policy and politics in Germany, where wolves have returned after a long period of extinction. Tracing the dynamics of institutions involved in wolf management in 2000–2021, I identify key groups involved, their activities and positions as well as the impact of European rules and discourses. Unlike in some other Central in Eastern European countries, German wolf policy was strongly influenced by Europeanisation that helped to sustain the institutional path of wolf conservation, despite criticism from dominant land-use actors who politicised the issue to relax conservation rules. I suggest adding safeguarding of latent policies to the catalogue of outcomes of Europeanisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Administrative traditions have become a central concept in public policy and public administration research. Despite substantial insights gained, it is still unclear how administrative traditions affect the effectiveness of public policies. This paper addresses this shortcoming. It analyzes whether the effectiveness of a specific type of public policy, namely direct regulation, varies by a country's administrative tradition. Empirically, the focus is on regulations in the area of environmental protection. By analyzing the changes in air pollutant emissions of 14 OECD countries over a period of 25 years, the article finds that the effectiveness of environmental regulations is higher in countries with a managerial administrative tradition. While both managerial and legalistic bureaucracies can successfully implement minor policy reforms, it is primarily managerial systems that can effectively handle more ambitious regulations. Overall, it thus seems that a major benefit of managerial systems is the more flexible approach towards policy implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments develop policies that set strategic directions on matters of national significance, referred to in this paper as strategic policies. Australia's Commonwealth Government develops and influences national environmental and sustainability policies despite having limited constitutional powers in the management of natural resources. The Commonwealth Government has, over the past three decades, developed strategic policies aimed at sustainably managing forests, water, soils and agricultural lands. The design and implementation arrangements of environmental policies that have endured is not well studied, and this paper addresses this knowledge gap in the context of a federal system. The National Forest Policy Statement, the National Water Initiative and the Natural Heritage Trust have endured centre-left Labor and centre-right Coalition Governments, and serve as case studies. These policies have required structural adjustments to industries to varying degrees to limit impacts on the environment, leading to contestations about policy objectives. The policy cycle serves as the primary heuristic for analysis and the research finds that policy objectives are constrained by the Commonwealth Government's limited constitutional powers on environmental matters. Its participation in strategic policies is driven through notions of resolving a crisis and the policies endure in a phase of indifference to the original policy objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we explore the determinants of reforms intending to integrate policies and coordinate administrative units by focusing on necessary conditions. Firstly, we elaborate theoretical expectations about potential necessary conditions for cross-sectoral reforms. Secondly, we conduct a condition-oriented fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to examine our expectations, based on an original data set comparing policy integration and administrative coordination reforms, in environmental and unemployment policy, across 13 countries over 29 years. Our results indicate three necessary conditions for high reform intensity: external problem pressure is necessary for policy integration and administrative coordination in employment policy; either the strength or weakness of the reference party can take the role of necessary conditions depending on the policy field; low politicization of bureaucracy is necessary, especially for administrative coordination in environmental policy. These findings contribute to the development of a systematic theory of cross-sectoral policy and administrative change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

False assumptions of stationarity, the idea that natural systems fluctuate within a set and predictable range, are common in conservation policies and public expectations developed since the late 1800s. With examples from United States national forest and water quality policy, we discuss the challenges of nonstationarity for planning and policy. We also raise questions about how resilience is becoming institutionalized. One central problem of managing for resilience is that it does not address the nuances and tradeoffs of managing nonstationary systems, such as keeping some components stable while transforming others. We recommend four paths forward: address root causes of change, increase adaptive capacity, develop science for nonstationarity, and enhance pragmatic flexibility without lowering environmental standards. Dealing effectively with nonstationarity in resource management and science, within our legal and management system of overlapping authorities and capacities, is critical for the intertwined future of people and nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental assessments and sustainable finance frameworks: will the EU Taxonomy change the mindset over the contribution of EIA to sustainable development? Keywords: EIA; ESG; environmental impact assessment; sustainable finance taxonomies EN EIA ESG environmental impact assessment sustainable finance taxonomies 110 112 3 03/10/22 20220301 NES 220301 About Rufus A Howard Rufus has been studying and practicing impact assessment across the UK and internationally since 1997. [Extracted from the article]

We theoretically argue for and empirically examine, for the first time, a triangular relationship between concern among citizens about the environment, media attention to environmental issues, and policy output. Previous work has studied these relationships, but analyzed the respective links rather in isolation from each other. This research has significant implications for the understanding of environmental policymaking and, more generally, informs the debate on whether politicians respond to what voters want and under what circumstances this occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of prospective environmental (in)justice (PEJ) is proposed to make sense of situations in which development proposals and the actions of state and market actors create injustices even before the development projects become a material reality. Through this concept and its application to two cases of opencast gold-mining, a broader conceptualization of socio-environmental (in)justice is invited that considers multiple forms of injustice of rural communities in Romania and Bulgaria during more than a decade of waiting for the 'actual harm' of mining to happen. The mere prospects of opencast gold-mining have, in fact, shed light on deep-seated and ongoing dimensions of socio-environmental injustice such as, land-grabbing, slow community disappearance and marginalization, daily psychological damage, disavowal of alternatives and disqualification as political subjects. These injustices experienced collectively could be seen as constitutive moments of systemic violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the termination or reduction of policies under the header of policy dismantling is becoming increasingly relevant within public policy analysis. To foster the understanding of dismantling this paper proposes to analyse post-legislative measures defining the setting of policy instruments and to look closely into how this phase provides room and opportunities for dismantling attempts. We investigate dismantling in EU sustainable consumption policy and concentrate on measures implementing the two major instruments in this area: the command-and-control ecodesign policy aiming at producers and the soft information instrument ecolabel aiming at consumers. While the legislative development of the two policies shows no sign of dismantling along the dimensions of policy intensity and density, investigating the respective implementation measures in three crucial product groups of electronic equipment the analysis points to a change in the instrument setting. Thus, the cases studied suggest that the dismantling research benefits from in-depth policy research uncover dismantling strategies that easily remain hidden from political attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ahead of the Conference of Parties (COP) 24 where countries will first take stock of climate action post Paris, this paper assesses India's progress on its nationally determined contribution (NDC) targets and future energy plans. We find that, although India is well on track to meet its NDC pledges, these targets were extremely modest given previous context. Furthermore, there is considerable uncertainty around India's energy policy post 2030 and if current plans for energy futures materialise, the Paris Agreement's 2 degrees goal will be almost certainly unachievable. India's role in international climate politics has shifted from obstructionism to leadership particularly following the announcement of withdrawal by the United States from the Paris Agreement, but analysis reveals that India's 'hard' actions on the domestic front are inconsistent with its 'soft' actions in the international climate policy arena. Going forward, India is likely to face increasing calls for stronger mitigation action and we suggest that this gap can be bridged by strengthening the links between India's foreign policy ambitions, international climate commitments, and domestic energy realities. Key policy insights India's NDC pledges on carbon intensity and share of non-fossil fuel capacity are relatively modest given domestic context and offer plenty of room to increase ambition of action. India's 'soft' leadership in global climate policy can be matched by 'hard' commitments by bringing NDC pledges in line with domestic policy realities. There is significant uncertainty around future plans for coal power in India which have the potential to exceed the remaining global carbon budget for 2 degrees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freight transport research has generally been limited by a lack of data of the breadth and quality available for passenger transport, particularly in terms of behavioural data. This paper discusses the survey design and implementation of a survey intended to collect longitudinal behavioural data on the responses of freight transport firms to environmental policies. The design of the survey is centred around a hypothetical scenario where respondents are asked how they would complete a given freight task within common constraints. One of the key components of the survey design is a dynamic component intended to simulate the changing business environment. The paper illustrates the many challenges in getting complex freight related surveys in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to identify the most suitable and economically feasible policy measures to reduce concentrations of particulate matter (PM) and ozone (O3) in Israel. It describes a comprehensive methodology that takes into account the effects of PM and O3 and describes the overall costs and benefits expected from their reduction. Cost-benefit analysis of a series of proposed policy measures allows us to identify and recommend those that are most feasible and effective. These policy measures have a significant impact on reducing air pollution on one hand, while constituting the highest net benefit to the economy on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulatory failure occurs in diverse and complex circumstances, especially in environmental regulation. The response of policy-makers and regulators to regulatory failure often follows a predictable pattern, with the imposition of increased prescriptive regulatory approaches. This phenomenon has been described as regulatory pendulum swing. If the regulatory failure causes immediate and obvious harm to people or the environment such an approach may be appropriate. However, where the community loses trust in regulatory regimes where harm is less evident, a response of this nature may do little to restore trust. This research examined a case study of coal seam gas regulation in New South Wales, Australia, using a regulatory trust typology. The typology's dimensions of expertise, stewardship and transparency provided a useful framework to understand regulatory failure and regulatory trust, and for evaluating the responses of policy-makers and regulators to public concerns over coal seam gas development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Which organisations saw their positions on two contentious issues reflected in the Irish climate law of 2015, and what role did advocacy coalitions play in the policy process? These questions are answered drawing theoretically from the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) and by conducting a network analysis of survey data collected from the organisations involved in the national climate policy process. The study finds that several institutionally important or economically powerful organisations, particularly those involved in the agricultural sector, as well as the government parties saw their preferences reflected in the law. This resulted in legislation that excluded binding emission reductions targets, differentiating it from similar laws introduced in other European countries. Organisations in favour of stronger regulation formed a coalition to advocate for their positions, but they largely failed to get their way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does increasing government transparency in an authoritarian regime, absent electoral forms of accountability, change outcomes? The case of China, which has adopted a number of open governance and public information laws, is examined to see whether increased transparency by local environmental protection bureaus affects key environmental outcomes, specifically reductions in air and water pollution. Several unique environmental performance measurements, developed by the authors, are used to supplement standard government-reported measurements of environmental outcomes, and a widely used environmental transparency index (the PITI). By testing information that is newly supplied to the public, but already available to government, government and public monitoring are distinguished from one another, and the effect of public knowledge of government functions is tested. In the absence of a mechanism for the public to hold local government accountable, public transparency alone has no impact on outcomes other than information provision itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to improve knowledge of the transnational diffusion of public policies. It argues that existing studies on the subject do not provide an adequate understanding of the mechanisms through which diffusion takes place, nor do they sufficiently address the roles specific organizations and individuals play in driving or determining the policy transfer process. We address these shortcomings by studying the diffusion of conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes from Latin America to Ghana and the Philippines over the past decade. We use the concept of ‘instruments constituency’ to delineate and trace the various actors and channels involved in the diffusion of CCTs. The comparative case studies show that these constituencies, dedicated to the articulation, adoption, and expansion of particular policy instruments, are central players in transnational diffusion of policies. This finding has significant implications for the study of policy transfer and diffusion, identifying a heretofore neglected actor in these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The public justification for nature conservation currently rests on two pillars: hedonic (instrumental) values, and moral values. Yet, these representations appear to do little motivational work in practice; biodiversity continues to decline, and biodiversity policies face a wide implementation gap. In seven EU countries, we studied why people act for nature beyond professional obligations. We explore the motivations of 105 committed actors for nature in detail using life-history interviews, and trace these back to their childhood. Results show that the key concept for understanding committed action for nature is meaningfulness. People act for nature because nature is meaningful to them, connected to a life that makes sense and a difference in the world. These eudemonic values (expressing the meaningful life) constitute a crucial third pillar in the justification of nature conservation. Important policy implications are explored, e.g. with respect to public discourse and the encounter with nature in childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how piloting programmes in China can promote local policy innovations. By using one of the piloting emission trading schemes (ETS) in Guangdong province as a case study, it is argued that the main features of the piloting experiments, particularly in the climate change domain, are largely different from previous local marketization experiments that dominate the reform period of China. Whereas previous experiments are often characterized as bottom-up or indigenous initiatives with strong patronage relations to the pro-reform politicians at central level, the current piloting programmes are often crafted in a top-down fashion that is often misaligned with local market or corporate interests. Hence, local policy innovations are designed, developed and brokered by the local state officers, in order to bridge this central–local interest gap. As a result, successful implementation of these policy innovations largely depends on local political traditions, bureaucratic culture and perceptions of distinctive development needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While evidence-based policy-making is increasingly in demand, as new policies are required to bring effective results to targeted groups in South Korea and China, few studies have investigated the progress of quantitative impact evaluation that focuses on causality. This paper studies the trends of quantitative impact evaluation of public policy in South Korea and China by surveying major public administration and public policy journals in these two countries from 2000 to 2015. Among published articles in the major journals, our study pool includes research articles directly related to quantitative impact evaluation. Our study found that there has been considerable progress in impact evaluation research in South Korea and China in both data quality and empirical methods. However, empirical impact evaluation still comprises a small fraction (only one to two percent) of all research in public administration and public policy in both countries. We also found limited discussion on the selection mechanism and related bias in South Korea even in recent years, while causality and selection bias have been more commonly discussed in China. Also, advanced empirical methods are more frequently observed in journal articles in China than those in South Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a cross-cutting issue, climate policy depends on the ability of national-level public bureaucracies to formulate and implement effective measures. However, these sectoral agencies strongly compete for resources, political responsibility and power. In the process of allocating specific climate-related policy tasks and resources, changes in the distribution of power among these competing agencies can occur. This process results in the overall architecture of power distribution among climate-related bureaucracies. Arguably, this very architecture - as the aggregation of numerous climate-related policies - plays a decisive role in the direction of climate policy. Using concepts derived from power theory and theories of bureaucratic politics, this study analyses the power added to climate-relevant bureaucracies as a result of policy tasks being allocated to them through myriad international and domestic climate policies and initiatives. Data on national and international forest-related climate change policies (n = 153) in Bangladesh (1992-2014) are used to qualitatively analyse policy tasks assigned to bureaucracies and the power dynamics that arise as a result. The results suggest that core government bureaucracies from outside the climate change realm (e.g. the ministries of planning and finance) are gaining significant power from climate initiatives. Recently, foreign donors have also gained power, mainly through incentives from their climate-related development projects. In light of the existing literature, this article discusses and draws conclusions about the prevailing power elements and policy mixes, the effects of internationalization on domestic climate policy and the way the changing power architecture sets the direction and practical policy limits for climate change policy in Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Establishing a credible and effective transparency regime to support the Paris Agreement - broader than its formal 'transparency framework' - will be both crucial and challenging. The Agreement provides for review of achievements under national pledges (Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs), but much of this information will become available only well after key steps in the launch of this latest attempt to control human influence on the climate. Still, in these early years, information and understanding of individual and collective performance, and of relative national burdens under the NDCs, will play an important role in the success or failure of the Agreement. However, because of the phasing of various steps in the 5-year cycles under the Agreement and the unavoidable delays of two or more years to produce and review government reports, the Climate Convention and other intergovernmental institutions are ill-suited to carry out timely analyses of progress. Consequently, in advance of formal procedures, academic and other non-governmental groups are going to provide analyses based on available data and their own methodologies. The article explores this transparency challenge - using the MIT Economic Projection and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model to construct sample analyses - and considers ways that efforts outside official channels can contribute to the success of the Agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transparency framework under Article 13 of the Paris Agreement further enhances existing arrangements, in which commitments and actions were 'measurable, reportable, and verifiable' (MRV). Locating itself in the earlier MRV literature, the article examines the Paris transparency framework comprehensively, while deepening analysis of key aspects: differentiation, common modalities, procedures, and guidelines (MPG), adaptation, support, and technical expert review. The article illustrates the shifts from MRV to the Paris Agreement enhanced transparency framework. The transparency framework is characterized neither as 'common' nor 'differentiated', but includes common MPG, underpinned by built-in flexibility and continuous capacity building. Informational requirements on action are common, whereas those in relation to support are differentiated. The Paris Agreement established mandatory requirements to report regularly GHG inventories and information to track progress on implementing and achieving nationally determined contributions. Information on both mitigation and support is subject to technical expert review, which operationally may combine the work of expert review teams and technical teams of experts. The article considers implications for further work at the domestic and international levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many parts of the world the combined pressures of population growth and a drying climate have resulted in the proliferation of water focused policies which aim to increase the resilience of socio-ecological systems. Until recently, these policies often reflected surface water centric views of water resources, with groundwater receiving scant attention. In this paper we provide an introduction to the importance of groundwater for water-dependent socio-ecological systems and why it needs to be better incorporated into environmental water management policies. Specifically we highlight the key role of groundwater in buffering the environment and socio-economic activities against drought. We also outline some of the key challenges that face policy-makers and managers implementing groundwater management policies. These include dealing with groundwater resources that are spatially and temporally mismatched with surface water resources; transboundary governance issues; challenges between focusing on either preventative or restorative actions and most importantly limited knowledge about groundwater resources and groundwater–ecology relationships. We hope that the information in this paper will assist in the development of sustainable surface-groundwater water management policies, as well as highlight important challenges that should be considered before implementing groundwater related policies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Implementing policies to return water to the environment is challenging. We developed an approach to integrate ecological responses with river management models to provide a link between flow and ecology. This paper aims to summarize the findings of a multifaceted project bringing together multiple lines of evidence to achieve a proof-of-concept approach for optimizing water use to support water policy and management decisions. We developed an eco-hydrology model that represents rivers, water storages, operational constraints, flow management, an ecological response and consumptive irrigation demands, which is linked to climate. To demonstrate the proof of concept, we describe a case study where modelling optimization seeks solutions to minimize terrestrial vegetation encroachment (an ecological response) and maximize irrigation net value through flow management. The solutions provide a range of alternative ‘optimal’ management options to consider. Ultimately, hydrological modelling that integrates both consumptive use and ecological response simultaneously is important to enhance stakeholder understanding of the complexities and trade-offs involved in implementing different decisions. Although proof of concept at this stage, the approaches offer potential for integration of river management models and quantitative ecological response models (derived by considering available evidence from many sources) to support water policy and management decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Both in a national and global context, it is challenging to identify key conditions for the integration of sustainable tourism in public policy. By studying a number of recent planning processes pertaining to tourism development, this article aims to contribute recent insight into how sustainability may be integrated into tourism planning. The study was motivated by a publicized shift in the Norwegian government policy strategy on sustainable tourism, from a sector approach to an integration approach. Through case analysis, the concept of environmental policy integration is applied. Findings show that sustainable tourism is partially integrated in all cases and three key issues are outlined. First, although Norway is characterized by a high degree of sector organization, it has a weak structure for overall tourism policy integration. Second, the integration of sustainable tourism has been stimulated by national horizontal integration, bottom-up integration prepared by institutional changes, public participation, and by active use of the municipal system of planning. Third, this study could not find any evidence for the announced shift from a sector approach to an integrated approach to sustainable tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite evidence of the negative health, environmental, and economic impacts, littering continues to be a problem and therefore warrants ongoing research attention. Guided by a Behavioural Ecological Framework, this study observed individual-, social-, and environmental-level factors on littering behavior across three different parks in Saudi Arabia. A total of 362 individuals were observed over 12 days. Approximately half of all disposals were improper, with litter left on the ground. The most commonly littered object was nuts (29.4%). The findings revealed that environmental factors had a significant impact, including the amount of existing litter, beautification efforts, and distance to rubbish bins, and that the only significant individual factor to have any impact on individual littering behavior was group size. Implications for litter prevention are discussed. Future research opportunities are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a meeting on innovation in water policy making organized at the Institute of Water Policy, National University of Singapore (NUS). Also includes approach of New Environmental Governance (NEG) towards environmental policy, and social conditions for technological change, engagement processes, or management paradigms.

Collaborative governance has been introduced in the planning and implementation phases of river management, but has not yet reached the maintenance phase. In anticipation of this, this article explores how stakeholders shape collaborative initiatives aimed at maintaining multifunctional floodplains by analyzing their framing of collaboration objectives and membership structures. The case study shows that participants envisioned a shared governance structure, while no consensus was attained on the underlying collaborative objectives. Moreover, the envisioned structure revealed a tendency towards separation instead of integration, because participants abandoned the idea of public–private collaboration, which had previously been adopted in the planning and implementation phases. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article analyses mining policy as an indicator of a larger question: are some Third World governments starting to steer away from plunder ‘extractivism’ towards a paradigm that prioritises the environment? We begin with the cases of El Salvador and Costa Rica, which have major mining bans in place. We then present the results of our research in which we find five other countries with noteworthy mining-policy shifts: Panama, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and New Zealand. A sixth country, Honduras under President Zelaya, stands as a recent historical case of how sensitive such a policy change can be. A key take-away from our article is that critical development scholars and practitioners need to look more closely at the mining sector – not simply to analyse case studies of specific mining protests and resistances to extractivism, although these are of course important. Rather, there is a need to investigate policy changes that just might be indications that the era of unquestioning extractivism has ended and that at least some governments are initiating policies to incorporate environmental externalities, policies that suggest a changing development paradigm in the direction of environmental – and concomitant social and economic – ‘well-being’ as envisioned in buen vivir. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The exploitation of shale gas resources is a significant issue of environmental justice. Uneven distributions of risks and social impacts to local site communities must be balanced against the economic benefits to gas users and developers; and unequal decision-making powers must be negotiated between local and central governments, communities and fracking site developers. These distributive and procedural elements are addressed in relation to UK policy, planning, regulatory and industry development. I adopt an explicitly normative framework of policy evaluation, addressing a research gap on the ethics of shale gas by operationalising Shrader-Frechette’s Principle of Prima Facie Political Equality. I conclude that UK fracking policy reveals inherent contradictions of environmental justice in relation to the Conservative Government’s localist and planning reform agendas. Early fracking policy protected communities from harm in the wake of seismic risk events, but these were quickly replaced with pro-industry economic stimulation and planning legislation that curtailed community empowerment in fracking decision-making, increased environmental risks to communities, transferred powers from local to central government and created the conditions of distributive injustices in the management of community benefit provisions. I argue that only by “re-localising” the scale of fracking governance can political equality be ensured and the distributive and procedural environmental injustices be ameliorated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Frameworks of environmental regulations are fundamental yet problematic factors in achieving climate mitigation and adaptation policy goals. Recent theoretical arguments claim the value of general legal frameworks to enable experimentation and contextual adaptation of policies. However, empirical research regarding the effects of both general and specific norms in the practice of urban intervention remains limited. In this article we empirically discern how city governments deal with the tension between control and flexibility in the implementation of urban climate change goals. We argue that policies of adaptation/mitigation face two types of implementation problems: non-adaptive implementation and non-implementation. The first stems from an excessively constraining use of rules, while the second derives from a too general and undefined regulatory framework. Analysing two empirical cases in Amsterdam, Netherlands and Boston, MA, USA, we conclude that there are three elements that affect the way actors deal with these deficits: the level of scale at which regulations are established, the degree of land ownership which provides margin of manoeuvre to public authorities, and the sense of political urgency behind mitigation and adaptation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A skewed sex ratio exists in many developing countries. Skewed sex ratios are the result of interplay of genetic, economic, environmental and socio-historical processes. Many studies have examined the impact of skewed sex ratio at birth arising from a strong preference for sons in countries like China and India, and have suggested policies to deal with the resultant social disequilibrium. Recent scientific studies identify health concerns associated with new generations of boys and girls growing up in increasingly toxic environments, and the implications for adult sex ratios and social wellbeing. This paper highlights the issue of imbalance in the ‘latent’ adult sex ratio and raises the question of responses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines how members of competing coalitions seek to influence public policy. Past research examined coalitions and policy change, but offered limited understanding about the relationships between coalitions’ resources, strategies, and policy change. The case study focuses on the establishment of various regulations related to hydraulic fracturing in Colorado. Data were collected using interviews (n = 14) and a survey (n = 137) of policy actors asking about their beliefs, resources, and strategies in April 2013. This study found that members of the coalition proposing stricter regulations were successful. This winning coalition more frequently engaged in a wider range of strategies and had greater public support compared to their opponents. The study also found that among the winning coalition members, leadership and information technology resources were associated with the majority of their strategies, but financial resources did not have a significant relationship with any strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since the 1990s, increasing environmental concerns have spurred the need for information and stimulated the development of numerous indicators, yet without a real impact on corresponding policies. To better account for this weakness, a political sociology approach to analyze how these government tools was developed in two cases: the French generic system of sustainable development indicators; and the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive based on indicators of water status. Comparative analysis shows that in both cases a coalition of actors successfully resisted the effective use of indicators by redesigning them and limiting the impact of quantified environmental information on policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We asked two members of the Editorial Board, Erik Jones and Martin Lodge, to act as jury and select what they considered to be the best article published in JEPP in 2020 (excluding those published as part of a "Special Issue"). The winner of 2020 JEPP Best Paper Prize is: Burns, Charlotte, Eckersley, Peter & Tobin, Paul (2020). Jury statement I " i We were very impressed by the articles that we read, but we had a shared enthusiasm for the originality of the paper by Charlotte Burns, Peter Eckersley and Paul Tobin. [Extracted from the article]

Why do some governments have more environmentally friendly policies than others? Part of the answer involves governing parties’ ideological positions on environmentalism and the constraints imposed by executive institutions. Here, this party-based explanation is elaborated and tested with uniquely comparable indicators of national environmental policies for governments in 27 countries in the European Union (EU). The findings show that governments with parties that emphasized environmental protection in their manifestos are more likely to propose pro-environment policies during EU-level negotiations. However, the effect of ideology is mediated by the centralization of the national executive branch. In centralized national executives, the environmental positions of prime ministers’ parties affect policies, while in decentralized national executives, the positions of environment ministers’ parties are relevant. The findings have implications for understanding the impact of parties’ environmental positions on government policies, as well as for policy making in coalitions more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors discuss the implications of the Liberal Party majority in 2015 for Canadian climate policy. Topics covered include the failure of previous Canadian governments to address climate, factors that may help Canada develop a system of managing climate policy that is systematic and wide-ranging, and the impact of the petroleum industry on the development of climate policy.

The authors discuss environmental politics in the 2015 Danish general election. Topics covered include environmental and climate policies developed by the Danish governments, representation gained by the Danish Green Party during the elections in 1987, 1988 and 1990, and the state of environmental policy and politics after the 2015 election.

The climate change policy design of the Lee Myung-bak administration was the outcome of interest group politics around the greenhouse gas and energy target management scheme, carbon taxes, and the emission-trading scheme. Using qualitative methods, this research examines powerful stakeholders and their interests at play in Korea’s climate change policymaking processes. It also links the political economy of climate change policy to the legacy of the ‘developmental state’ and examines environmental developmentalism in the design of the three climate change policies. The Lee administration strongly promoted environmental developmentalism, which created a new growth engine in an environmental field, while bolstering manufacturing businesses and excluding the views of environmental non-governmental organisations from the target-management and the emission-trading schemes. The Lee administration also sought to facilitate pro-business measures such as low taxes, which led it to reject a carbon tax. Therefore, environmental developmentalism was central to the politics of the Lee administration’s climate change policy design. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

State-level public opinion on the environment within the US is examined, using data from the General Social Survey (GSS) from 2000 to 2010. A Multilevel Regression and Post-Stratification (MRP) approach is taken to estimate three different survey items on environmental issues at the US state level. This allows for a comparable understanding of state-level public opinion on environmental issues, which is then connected to economic, environmental, and political conditions, and representation in policy making. The findings indicate the MRP technique is a sophisticated way to make accurate estimations of state-level public opinion, and those estimates provide further insight into the shaping of public opinion and public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘Bringing the state back in’ to research on comparative, inter-, and trans-national environmental politics and policy will contribute to better understanding of the limits and prospects of contemporary approaches to environmental politics and the overall evolution of contemporary states once environmental issues become central. The rationale for the state as an analytical perspective in environmental policy and politics is explained, and an empirically oriented concept of the environmental state is introduced, along with a tentative sketch of its evolution in historical perspective. A research agenda on the environmental state is mapped out, centring around variation and convergence in environmental states across space and time; the political/economic dynamics of contemporary environmental states; and inter-linkages among environmental problems, the constitution of political communities, and the functioning of the public power. In conclusion, the ways in which the contributions to this volume address that research agenda are introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Scholars have proposed the analytical concept of the environmental state, a state where government actively addresses negative environmental externalities of economic activities. The mapping of environmental regulatory expansion in Western countries has been central in recent attempts to identify the environmental state empirically. Surprisingly little is known, however, when it comes to the environmental regulatory expansions in non-Western countries. Are there similar trends towards the emergence of environmental states in the non-West as well? From analysing data covering 25 policies in 37 countries, it appears that regulatory expansion has also occurred in the non-Western world, and the distinction between the West and the non-West has been reduced over time. There are non-Western countries among environmental pioneers, and there is some evidence for the trend of global convergence. Future research on environmental states should take into account emerging environmental states in the non-West. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The primary task for the environmental state is to address problems related to the market’s externalisation of environmental costs. It has four main resources at its disposal: regulation, redistribution, organisation, and knowledge generation. The way these four resources are deployed make up a state’s environmental governance arrangements. Using data on environmental regulation, taxes, public administrations, and knowledge production from 28 countries, and a hierarchical cluster analysis, four different types of environmental states are identified: established, emerging, partial, and weak. This is followed by some suggestions for further research on the environmental state in a comparative perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Seas and oceans are confronted with a plethora of environmental problems, caused by land-based activities (agriculture, industries, and ports) and by maritime activities (such as shipping, fishing, oil and gas drilling, tourism, and navigational dredging). Environmental problems at sea challenge the efficacy of state sovereignty. Who is responsible, accountable, and regulates environmental and spatial problems at the level of regional seas, and what is the role of states in these processes of governance? In the regional seas and on the high seas, the environmental state is challenged by two developments: states become players at different levels, and states are confronted with the activities of big market players where they have no or little jurisdiction. The different forms of the environmental state in Europe’s regional seas and in the Arctic Ocean are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The environmental nation state is not a formal category but a substantive one. The current set of national environmental state institutions originated in the late 1960s/1970s but has since changed in character. Many scholars note that since the new millennium, the environmental nation state in OECD countries is losing power and authority and is thus in decline, in line with wider concerns about the positions of states versus markets under conditions of (neo-liberal) globalisation. Assessing the decline of environmental nation state authority, three conclusions are drawn. States do not lose power in all sectors vis-à-vis markets. Hence, environmental nation state decline does not follow a general tendency. Second, the decline of environmental nation state powers cannot be equated with less effective or lower levels of environmental protection, as other environmental authorities have stepped in, and the jury is still out on their environmental effectiveness. Third, declining powers of environmental nation state institutions increasingly become a self-fulfilling prophecy of environmental policymakers, but non-state environmental authorities cannot take over all environmental state functions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Globalization entails increased interdependence and interconnectivities among distal regions and social-ecological systems. This global interregional connectedness – telecoupling – gives rise to specific sustainability challenges, which require new governance solutions. Moving beyond ‘scaling-up’ governance to address global environmental problems, and exploring the implications of telecoupling for state-led environmental governance, ways the state can effectively address telecoupled environmental issues both within and beyond national borders are addressed, drawing on the example of soy trade between Brazil and Germany. This builds on recent contributions to the literature on governance of interregional ecological challenges to elaborate potential policy and governance options, ranging from classical bilateral, multilateral, and international agreements, to information-based, economic, and hybrid governance modes. While telecoupled environmental problems create governance challenges related to scale, knowledge gaps, coordination, and state capacity, the state has an important role to play. To explore this further, interdisciplinary inquiry is required that includes but moves beyond the state. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A framework is presented for thinking about state intervention in developed capitalist economies in two domains: social policy and environmental policy (and, within that, climate-change policy). Five drivers of welfare state development are identified, the ‘five Is’ of Industrialisation: Interests, Institutions, Ideas/Ideologies, and International Influences. Research applying this framework to the postwar development of welfare states in the OECD is summarised, distinguishing two periods: up to 1980, and from 1980 to 2008. How far this framework can contribute to understanding the rise and differential patterns of environmental governance and intervention across advanced capitalist states since 1970 is explored, before briefly comparing and contrasting the determinants of welfare states and environmental states, identifying common drivers in both domains and regime-specific drivers in each. The same framework is then applied to developments since 2008 and into the near future, sketching two potential configurations and speculating on the conditions for closer, more integrated ‘eco-welfare states’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]