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Democratic governments have constantly added new policies to existing policy stocks to confront societal, economic, and environmental challenges. This development has the potential to overburden public administrations in charge of policy implementation. To address this issue, we theorize and analyze how the relationship between the size of sectoral policy portfolios and implementation capacities affects sectoral policy performance. Our Bayesian analysis of the environmental policies of 21 Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development countries from 1976 to 2020 reveals a widening "gap" between the policies up for implementation and the implementation capacities available and shows that this gap negatively affects environmental policy performance. Qualitative insights from 47 in‐depth interviews with implementers validate these findings and shed light on the underlying causal processes. Our findings suggest that in advanced democracies transforming additional policies into effective problem‐solving crucially hinges on the deliberate expansion of implementation capacities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protected and conserved areas (PCAs) are key ecosystem management tools for conserving biodiversity and sustaining ecosystem services and social cobenefits. As countries adopt a 30% target for protection of land and sea under the Global Biodiversity Framework of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, a critical question emerging is, which 30%? A risk‐based answer to this question is that the 30% that returns the greatest reductions in risks of species extinction and ecosystem collapse should be protected. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List protocols provide practical methods for assessing these risks. All species, including humans, depend on the integrity of ecosystems for their well‐being and survival. Africa is strategically important for ecosystem management due to convergence of high ecosystem diversity, intense pressures, and high levels of human dependency on nature. We reviewed the outcomes (e.g., applications of ecosystem red‐list assessments to protected‐area design, conservation planning, and management) of a symposium at the inaugural African Protected Areas Congress convened to discuss roles of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems in the design and management of PCAs. Recent progress was made in ecosystem assessment, with 920 ecosystem types assessed against the IUCN Red List criteria across 21 countries. Although these ecosystems spanned a diversity of environments across the continent, the greatest thematic gaps were for freshwater, marine, and subterranean realms, and large geographic gaps existed in North Africa and parts of West and East Africa. Assessment projects were implemented by a diverse community of government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and researchers. The assessments have influenced policy and management by informing extensions to and management of formal protected area networks supporting decision‐making for sustainable development, and informing ecosystem conservation and threat abatement within boundaries of PCAs and in surrounding landscapes and seascapes. We recommend further integration of risk assessments in environmental policy and enhanced investment in ecosystem red‐list assessment to fill current gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The climate crisis looms but support for fuel taxation is low. How to boost support? The obvious way is to make the connection to the climate crisis explicit. Many observers fear, however, that policy myopia renders this strategy ineffective: As the consequences of the climate crisis are long‐term and insecure, people are loath to pay for costly countermeasures in the short term. We look at policy distraction as a second potential drag. We argue that climate crisis‐induced support for fuel taxation can also be undermined by other salient events which divert attention. To test our argument, we conduct a large‐scale survey experiment with more than 21,000 respondents in 17 European countries. Our results show that a simple climate crisis prime raises support for fuel taxation by 12 percentage points. The effect decreases but remains substantial when stressing the long time horizon of the climate crisis. It almost disappears when other current crises (COVID‐19 and Russian military aggression) are mentioned. Thus, distraction by concurrent events is a serious impediment to mobilising support for fuel taxation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy responses to the challenges associated with environmental change, including more frequent and severe climatic events, have interlinked environmental and social impacts. Less attention has been afforded to the latter, and specifically to the question of not just whether but how such responses create or entrench inequality. This paper examines policy responses to drought events in California, United States, and the Western Cape Province, South Africa, in terms of their effects on inequality, revealed in relationships to water access networks. We use concepts of water justice and hydraulic citizenship to evaluate how and why these policy responses reproduced water injustices in the two settings. We focus particularly on two mechanisms linking responses to widened inequalities: values‐reinforcement and strategic communication. Using interviews, policy documents, and media reports, we employ process tracing methods to illustrate these mechanisms through which drought policy impacts hydraulic citizenship experiences, manifesting water injustice. We contribute to emerging examinations of environmental policy responses and maladaptation by demonstrating how concepts of hydraulic citizenship and an emphasis on mechanisms can help us better understand and identify experiences of water injustice. We note policy implications and areas for future research, highlighting droughts as consequential policy sites for advancing social and environmental justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This article examines the relationship between environmental health threats, personal experiences with climate change, and their association with attitudes toward global warming and willingness to pay for clean energy. Methods: Using a nationally representative survey of Latino adults (n = 1200), we use categorical regressions to examine the relationship between environmental health threats and policy preferences. Results: Latinos who have personally experienced climate change and who view air pollution as a threat, are more likely to be concerned with climate change and believe that passing stricter environmental laws will improve the economy as opposed to reduce econonic growth. Latinos who have experienced climate change and worry about the impact of climate change in their homeland are also more willing to pay $5 or $10 for clean energy. Conclusion: This study has implications for our collective knowledge of Latinos' connections to the environment and policy outcomes and contributes to the growing area of environmental public opinion among ethno‐racial groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different streams of political research have pointed to two macro-phenomena that appear as opposite at first glance: On the one hand, the increasing delegation of competencies to jurisdictions beyond the central government, resulting in the denationalization of political authority. On the other, the passing of reforms that reassert the centre of the nation state through policy integration and administrative coordination. In this article, we argue that these two processes can be analysed under a unified framework in terms of multilevel dynamics, whereby delegation ultimately elicits recentring reforms at the national level. To examine this argument and break down the mechanisms at work, we develop two sets of hypotheses: first, we theorise how the delegation of competencies to international organisations, sub-national entities and independent agencies can eventually trigger recentring reforms; second, we propose that the capacity to act attributed to these actors also shapes such reforms. Our empirical analysis relies on an original dataset across four policy fields and 13 countries. By using multilevel regression models, we show that especially the delegation of competencies to agencies at the national level as well as the double delegation to European agencies increases the probability that governments pass recentring reforms. Furthermore, if these agencies have a stronger capacity to act, recentring becomes more likely. Our findings contribute to the development of multilevel governance as a dynamic theory of policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to examine the impact of economic growth, economic uncertainty, health expenditure, environmental policy and life expectancy on human health in China through the application of simultaneous quantile regression analysis. The results of the study suggest that economic growth, environmental policy and life expectancy are found to have a positive and statistically significant impact on human health while economic uncertainty, health expenditure negatively impact human health in China. During periods of economic uncertainty, individuals tend to prioritise attending to immediate needs, potentially leading to a decrease in social cooperation and negative impacts on both physical and financial well‐being. The enhancement of financial development has the potential to stimulate investments in private sector health infrastructure, whilst policymakers can play a crucial role in augmenting public sector expenditure. In order to promote the improvement of human health and well‐being both domestically in China and internationally, it is imperative for authorities to give precedence to the implementation of sustainable environmental practises and allocate resources towards the development of healthcare infrastructure. These efforts should align with the objectives outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with special emphasis on SDG 13, which pertains to climate action, and SDG 3, which focuses on good health and well‐being. The results of this study provide empirical evidence that lends support to the implementation of policies that aim to achieve a harmonious equilibrium between economic, environmental and health considerations, thereby fostering sustainable development and promoting equitable health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity compensation policies have emerged around the world to address the ecological harms of infrastructure expansion, but historically compliance is weak. The Westminster government is introducing a requirement that new infrastructure developments in England demonstrate they achieve a biodiversity net gain (BNG). We sought to determine the magnitude of the effects of governance gaps and regulator capacity constraints on the policy's potential biodiversity impacts. We collated BNG information from all new major developments across six early‐adopter councils from 2020 to 2022. We quantified the proportion of the biodiversity outcomes promised under BNG at risk of noncompliance, explored the variation in strategies used to meet developers' biodiversity liabilities, and quantified the occurrence of simple errors in the biodiversity metric calculations. For large developments and energy infrastructure, biodiversity liabilities frequently met within the projects' development footprint. For small developments, the purchase of offsets was most common. We estimated that 27% of all biodiversity units fell into governance gaps that exposed them to a high risk of noncompliance because they were associated with better‐condition habitats delivered on‐site that were unlikely to be monitored or enforced. More robust governance mechanisms (e.g., practical mechanisms for monitoring and enforcement) would help ensure the delivery of this biodiversity on‐site. Alternatively, more biodiversity gains could be delivered through off‐site biodiversity offsetting. For the latter case, we estimated that the demand for offsets could rise by a factor of 4; this would substantially increase the financial contributions from developers for conservation activities on private land. Twenty‐one percent of development applications contained a simple recurring error in their BNG calculations. One‐half of these applications were approved by councils, which may indicate under‐resourcing in council development assessments. Our findings demonstrate that resourcing and governance shortfalls risk undermining the policy's effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of circular economy (CE) is proposed to lead humanity toward a sustainable future. Public authorities increasingly build on CE narratives. The progress of private sector actors is key to enable more circular resource flows. Still, the world falls far short from becoming circular and large‐scale implementation of CE in actual problem–solution spaces is scarce. This study sheds light into the external strategies of circular start‐ups (CSUs) in building an adequate socio‐institutional embedding for circular business models (CBMs) and puts the findings in the context of CE and sustainability transformations research. CSUs are a distinct group of CE‐oriented actors that build and implement CBMs wholistically and from scratch. Thereby, they can directly and indirectly contribute to the creation of circular innovation systems. This study defines the common CE mission of CSUs, sets it in context of respective socio‐political CE missions, and scrutinizes the roles that CSUs adopt to drive systemic CE implementation. We observe that CSUs' strategic interventions go further than only novelty creation. This article proposes and elaborates on four roles that CSUs adopt: conveners, reinforcers, pioneers, and champions. The roles differ according to the CSU business models, stakeholders, the institutional elements that are addressed, as well as the directionalities that CSUs set. The findings are discussed considering the governance, policies, and strategic management of various directionalities in which CE innovation develops. It sheds light on inadequacies and limitations for bottom‐up CE innovation in existing norms and cognition, policy, and network governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The escalating levels of CO2 emissions from the transportation sector have been observed to exert deleterious effects on human well‐being and environmental sustainability. To mitigate these emissions, it is imperative to consider the potential contributions of environmental policies and financial innovation. Thus, this study examines the effects of financial innovation and environmental policy (environmental tax–environmental technology) on transport‐related CO2 emission (TCO2E) for BICS (i.e., Brazil, India, China and South Africa), which are characterized by substantial industrialization, rising TCO2E and growing environmental concerns. The analysis is complemented by including control variables, notably economic growth and the transition to cleaner energy, to offer a nuanced and holistic perspective on the dynamics governing this critical subject matter. The research adopts a novel econometric approach cross‐sectionally augmented auto‐regressive distributed lags for benchmark estimation and fully modified ordinary least squares–dynamic ordinary least squares for robustness analysis from 2000/Q1‐2018/Q4. The findings revealed that financial innovation and economic growth bolster TCO2E and decrease environmental quality in the region. In contrast, environmental tax, environmental innovation and energy transition decrease TCO2E. Based on findings, policy suggestions relating to implementing a carbon tax, promoting green financial innovation and others are discussed to decrease TCO2E. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014, The Public Religion Research Institute and the American Academy of Religion released a report called Believers, Sympathizers, & Skeptics: Why Americans Are Conflicted About Climate Change, Environmental Policy, and Science, which found that a total of 78% of Jewish Americans considered climate change a "crisis" or a "major problem." (Jones et al., 2014, p. 12). In this article, I argue that even as Jewish perspectives on climate change and the environment are varied, there are significant resources within the Jewish tradition that contributed to the development and growth of Jewish environmentalism and climate change activism and advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The augmented resource consumption, higher demand for resources, and limited supply promote a major resource crisis in a number of the largest economies. This crisis upsurges the ecological footprint (EF) augmenting the process of resource depletion and enhancing ecological degradation. Against this backdrop, this investigation aims to apprehend the interplay between environmental policy, socioeconomic conditions (SEC), financial globalization (FG), renewable energy (RN), and the EF within the top 10 economies. Driven by their massive economic growth, the top 10 economies have become entangled in a vicious cycle of resource consumption and environmental degradation. To understand these relationships, the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MM‐QR) is adopted, which helps to identify the impacts of regressors on EF from 2000 to 2021. The findings of this analysis denote that environmental taxes (ETX) reduce the EF in the context of top economies without much variation. RN bolsters reductions in the EF, displaying an escalating impact that ranges from the 10th to the 90th quantiles. FG reduces the EF across various quantiles, with its effects stimulating from lower to upper quantiles. The findings did not reveal any statistically significant effects of SEC on the EF. Additionally, the study observed a U‐shaped relationship between EF and economic growth, indicating a potential escalation of environmental issues with further development in the upcoming years. The study provides in‐depth policy directions for increasing the utilization of renewables and enhancing the FG to enhance environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by the difficulty of ensuring gender equality and the chaotic state of democracy, we analyze the effects of gender political inclusion and democracy on environmental policy performance. The study uses a panel of 45 African countries over the period 2012–2018 and employs the method of moments by quantile regression. The results show that gender political inclusion and democracy positively affect environmental performance in all quantiles. These positive effects tend to be stronger at higher quantiles. The magnitude is larger for gender political inclusion. When performance is decomposed into the sub‐indices of environmental health and ecosystem vitality, positive effects of gender political inclusion and democracy are observed in all quantiles. The effects are larger for the gender dimension than for the democracy dimension, regardless of the sub‐index used. Related Articles: Bingham, Natasha. 2016. "Fighting for Our Cause: The Impact of Women's NGOs on Gender Policy Adoption in Four Former Soviet Republics." Politics & Policy 44(2): 294–318. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12155. Hankivsky, Olena. 2013. "Gender Mainstreaming: A Five‐Country Examination." Politics & Policy 41(5): 629–55. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12037. Nchofoung, Tii, Simplice Asongu, Vanessa Tchamyou, and Ofeh Edoh. 2022. "Gender, Political Inclusion, and Democracy in Africa: Some Empirical Evidence." Politics & Policy 51(1): 137–155. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12505. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring that farmers' ex ante preferences are accounted for is crucial for the design of effective agri‐environmental contracts. We present a systematic review of 127 discrete choice experiment (DCE) studies of farmers' preferences with respect to agri‐environmental contracts. DCE studies evaluate two central features of farmers' behaviour: (1) their willingness to accept land use prescriptions, such as fertiliser use, application of pesticides, restrictions on cropping, livestock management, integration of silvopasture, maintaining soil health or water use restrictions; and (2) their responses to variations in incentive and commitment criteria, such as reward schemes, monitoring regimes, technical assistance, flexibility of agreements, administrative burden and collaborative implementation. Our analysis considers how these different elements are interlinked and applied in experiments to simulate farmers' decision‐making processes. We examine recent methodological improvements in explaining farmer behaviour, including the accommodation of preference heterogeneity, the combining of discrete (enrolment) and continuous decisions, and the incorporation of farmers' sense of identity. DCEs have been applied for the ex ante analysis of different policy instruments to inform the European Common Agricultural Policy and agri‐environmental schemes outside the EU. The results of this systematic review may be useful in informing the future design of such agri‐environmental programmes. The database underpinning this systematic literature review may help peer scientists to (a) compare, validate and triangulate their own findings with respect to other experimental approaches, (b) use previous willingness‐to‐accept (WTA) measures as priors for their own study design, and (c) identify research gaps regarding farmers' preferences for agri‐environmental measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today's global economy faces the most devastating challenges of global warming occasioned by overdependence on natural resources. Besides, the dilemma of choosing between economic benefits and environmental costs emanating from natural resources heightens the empirical relevance of green energy in recent times. To solve this developmental puzzle, the current study presents extends the knowledge frontier by evaluating the impacts of natural resource dependence, green energy (captured by biofuels and renewable energy), carbon tax, and technological innovation on environmental sustainability in G7 economies. The empirical model endogenizes environmental policy stringency and financial development from 1996 to 2019. The empirical verification anchors on second‐generation estimators entailing Cross‐Sectional Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CS‐ARDL), Common Correlated Effects Mean Group (CCEMG), augmented mean group (AMG), and novel Method of Moment Quantile Regression (MMQR). The fallouts from the analyses uncover that natural resource dependence militates against the attainment of the sustainability blueprint by escalating the surge in CO2 emissions in G7 countries. Similarly, the feedbacks from financial development support the surge in emissions. On the flip side, green energy, technological innovation, carbon tax, and environmental policy appear as effective tools for mitigating the surge. The Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) estimator for the country‐specific analysis corroborates the panel findings. Additionally, two channels of causalities, including unidirectional and bidirectional nexuses, are apparent from the estimated model. Policy measures are suggested based on empirical findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Germany has set an ambitious goal of meeting the recommendations of COP‐26 and reducing its carbon intensity to zero by 2045. Germany is a leader in environmental patents after the United States, Japan, and South Korea, and the environmental implications of Germany's leadership in eco‐innovation hold important clues for achieving net zero goals. In particular, the European Union is one of the global communities making the greatest efforts to combat emissions, and the success of the leading role of environmental patents in this Union in reducing CO2 emissions is an important research topic for scholars. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of environmental patents on CO2 emissions under the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in Germany. To this end, the study applies Bayer–Hanck and Fourier ADL approaches from 1970 to 2019. The main findings do not confirm the EKC hypothesis, while environmental patents play an active role in CO2 reduction. Based on these outcomes, Germany should consider a long‐term green policy to decouple economic growth and emissions. At the same time, German policy should promote the development and application of environmental patents to achieve the net zero targets for 2045. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Review of Policy Research recently published three special issues on policy process research in China, artificial intelligence, and climate policies. The current issue focuses on perception and performance in environmental policy, examining how policy actors and the public perceive policy making and the conditions for achieving environmental policy objectives. The articles cover various topics, including emotions in policy conflicts, coalition formation, public communication strategies, public support for climate change mitigation, energy efficiency, coordination of the energy transition, policy analytical capacity, performance measurement in water pollution remediation, and campaign-style enforcement in environmental governance. The research provides valuable insights into environmental policy and offers opportunities for interdisciplinary research. [Extracted from the article]

Affordable housing that incorporates sustainability goals into its design has the potential to address both health and economic disparities via enhanced energy‐efficiency, structural durability and indoor environmental quality. Despite the potential for these win‐win advances, survey data of U.S. local governments indicate these types of equity investments remain rare. This study explores barriers and pathways to distributional equity via energy‐efficient housing. Using archival city sustainability survey data collected during a period of heightened U.S. federal investment in local government energy‐efficiency programs, we combine machine learning (ML) and process‐tracing approaches for modeling the complex drivers and barriers underlying these decisions. First, we ask, how do characteristics of a city's organizational learning methods—its administrative structure, past experience with housing programs, resources, stakeholder engagement and planning—predict policy commitments to green affordable housing? Using ensemble ML methods, we find that three specific modes of organizational learning—past experience with affordable housing programs, seeking assistance from neighborhood groups and the technical expertise of professional green organizations—are the most impactful features in determining city commitments to constructing green affordable housing. Our second stage uses process‐tracing within a specific case identified by the ML models to determine the ordering of these factors and to provide more nuance on green‐housing policy implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When advocating for policy change, coalitions rely on various elements and strategies of policy narratives, including emotions. However, past research on the Narrative Policy Framework, and more broadly on the policy process, has largely ignored the role of emotions. This paper argues that emotions, such as anger and fear, are central to how coalitions advocate for policy change. It explores the role of anger and fear in policy narratives by examining the oral testimony (n = 474) given over four legislative committee hearings in March 2019 concerning Colorado Senate Bill 19‐181. This bill changed the mission of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to prioritize protecting the environment and public health over oil and gas development. This research finds the coalition that successfully supported the bill used anger towards the oil and gas industry, while those that opposed the bill relied more on fear of the uncertain consequences of the bill. It also finds the coalition that opposed the bill relied on self‐characterization as heroes and victims, which was a failed strategy. The implications for this research on the Narrative Policy Framework and, more broadly, for the policy process and advocacy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the documentary Resurrección (Eugenio Polgovksy, 2016), which deals with the catastrophic contamination of Jalisco's River Santiago by industrial waste. It discusses the slow violence of environmental poisoning in this region as a form of necropolitics and of wastelanding, and the campaign of collective Un Salto de Vida, who feature prominently in the film, for a clean river. It goes on to explore the heterogenous worlds and uncanny, sensorial aesthetics that characterise the film, arguing that through them, it makes a significant contribution to the search for visual forms through which to represent eco‐catastrophe, and the reconfigured relationship between human and non‐human required to address it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As environmental challenges continue to escalate, policymakers around the globe are prioritizing green growth (GG). This is complicated by the impact of two crucial factors, namely economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and environmental policy stringency (EPI), on the estimates for GG. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of these variables on GG while controlling trade and human development in International Energy Agency member countries from 1990 to 2020. After establishing the existence of a long‐run relationship through the Westerlund cointegration test, the Panel Mean Group autoregressive distributed lag, FMOLS, and DOLS are employed. The findings show that EPU has an inverse impact while EPI positively impacts GG in the long run. Additionally, in Brazil, China, Denmark, and Sweden, the error correction model indicates that EPU has a negative relationship, while EPI has a positive relationship with GG in the short run. Furthermore, a feedback causality was detected between GG, EPU, EPI, and Human Development Index. However, unidirectional causality has been captured running from trade to GG. This research also presents some new insights for policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emissions trading schemes (ETS) have spread across the globe to tackle climate change. However, limited attention has been given to how ETS characteristics and designs differ and why. We use the concept of institutional complementarity to explore how the EU ETS and South Korea's ETS (K‐ETS) adapt to complement established political economy. The EU ETS is characterized as a market with stakeholder ownership, while the K‐ETS is more regulatory in nature with government leadership. The EU ETS complements a decentralized political system with liberalized energy market, and the K‐ETS became compatible with the centralized majoritarian politics and a regulated electricity market. The ETSs have evolved incrementally, and they are not likely to link in the foreseeable future due to divergence. We suggest a strong focus on "how to adapt" an ETS to its own institution rather than adopting the established blueprint model in countries with a strong regulatory style of governance. Related Articles: Caliskan, Cantay. 2020. "The Influence of Elite Networks on Green Policy Making." Politics & Policy 48(6): 1104–37. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12382. Tanaka, Yugo, Andrew Chapman, Tetsuo Tezuka, and Shigeki Sakurai. 2020. "Multiple Streams and Power Sector Policy Change: Evidence from the Feed‐In Tariff Policy Process in Japan." Politics & Policy 48(3): 464–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12357. von Malmborg, Fredrik. 2023. "Combining the Advocacy Coalition Framework and Argumentative Discourse Analysis: The Case of the 'Energy Efficiency First' Principle in EU Energy and Climate Policy." Politics & Policy 51(2): 222–41. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12525. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The limitations and possibilities of the state in solving societal problems are perennial issues in the political and policy sciences and increasingly so in studies of environmental politics. With the aim of better understanding the role of the state in addressing environmental degradation through policy making, this article investigates the nexus between the environmental policy outputs and the environmental performance. Drawing on three theoretical perspectives on the state and market nexus in the environmental dilemma, we identify five distinct pathways. We then examine the extent to which these pathways are manifested in the real world. Our empirical investigation covers up to 37 countries for the period 1970–2010. While we see no global pattern of linkages between policy outputs and performance, our exploratory analysis finds evidence of policy effects, which suggest that the state can, under certain circumstances, improve the environment through policy making. Related Articles: Båtstrand, Sondre. 2015. "More than Markets: A Comparative Study of Nine Conservative Parties on Climate Change." Politics & Policy 43(4): 538–61. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12122. Tawiah, Vincent. 2022. "Does Political Ideology Affect the Stringency of Environmental Policy?" Politics & Policy 50(3): 631–53. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12465. Viniegra, María Eugenia Ibarrarán, and Salimah Mónica Cossens González. 2007. "Climate Change Research and Policy in Mexico: Implications for North American Security." Politics & Policy 35(4): 684–701. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2007.00080.x. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decades of research indicate that most Census‐measured U.S. racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately impacted by environmental disamenities, all else equal; the study of this is referred to as Environmental Justice (EJ) research. Yet both U.S. and world history show that another minoritized group is religious minorities. If so, this has health consequences and policy implications. Houses of worship (HOWs) are visible and physical symbols of religion. We use tax records to locate Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist or Hindu HOWs within census tracts for the entire contiguous United States. We combine these data with EJSCREEN data to analyze whether air pollution risks are greater in their presence. We find that, even holding constant race, ethnicity, and poverty, two non‐census‐measured religious minorities' HOWs are disproportionately impacted by air pollution in the United States: Jews and Muslims. This new knowledge has consequences for EJ policy and social justice‐motivated environmental research. Related Articles: Ash, John. 2010. "New Nuclear Energy, Risk, and Justice: Regulatory Strategies for an Era of Limited Trust." Politics & Policy 38(2): 255–84. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2010.00237.x. Fowler, Luke. 2022. "Searching for Green Elephants and Other Mythical Creatures during the Trump Years: Partisanship and Congressional Voting on Environmental Legislation." Politics & Policy 50(5): 913–41. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12499. Tubadji, Annie. 2023. "You'll Never Walk Alone: Loneliness, Religion, and Politico‐economic Transformation." Politics & Policy 51(4): 661–95. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12538. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the island of Guåhan (Guam) native and endemic species are an integral part of the CHamoru language, rituals, and practices. They are interconnected with their culture and honored together with the ocean, the land, and their ancestors. Presently, this spiritual connection is being jeopardized as military expansion threatens the sacred lands of Tailalo' and Litekyan. Phylogenetic and ethnographic research, connected to the principles of environmental justice, has brought attention to the social movement to protect the last håyun lågu tree (Serianthes nelsonii) at Tailalo'. This opinion piece is a rallying cry to safeguard the last håyun lågu and to confront the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act and the U.S. Endangered Species Act, as its regulations do not mirror the island's social and cultural system and fail to incorporate Indigenous and scientific perspectives to protect Indigenous biocultural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2023, Brazil achieved positive environmental strides in the Amazon, with a 22% reduction in deforestation rates and a 16% decline in total fire counts compared with 2022, attributed to renewed environmental policy implementation. However, despite progress, deforestation remains above the target, and forest wildfires in old‐growth Amazonian forests surged by 152% in 2023 versus 2022, threatening biodiversity and carbon stocks. The rise in fires poses challenges for traditional farmers, impacts urban areas' air quality, and necessitates urgent measures like enhanced firefighting capabilities and long‐term strategies for fire‐free production chains to protect the Amazonian standing forests—a global socio‐environmental asset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Action to pursue the circular economy (CE) transition is burgeoning in the government and the private sector. Does this action signal that CE is a distinct field of research with a unique disciplinary identity? This article argues that CE has reached field status, through its own epistemic communities characterized by increasingly shared methodological perspectives and normative ideals, and through institutionalized knowledge development through research journals and authority structures. The recent growth of CE research points toward more contextualized and nuanced operationalizations of the concept, evidence that the field is approaching a threshold state of maturity. Drawing on observations from academic literature and discussions with researchers and experts, we trace the process by which CE has arrived at the status of a field. The article concludes with reflections on research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the nature of climate change education-related policy influence in England at a time when public consciousness about the need to accelerate climate change action was heightened, and as the 2018 climate strikes gathered momentum around the world. Informed by Foucault's concept of 'governmentalities', and using data generated through 24 exploratory interviews and reflexive thematic analysis, we examine the extent to which influential individuals were advocating for policy change. We discuss the nature of policy influence with particular reference to the 'stances' that individuals adopted relative to climate change education policy influence and noting a common tendency exhibited amongst participants which was a tendency towards 'deference'. Coupling our insights with theorisations of dissent, we consider how 'infra-political dissent' could support key individuals to 'step up' and influence for more effective policy relative to climate change education, and to other areas of education or environment policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Motivation: There has been growing interest in recent years in a better understanding of knowledge/science and policy co‐production in environmental governance. Purpose: We aim to shed more light on the politics among the numerous actors shaping ideas that drive environmental policy in Indonesia. We focus our theoretical engagement on a framing of bureaucratic politics, which is a research tradition that has made various strides in explaining the formal and non‐formal processes that influence environmental governance outcomes. Methods and approach: Building from a wide range of case studies drawn from deep engagement of participatory research in policy‐making in Indonesia, we established a simple typology that helps explain eight categories that emerge when bureaucracies, knowledge institutions, and publics come together to shape environmental governance outcomes. Findings: The bureaucratic politics specifically clarified the features of cases that have clear fragmentation of bureaucracy but clear explanation variables from the formal and informal interest of bureaucracy. Potential uncovered by bureaucratic politics framing means that, if the metapolitical works alter, the bureaucracy works smoothly or makes it impossible for bureaucracy to operationalize their formal and informal interest in capturing the dynamics of macro and micro politics. In terms of form of knowledge, knowledge produced "from below" can also be used in policy co‐production. It can be produced by non‐expert actors, or from dialogue among them and sympathetic experts that occur below the bureaucracy's radar (people‐driven). Policy implications: Our ideal policy co‐production implication is where the three actors have a strong foundation of "common consciousness" and interact equally to address a particular environmental policy agenda, with enough working space to jointly commit to creating the knowledge base to shape policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Public opinion has a dynamic relationship with policy and real‐world outcomes in liberal settings where reliable information is abundant. In these settings, the public continuously updates its opinions with reliable policy‐relevant information, and the changes in public opinion go on to affect policy and outcomes. It is unknown whether this dynamic exists in illiberal settings where the public's access to reliable information is heavily restricted. Objectives: This article advances a theory of public opinion's dynamic relationship with policy and outcomes that applies to illiberal settings. Methods: Our study examines a vital public good in one of the world's most restrictive information environments and estimates a dynamic model of relationships among three variables—public opinion, policy, and outcomes—with a focus on public opinion and outcomes as the key dependent variables. The analysis looks at air pollution remediation in 274 Chinese localities. Results: We find that public opinion reacts to objective air pollution outcomes and not to misleading information that downplays air pollution severity, which suggests the public can accurately evaluate the reliability of available information. We also find that local public opinion's impact on local air pollution is substantively meaningful on timescales as short as 1 to 2 years, indicating that the additional policy effort prompted by public opinion change is sufficient to yield tangible real‐world outcomes even in the short term. Conclusion: Public opinion has a dynamic relationship with policy and real‐world outcomes even in highly illiberal settings. We argue that these findings are likely to generalize across issue domains with outcomes that can be directly observed by the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artisanal and small‐scale gold mining (ASGM), a wealth‐generating industry in many regions, is nonetheless a global challenge for governance and a threat to biodiversity, public health, and ecosystem integrity. In 2019, the Peruvian government mobilized a targeted, large‐scale armed intervention against illegal ASGM, which has caused deforestation and water resource degradation in this Tropical Biodiversity Hotspot. Before the intervention, the extent of waterbodies created by mining (mining ponds) was increasing by 33%–90%/year; after, they decreased by 4%–5%/year in targeted zones. Mining activity indicators showed 70%–90% abandonment. New mining activity accelerated in nearby areas outside the targeted area (pond area increases: 42%–83%; deforestation increases +3–5 km2/year). Far from intervention zones, mining remained stable during the study period. Our analysis demonstrates that targeted, large‐scale government intervention can have positive effects on conservation by stopping illegal mining activity and shifting it to permitted areas, thereby setting the stage for governance. Continued conservation efforts must further address the impacts of informal mining while (1) limiting environmental degradation by legal mining; (2) remediating former mining areas to reduce erosion and enable reforestation or alternative uses of the landscape; and (3) sustaining such efforts, as some miners began to return to intervention areas when enforcement relaxed in 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy is growing at a rapid pace globally but as yet there has been little research on the effects of ground‐mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) developments on bats, many species of which are threatened or protected.We conducted a paired study at 19 ground‐mounted solar PV developments in southwest England. We used static detectors to record bat echolocation calls from boundaries (i.e. hedgerows) and central locations (open areas) at fields with solar PV development, and simultaneously at matched sites without solar PV developments (control fields). We used generalised linear mixed‐effect models to assess how solar PV developments and boundary habitat affected bat activity and species richness.The activity of six of eight species/species groups analysed was negatively affected by solar PV panels, suggesting that loss and/or fragmentation of foraging/commuting habitat is caused by ground‐mounted solar PV panels. Pipistrellus pipistrellus and Nyctalus spp. activity was lower at solar PV sites regardless of the habitat type considered. Negative impacts of solar PV panels at field boundaries were apparent for the activity of Myotis spp. and Eptesicus serotinus, and in open fields for Pipistrellus pygmaeus and Plecotus spp.Bat species richness was greater along field boundaries compared with open fields, but there was no effect of solar PV panels on species richness.Policy implications: Ground‐mounted solar photovoltaic developments have a significant negative effect on bat activity, and should be considered in appropriate planning legislation and policy. Solar photovoltaic developments should be screened in Environmental Impact Assessments for ecological impacts, and appropriate mitigation (e.g. maintaining boundaries, planting vegetation to network with surrounding foraging habitat) and monitoring should be implemented to highlight potential negative effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity offsetting is a globally influential policy mechanism for reconciling trade‐offs between development and biodiversity loss. However, there is little robust evidence of its effectiveness. We evaluated the outcomes of a jurisdictional offsetting policy (Victoria, Australia). Offsets under Victoria's Native Vegetation Framework (2002–2013) aimed to prevent loss and degradation of remnant vegetation, and generate gains in vegetation extent and quality. We categorised offsets into those with near‐complete baseline woody vegetation cover ("avoided loss", 2702 ha) and with incomplete cover ("regeneration", 501 ha), and evaluated impacts on woody vegetation extent from 2008 to 2018. We used two approaches to estimate the counterfactual. First, we used statistical matching on biophysical covariates: a common approach in conservation impact evaluation, but which risks ignoring potentially important psychosocial confounders. Second, we compared changes in offsets with changes in sites that were not offsets for the study duration but were later enrolled as offsets, to partially account for self‐selection bias (where landholders enrolling land may have shared characteristics affecting how they manage land). Matching on biophysical covariates, we estimated that regeneration offsets increased woody vegetation extent by 1.9%–3.6%/year more than non‐offset sites (138–180 ha from 2008 to 2018) but this effect weakened with the second approach (0.3%–1.9%/year more than non‐offset sites; 19–97 ha from 2008 to 2018) and disappeared when a single outlier land parcel was removed. Neither approach detected any impact of avoided loss offsets. We cannot conclusively demonstrate whether the policy goal of 'net gain' (NG) was achieved because of data limitations. However, given our evidence that the majority of increases in woody vegetation extent were not additional (would have happened without the scheme), a NG outcome seems unlikely. The results highlight the importance of considering self‐selection bias in the design and evaluation of regulatory biodiversity offsetting policy, and the challenges of conducting robust impact evaluations of jurisdictional biodiversity offsetting policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This policy paper uses the Eightfold Path method developed by Bardach and Patashnik to study the problem that is the lack of Maghrebian trans‐boundary cooperation on the environment. It argues that political conflict has been allowed to obstruct a field that should remain nonpolitical. The paper concludes with policy recommendations intended to generate debate among decision makers and lead to more effective water management policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy conflicts are ubiquitous in many countries. Yet research on policy conflict is typically based on cases in western, democratic countries. As a result, little is known about the characteristics of policy conflicts in non‐western countries, such as China, or how these characteristics compare to western contexts. The Policy Conflict Framework (PCF) was recently developed to help scholars identify, diagnose, and compare policy conflict characteristics. This research uses the PCF to guide a comparative analysis of the nature of policy conflicts in China and the United States. With interview data on policy actors from Chongqing, China and Colorado, USA, we present the findings by comparing the differences and similarities of policy conflicts in the two countries around shale oil and gas development. We conclude with the strengths and limitations of this comparative study of policy conflicts in China and other national contexts, along with recommendations for conducting PCF research in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of green growth emphasizes environmental and climate policies that make economic activities more sustainable while contributing to higher growth. In developing countries, the ability of such policies to help solve the most pressing economic challenges is essential for green growth to be a viable concept. Notably, current account deficits, foreign exchange shortage and external debt accumulation are serious obstacles to economic development. The analysis in this article therefore approaches green growth from a new perspective. With a focus on energy, the article estimates the impact of the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy on the balance‐of‐payments constrained growth of energy‐importing developing and emerging economies. It assumes that their current economic structure otherwise remains the same. Since renewable energy production is more efficient than fossil fuel combustion and reduces import dependence, the energy transition increases the annual balance‐of‐payments constrained growth rate of the selected countries by up to 2.5 percentage points on average in a scenario from the present until 2050. This means that policies in favour of renewable energy allow those countries to grow faster without accumulating foreign debt or even triggering currency crises. Consequently, staying with the current fossil fuel‐based energy system implies missing a significant potential for growth and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ways in which people conceptualize the human–nature relationship have significant implications for proenvironmental values and attitudes, sustainable behavior, and environmental policy measures. Human exceptionalism (HE) is one such conceptual framework, involving the belief that humans and human societies exist independently of the ecosystems in which they are embedded, promoting a sharp ontological boundary between humans and the rest of the natural world. In this paper, we introduce HE in more depth, exploring the impact of HE on perceptions of the human–nature relationship, the role of culture in HE, and speculating on the origins of HE. We consider potential implications for environmental decision‐making, conservation and environmental science, and promoting proenvironmental behavior. We present empirical evidence on the pervasiveness and consequences of HE in WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) populations, and potential interventions. Finally, we close with implications of human‐exceptionalist thinking on other sustainability‐related fields, including conservation practices, nature management, climate change adaptation, and environmental science. Understanding the cognitive and social drivers of this disconnect is vital on a planet now dominated by environmental change, as not only are humans increasingly impacted by natural disasters, but the choices they make can have ever more dire consequences for the sustainability of ecosystems. Understanding people's conceptions of nature and the human‐nature relationship is important for understanding pro‐environmental values, attitudes, and behavior. We discuss human exceptionalism, a conceptual framework promoting beliefs that humans and human societies are ontologically distinct from non‐human living beings and natural ecosystems, and implications of this framework for environmental decision‐making, conservation, environmental science, and promoting pro‐environmental behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our planet is facing increasing challenges: climate change, biodiversity loss, pandemics, poverty, and many other problems closely linked to a deteriorating environment. Meanwhile, one of our most important assets, rangers working in protected and conserved areas responsible for managing large tracts of the planet's lands and waters, are often underutilized, underrecognized and underequipped. They are generally left out of the debate about conservation and sustainable development policy, despite being central to the success of those policies. This paper outlines the need for global leaders across multiple sectors to recognize the profession of rangers as essential planetary health workers and to position rangers more effectively within global conservation and environmental policy mechanisms. It introduces the challenges facing rangers, the emerging diversity of roles within the ranger profession and the important contribution of rangers to conservation and sustainable development. It presents policy and implementation avenues to improve recognition and professionalization of rangers as key executors of conservation and development policy, particularly considering the recent Global Biodiversity Framework ambitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do presidential climate change narratives increase related congressional attention in the United States? Narrative theory says since narratives leverage cognitive heuristics, they should focus policy‐making attention in institutions more efficiently than non‐narrative statements. This study identifies and tests climate change statements and narratives, including those focused on solutions, or “stories of hope,” and those focused on problems and victims, “stories of fear,” for relationships with congressional attention using time series analysis. Findings suggest a relationship between narrative and hearings, but not for non‐narrative statements and hearings. Furthermore, while narratives are related to hearings generally, stories of fear have larger effects, but only in conditions of single party control of the US Presidency and Congress. This analysis supports theory about narratives and institutional influence and offers the additional concept of stories of fear and hope as impactful on political institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the European Union's main instrument for agricultural planning, with a new reform approved for 2023–2027. The CAP intends to align with the European Green Deal (EGD), a set of policy initiatives underpinning sustainable development and climate neutrality in the European Union (EU), but several flaws cast doubts about the compatibility of the objectives of these 2 policies. We reviewed recent literature on the potential of CAP environmental objectives for integration with the EGD: protection of biodiversity, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and sustainable management of natural resources. The CAP lacks appropriate planning measures, furthering instead risks to biodiversity and ecosystem services driven by landscape and biotic homogenization. Funding allocation mechanisms are not tailored to mitigate agricultural emissions, decreasing the efficiency of climate mitigation actions. The legislation subsidies farmers making extensive use of synthetic inputs without adequately supporting organic production, hindering the transition toward sustainable practices. We recommend proper control mechanisms be introduced in CAP Strategic Plans from each member state to ensure the EU is set on a sustainable production and consumption path. These include proportional assignment of funds to each CAP objective, quantitative targets to set goals and evidence‐based interventions, and relevant indicators to facilitate effective monitoring of environmental performance. Both the CAP and the EGD should maintain ambitious environmental commitments in the face of crisis to avoid further degradation of the natural resources on which production systems stand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of 'equity', largely grounded in Western legal tradition, has come to permeate evaluations of what is fair and just within environmental governance programmes. But what constitutes equity in climate change and conservation projects? And does everyone affected by such projects see equity as desirable? Local encounters with global environmental governance interventions in Suau, Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea, provide an entry point to explore these questions. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with communities implicated in the Central Suau Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) Pilot Project and in Save the Forest conservation projects, we examine tensions around conceptions of equity and equality between project proponents and local communities, as well as between individuals within those communities. By paying attention to talk about pigs in Suau, and tracing the intersections between reciprocity and trade, we explore how people negotiate equity and equality. We emphasize that this negotiation is central to Suau ideas of fairness. While the REDD+ and Save the Forest projects work to ensure 'equitable' distribution of benefits among supposedly equivalent actors, we show how this may actually close down possibilities for negotiation of outcomes that local people consider fair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is the second most populous country in the world and stood at seventh rank in a major climate risk index in 2019, which is a grave concern for the Indian government, policymakers and environmentalists. Therefore, the present study examines the role of fiscal policy and monetary policy instruments along with select macroeconomic variables on carbon emission in India over the period 1971–2019 in the non‐linear framework. The outcome of the study reveals that the impact of fiscal and monetary policy instruments on carbon emission is asymmetric in nature. In addition, the positive and negative shocks in fiscal and monetary policy instruments have a positive and negative impact on carbon emissions, respectively. Based on the coefficients' magnitude, the role of fiscal policy instruments has a more prominent effect on carbon emissions than monetary policy instruments. The findings of the study imply that the Indian government is required to implement green fiscal and monetary policies. Use fiscal policy to implement a 'green tax ratio' and a 'green subsidy programme' for manufacturers and investors to reduce CO2 emissions. A 'green lending programme' should be introduced for commercial banks by implementing monetary policy via the central bank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While chemicals are vital to modern society through materials, agriculture, textiles, new technology, medicines, and consumer goods, their use is not without risks. Unfortunately, our resources seem inadequate to address the breadth of chemical challenges to the environment and human health. Therefore, it is important we use our intelligence and knowledge wisely to prepare for what lies ahead. The present study used a Delphi‐style approach to horizon‐scan future chemical threats that need to be considered in the setting of chemicals and environmental policy, which involved a multidisciplinary, multisectoral, and multinational panel of 25 scientists and practitioners (mainly from the United Kingdom, Europe, and other industrialized nations) in a three‐stage process. Fifteen issues were shortlisted (from a nominated list of 48), considered by the panel to hold global relevance. The issues span from the need for new chemical manufacturing (including transitioning to non‐fossil‐fuel feedstocks); challenges from novel materials, food imports, landfills, and tire wear; and opportunities from artificial intelligence, greater data transparency, and the weight‐of‐evidence approach. The 15 issues can be divided into three classes: new perspectives on historic but insufficiently appreciated chemicals/issues, new or relatively new products and their associated industries, and thinking through approaches we can use to meet these challenges. Chemicals are one threat among many that influence the environment and human health, and interlinkages with wider issues such as climate change and how we mitigate these were clear in this exercise. The horizon scan highlights the value of thinking broadly and consulting widely, considering systems approaches to ensure that interventions appreciate synergies and avoid harmful trade‐offs in other areas. We recommend further collaboration between researchers, industry, regulators, and policymakers to perform horizon scanning to inform policymaking, to develop our ability to meet these challenges, and especially to extend the approach to consider also concerns from countries with developing economies. Environ Toxicol Chem 2023;42:1212–1228. © 2023 Crown copyright and The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC. This article is published with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the King's Printer for Scotland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how preferences for public policy instruments shape policy support helps policymakers to design policies that begin to tackle large‐scale and complex problems, such as climate change. Climate change policies generate both local and global costs and benefits, which affect the public's policy preferences. In this article we investigate the role of perceived conditional cooperation and distributive concerns on climate policy attitude formation. We identify a range of climate policies and test public opinion for adoption of these policies at different scales of government. The important theoretical distinction is the scale‐driven distributional nature of policy costs and benefits as well as concerns regarding the cooperation of other actors. We use data from Sweden and a conjoint experimental design where we vary level of government, type of policy, and the targeted group. We find evidence that people support policies when costs are shared broadly. We also find that support for climate policy is conditional on expected policy adoption by other units of government at various scales. This implies that unpopular climate policies might be more popular if the funding structure of the policy allows for binding policy and that the cost‐sharing is taking place at higher levels of government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As we advance into the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, understanding the relationship between science, management, and policy is increasingly important given the paucity of research evaluating the ability of existing policy to address contemporary environmental challenges. Despite their inherent interdependence, restoration ecology as a scientific discipline, ecological restoration as a practice, and the policies driving restoration efforts do not always represent a unified force. Accenting the policies and practices within the United States, we present our perspective on challenges associated with this disunion, including those linked to social dimensions of restoration and limitations associated with existing policy. We provide a review of existing federal policy in the United States and synthesize suggestions that have emerged in the literature to fortify connections between restoration science and policy. We also describe social challenges to meeting restoration goals, including barriers surrounding power dynamics, trust, and communication, as well as divergent incentives, perspectives, and values. We propose potential solutions that exist in transdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge sharing, and evidence‐based, balanced decision‐making that equally considers varying perspectives. With the understanding that current conservation practices are not enough to mitigate environmental degradation, we focus on streamlining problem‐solving strategies to support restoration and face the widespread ecological issues of today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faced with stifling levels of airborne pollution, Chinese citizens hold the state accountable, demanding solutions through effective environmental policy. To reduce emissions, the state has set up experimental pilot carbon markets, where potential failure is cast as integral to continuing improvement. Those in charge of conceptualizing and implementing these experiments, namely carbon bureaucrats, consultants, and developers, feel their public responsibility acutely, sharpened by personal anxieties about pollution and health. But they also often perceive these carbon markets as doomed to fail, in absolute terms, in delivering decarbonization goals. Those charged with realizing carbon markets are therefore caught between, on the one hand, policy failure being folded into continual, pragmatic experimentation and, on the other, their embodied knowledge that such progressive, positively freighted failure is in fact terminal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does growing state activity inevitably lead to more complex policy systems? In this article, we offer a new, comprehensive approach that systematically differentiates between the size and the complexity of policy portfolios to answer this question. Looking at data from 21 OECD countries over more than three decades (1980–2015) in the areas of social and environmental policy, we find substantial variation in the size and complexity of policy portfolios. While larger state activity is generally associated with growing complexity, this relation still varies both between countries and over time. Our finding suggests that increasing policy complexity is not a "natural given" but that two of the major trends of the last decades—growing state activity and global political integration—provided a very fertile ground that fosters policy complexity. These findings have important implications for analyzing macro patterns of state activity in the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues different policy issue framings of climate change—ranging from security to energy, economics, humanitarian response, and health frames—play critical roles in altering policy outcomes. Specifically, we focus on the several windows of opportunity that altered the pathway of the US climate change debates from 1985 to 2017. Progressing from the underpinnings of issue framing literature and public policy discourse, we conduct content analysis of news articles, academic papers, policy documents and other archival evidence, to show why and when environmental framings shift, and to what effect. Our innovative models provide generalization of these trends and their implications for environmental agenda setting, complemented by a qualitative section that contextualizes impact as well as the feedback mechanisms of issue framing on environmental politics in the United States. The findings highlight the need for future case study analysis to trace the causal mechanisms between climate change framings and US policy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the effect of the environmental protection policies of by Cameroonian firms on their performance. It uses the endogenous switching regression technique and propensity scores applied to micro‐data from 639 firms in Cameroon. The results show that only 17% of firms adopt these measures, while on average 85% of firms produce solid, gaseous or liquid waste. The results also indicate that the adoption of these environmental protection policies increases operating costs while significantly improving the turnover and the performance of the productive capacity of the company. These increases are 39.11%, 58.6%, and 38.63% for operating costs, turnover and return on productive capacity of the company, respectively. However, firms can also suffer significant losses resulting from the non‐adoption of environmental policies. In fact, firms that do not adopt environmental protection policies have their performance reduced by an average of 1.625 percentage points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single‐use plastics (SUPs) are increasingly polluting terrestrial, coastal, and marine habits, contributing to the creeping "plastic crisis." The COVID‐19 pandemic provided a window of opportunity for decision makers to change the degree of urgency and responsiveness to this crisis and for policy entrepreneurs and industry who are against reducing plastic consumption to influence decision makers to change their position on various plastic‐related issues. Hygiene/health concerns have been used as a justification by governments and industry to increase the use of SUPs resulting in a reversal in, or a reprioritization of, policy decisions. Through the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF), I examine how creeping crises become secondary to urgent crises through agenda setting that is influenced and leveraged by policy entrepreneurs. I explore examples of such plastic policy decisions finding that they have been politically driven and influenced by entrepreneurs and industry rather than being primarily based on health concerns. Related Articles: Diaz‐Kope, Luisa, and John C. Morris. 2022. "Why Collaborate? Exploring the Role of Organizational Motivations in Cross‐sector Watershed Collaboration." Politics & Policy 50(3): 516–39. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12470. Gerlach, John David, Laron K. Williams, and Colleen E. Forcina. 2013. "The Science‐Natural Resource Policy Relationship: How Aspects of Diffusion Theory Explain Data Selection for Making Biodiversity Management Decisions." Politics & Policy 41(3): 326–54. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12017. Neill, Katharine A., and John C. Morris. 2012. "A Tangled Web of Principals and Agents: Examining the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill through a Principal–Agent Lens." Politics & Policy 40(4): 629–56. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2012.00371.x. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]