Search

Green parties have been quintessential issue owners since their founding. In recent national and European elections, however, these parties have begun to emphasize additional issues. This article seeks to understand when the greens expand their issue focus to talk about economic issues. It develops a theory of issue expansion which posits that the greens' issue expansion is related to both party competition and economic context. In particular, it posits that the size of the radical-left party and the rate of unemployment influence the degree to which green parties focus on the economy in their election manifestos. It then tests the theory on a dataset of European green parties which have run in national elections between 1981 and 2017 in 14 West and East European countries. The findings have important implications for understanding party competition in general and the issue evolution of new politics parties more specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of corporate ability, environmental attitude, and environmental knowledge on consumers’ purchase intentions, information seeking, and actual green purchase behavior; additionally, green skepticism is examined as a moderator of these relationships. A sample of Gokarn’s organic products consumers, in Tehran, is used. The structural model is examined by the partial least squares approach by using Smart PLS 2.0 software. The findings suggest that environment attitude and corporate ability are the main factors in building green purchase intentions and information seeking, while environmental knowledge is not a significant predictor. The results show that green skepticism has a significant moderation impact on the relationship between corporate ability and environmental knowledge, and information seeking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the ‘green state debate’ has primarily focused on a narrow range of usual suspects in the developed world, the debate can be enriched and challenged by considering more diverse cases. Viewing African states from a green state perspective invites empirical reassessment of the geographical scope of the concept, and introduces a new set of conceptual questions about the political significance of transitions in environmental governance. Ecological modernisation theory has largely neglected African states because it is assumed that African states are weak, failing, or failed, and that environmentalism is a post-materialist phenomenon. Whilst both assumptions can be challenged empirically, a biopolitical perspective on the African environmental state, drawing on the work of Michel Foucault, can both position African state development within a longer-term context and challenge some assumptions of ecological modernisation. Examples from Egypt, South Africa, and the Kavango-Zambezi Trans-frontier Conservation Area highlight underestimated continuities in environmental state practices. The international and transnational drivers of the green state in Africa are emphasised, as well as the political dangers of a green ‘state building’ project. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the agenda released by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and the concerns raised by the environmental non-governmental organization Green 10 regarding a lack of clear environmental agenda. Issues include the merger of the climate change and energy portfolios under the Energy Union team, the 7th Environmental Action Programme's call for environmental policies to be integrated into all policy areas, and alleged possible weakening of biodiversity protection.

This article assesses the prospects for ecological modernization in Russia by scrutinizing the policy environment which conditions the structuration of environmental policy. Recently introduced state environmental policy principles for the period up to 2030, which the Russian government states to be the main goal for the country's ecological modernization, form the starting point of this analysis. The main aim of the article is to shed light on the factors that enable or constrain the implementation of these principles and ecological modernization in general. The article concludes that while institutional improvement is taking place, other dimensions of the policy environment are less favorable for ecological modernization. Thus, the outcome we see so far resembles a weak version of ecological modernization, which emphasizes technological solutions and the development of governance structures as a core change. The strong version, necessitating change in cultural-discursive patterns and social institutions, is not likely to take place in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, both the empirical insufficiency and political necessity of ESD are presented, taking a deep-green approach to understanding the severity of ecological crises, specifically addressing a convergence of environmental urgencies currently facing humanity. Simultaneously, rigorous revision is recommended to remedy ESD inadequacies. ESD's rhetorical inferiority to Environmental Education is addressed, noting social issues that have attached themselves as riders on the ESD agenda. Yet, despite the green-washed incoherencies of ESD, adoption is recommended on pragmatic grounds, because the sustainability we all hope for depends on global cooperation, which duly substantiates the need for global social justice issues on the agenda. Finally, rigorous revision of ESD is recommended to incorporate strong calls for both the decreasing of consumption and the humane reduction of the global human population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an examination into the history and current trends of U.S. environmental policy. Details are given introducing debate over the status of environmental policy at the beginning of the 21st century, noting the large-scale changes in environmentalist momentum since the 1980s. The "golden age" of environmental policy between 1964 and 1980 is highlighted and described. Further commentary is offered pointing out ways in which this era of legislation bears contemporary influence despite multiple administrations working against it. Predictions are also included regarding the future of U.S. environmental policy.

The European Parliament (EP) has long been regarded as a positive force for environmental change in the EU, but there has been little detailed empirical scrutiny to determine whether its reputation as a green champion is deserved. Nor has there been any evaluation of the environmental impact of the increase in EP powers under co-decision. These oversights are rectified by an evaluation of the EP's amendments to environmental legislation using typologies that rank them in terms of their level of ecological commitment and importance. EP amendments proposed under three procedures of decision making are compared in order to determine whether recent increases in the EP's powers under the co-decision procedure have affected its ability and willingness to adopt ‘green’ amendments. It is clear that the EP has consistently tried to strengthen environmental legislation but there is some ambiguity as to whether co-decision has been good for the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years the United Nations Environment Program, UN Conference on Environment and Development, and other international organizations have acknowledged the importance of civil society for engaging stakeholders in environmental change—especially at the local community level—and in promoting democracy. 1 In Russia, efforts by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to promote reform since 1991 have aimed at achieving both objectives and face numerous political, legal, and attitudinal hurdles. This article examines these hurdles and the factors that facilitate development of an environmentally conscious civil society in Russia through analysis of the views of 100 representatives of environmental NGOs, news media, scientific community, corporations, and public agencies. We also investigate three abbreviated but illustrative vignettes that illuminate civil society impediments. Our thesis is that successful efforts to ensure adequate protection of Russia's environment require a strengthening of civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 21 September 2006 UK über-entrepreneur and Virgin Group Chairman Richard Branson pledged approximately £1.6 billion, the equivalent of all the profits from Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Trains for the next ten years, to fighting climate change. Since then, Branson has restated his commitment to action on global warming, including investment in technologies for sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In this paper, I critically examine and engage with Branson's announcements as a specific entrée into a dialog about so-called 'green capitalism'. I am particularly interested in the role of the entrepreneurial subject in environmental policy and environmental action. There are glaring problems associated with green capitalism as a mash-up of environmentalism with capitalism. One of these is the tethering of environmentalism to a political economy whose mantra is growth for growth's sake, or, in Marx's terms, accumulation for accumulation's sake. This has been discussed by some as the problem of capitalism's ecological metabolism or 'metabolic rift'. Yet, while accumulation for accumulation's sake may well be anathema to progressive environmentalism and sustainability, I argue that this is not only an objective, quantitative problem but also one of the qualitative dimensions of produced nature and the cultural politics of environmentalism. Appreciation of this can be gleaned by reexamining Marx's discussion of the role of the bourgeois subject in the relentless drive to reproduce and expand capital accumulation via anarchic, entrepreneurial investment. Green capitalist orthodoxy relies on this source of innovative dynamism, but in the process obscures or overlooks the fact that accumulation for accumulation's sake is by definition guided by the anarchic and amoral search for profitable realization of surplus value. Moreover, in order for green capitalism to succeed, its legitimacy must be secured. I argue that this legitimacy derives in part from specific performances of green capitalism by entrepreneurial elites, also made evident by Branson and his commitments to climate action. All of this raises questions about the political, cultural, and ecological character of green capitalism, issues brought to the fore by Branson's brand of climate activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate communication approaches expend significant resources promoting attitudinal change, but research suggests that encouraging attitudinal change alone is unlikely to be effective. The link between an individual's attitudes and subsequent behavior is mediated by other influences, such as social norms and the "free-rider" effect. One way to engender mitigative behaviors would be to introduce regulation that forces green behavior, but government fears a resulting loss of precious political capital. Conversely, communication approaches that advocate individual, voluntary action ignore the social and structural impediments to behavior change. The authors argue that there are two crucial, but distinct, roles that communication could play in engaging the public in low carbon lifestyles: first, to facilitate public acceptance of regulation and second, to stimulate grass-roots action through affective and rational engagement with climate change. The authors also argue that using communication to stimulate demand for regulation may reconcile these "top-down" and "bottom-up" approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the literature on green citizenship and argues that the concept of citizenship has done much to advance green theory building internally but that in order to deepen an already substantial area of scholarship, promote a more inclusive and emancipatory environmental politics, and augment their contribution to the larger body of citizenship studies, greens will need to broaden their approach to the concept. This review highlights the tendency within green theorizing to privilege particular conceptions of the natural world and humans' relations to it, and draws attention to the work of those scholars explicitly engaged in incorporating the social construction of nature into their theories of green citizenship. The essay concludes by identifying three particular areas in which green theorizing has contributed to citizenship studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an overview of the thirteenth Conference of the Parties (COP 13), a conference on global environmental issues which was held in the Balinese resort village of Nusa Dua on December 3 to 15 in 2007. A discussion of a lack of involvement concerning environmental issues which was seen in U.S. representatives at the conference, and of the unwillingness of the U.S. to develop strategies which would slow or prevent global warming, is presented.

The United States has failed to develop an effective policy to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases responsible for climate change. This policy failure is the result of many factors, one of which is the inherent limitations of 'interest group politics' in producing the kinds of broad political and economic changes required to reduce the threat of disruptive climate change. This article first examines interest group politics in environmental policymaking, emphasising the role of groups in institutionalising the broad social movement that produced modern environmentalism in America. It then explores the nature of climate change and its political and policy implications, and explains why an interest-group-centred model of policymaking is insufficient to address the threat posed by climate change. It then analyses what kind of political actions might be better suited to produce the kinds of dramatic policy developments the likely consequences of climate change compel us to make. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental performance of Hong Kong's businesses is currently perceived as rather poor. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular are mostly unaware of the environmental impact of their business. Government and professional bodies have recently started to develop various initiatives to improve the SME sector's awareness of environmental and social issues, and external factors such as supply chain requirements, consumer preferences and energy prices are also exerting a growing influence. Based on extensive interviews with representatives of seven key stakeholder groups, this paper explores the effectiveness of such drivers to engage SMEs with environmental change and corporate social responsibility (CSR). It finds that most existing efforts, such as environmental support programmes and award schemes, do not have a great impact on the environmental and social performance of Hong Kong's SMEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local environmental campaigns are ubiquitous and recurrent, even in times when environmental issues are not salient on national agenda. Yet their relationship to translocal environmental movements and issues has been relatively neglected. Local environmental campaigners are variously related to national and local organisations, and the peculiarities of place are one factor in that variation. But place itself acquires meaning through campaigns, and communities forge identity even as they mobilise against threats to their survival. The relationship between local campaigns and global environmental issues is problematic, but the ways in which local mobilisations often combine issues of environment, economic justice and democracy mirror the emerging agenda of transnational environmentalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON), which has its origins in the scientific community, has evolved significantly over the last five years. Core government support for this emerging initiative became a reality in 2002, when the first funding commitment was made. The establishment of an ambitious distributed national environmental observation system requires extensive partnership arrangements, ranging from participating government departments, through numerous institutions and the corporate sector, to the active individual researchers. In its first three years,SAEON has established its credentials within the South African scientific community, created and staffed a national office at the National Research Foundation, launched the first three of six envisaged distributed observation nodes, expanded its regional and international relevance, and has made great strides with an educational outreach programme. Three additional nodes are nearing completion and all should be operational by early 08. The financial and institutional sustainability of SAEON was of paramount importance and consumed most of its energy during this establishment phase. The current three-year period (2006-2008) is devoted primarily to securing the scientific sustainability of the SAEON initiative through its nodes and associated partner networks, and to integrating its various functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese environmental groups have become increasingly active in the past few years and have begun to make an impact on environmental governance. The paper analyses the recent development of Chinese environmental civil society, the way it operates, and the challenges ahead, which include the need for environmental NGOs to improve their technical capacity, to strengthen further the collaboration between different organizations, and to strike a balance between maintaining domestic support and meeting international concerns. The biggest challenge ahead for environmental civil society is to develop the necessary skills to tackle the broader political, economic, and social issues that underlie environmental problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a national project investigating Australian local government (LG) attempts to deliver beneficial environmental outcomes. It briefly describes the extensive environmental planning, management and protection roles played by Australian LGs. It notes that these roles are poorly documented within the academic literature, and makes a case for fundamental research to better understand LGs and their work from the inside. It describes this project's use of grounded theory methods in gathering and analysing 34 case studies of Australian LG environmental initiatives. The inside perspectives represented by the papers show that Australian LG environmental work: extends beyond its statutory requirements;is novel and creative;endures by balancing ecological, social and economic values;demonstrates different patterns depending on its planning, management or protection focus; andusually involves environmental strategists with long-term, passionate commitments to local environmental values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars who have studied local environmental groups in the United States have tended to agree about three related, stylized facts: that such groups are widespread, that they are pursuing a diverse set of activities, and, at least implicitly, that they are creating social capital that significantly affects environmental policy. However, a healthy skepticism about these claims among academics and within the policy community exists due to a lack of significant data to verify them. In this article, (1) we collect and interpret data to demonstrate, in two counties of Vermont, that local environmental groups are indeed pursuing a diverse set of activities, developing a typology of these groups based on their main focus; (2) we show the groups are developing and maintaining social capital; and (3) we illustrate how these methodologies can enhance the literature on local environmental groups by testing claims about the extent and influence of these groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transnational aid and assistance for the environment and civil society development is underscored by assumptions that the transfer of expertise and technical assistance will ultimately make environmental movements in new democracies more like their Northern counterparts. However, recent research on green movements across post-socialist Europe has called into question the extent to which environmental non-governmental organisations in receipt of donor aid are actually on course to replicating west European modes of political interaction and civil society engagement. From the perspective of environmental politics in post-conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina, this article further challenges the embedded assumptions about the impact of transnational donor assistance and, through empirical analysis, asserts that structural contexts continue to exert a profound impact on movement behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental politics and values gain legitimacy through their constant presence in the media. This article outlines and critiques a theoretical approach that can increase understanding of the relationship between environmental protest and news media representation. Manuel Castells, pre-eminent theorist of the information age and `the network society', is useful in this regard. He describes the relationship between media organizations and environmentalists as 'tap-dancing'. His explanation of this dance and its choreography, however, is overly general, ignoring its specific features and workings in terms of representation. In order to detail some of these features, we have selected for study Australia's most famous environmental protest and a globally significant moment for green politics: the 1982 Franklin Dam blockade in Tasmania. We argue that it was during this blockade that an enduring pattern of media-environmentalist relations was established in Australia, and substantiate this case by examining subsequent protests. The article concludes by critiquing current understandings of media-environmentalist relations and explains the dynamics of the mediation process that determines the reporting of protests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses environmentalism. It traces the green movement through its formative phases before considering its standing at the beginning of the new century and its participation in the global justice movement. It also discusses the differences between environmentalism and ecologism. Ecologism eliminates the practice of domination from the relationship between nature and humanity. Environmentalism is mainly a discourse of sustainability. It also cites the movements that promote green consciousness such as Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring."

Reports on the emergence of green urbanism and development in Chicago, Illinois. Indications of economic activity and development; Utilization of the city's purchasing power, construction practices and operations protocol towards green development; Environmentally-friendly initiatives undertaken by the local government towards development; Environmental action plan. INSET: MAKING CHICAGO AN ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY CITY.

Accession to the European Union is shaping the development of environmental movements in Central and Eastern Europe by defining much of the agendas of environmental NGOs and by moulding the context in which groups act and, therefore, their means of activism. Individual organisations and the mix of organisations in a movement, in turn, evolve to tackle these agendas and engage in these means of activism. This study outlines several paths of direct and indirect EU influence over the evolution of these movements. While such an evolution strengthens the movements' ability to engage in political processes at the national and EU levels, both these movements' internal decision-making mechanisms and the EU's policy processes must allow for input from grassroots groups. Avenues exist for grassroots input into the policies national movements pursue, but these paths of influence are weak. The EU's decision-making processes are even more remote. Balancing external and internal influence is crucial, however, if these movements are to serve as channels of citizen participation in politics and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the wave of regime changes that swept East Central Europe in 1989 to test the hypothesis that a smoother transition to democracy will lead to greater success in addressing environmental issues. Changes in the levels of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) emissions during the transition period in Romania and Hungary are examined in relation to political and economic developments over the period in order to determine the significance of each factor in dealing with environmental challenges. The analysis shows that the stable transition in Hungary has provided an opportunity to improve environmental outcomes, whereas Romania has struggled during the transition period with limited environmental improvements. There does, then, appear to be a link between the nature of the transition process and environmental performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Illustrates a problem faced by environmental groups to gain acceptance into the policy-making program, Lands for Life process of the Ontario government. Background on the establishment of the Lands for Life process in February 1997; Information on several considerations for pressure groups' choice of strategies and tactics; Goals of the Lands for Life project.

Environmentalism has been sustained by a mythic discourse about heroic individuals discovering and saving pristine wilderness. Although a successful rhetorical strategy, this mythic discourse erases a complicated history and has significant political costs. Some contemporary wilderness activists are enacting a new wilderness vision that integrates wilderness and social concerns in a way that opens environmentalism to unexpected yet promising alliances with justice activists, unions, and corporations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. Observers of environmental politics have noted a division between mainstream national and grassroots environmental groups. This study attempts to determine whether a similar split in the movement can be observed at the state level. Methods. Data from a 1989 survey of 73 environmental groups in Washington State are analyzed. A distinction is made between institutionalized groups that regularly testify at the state legislature and grassroots groups that do not. Analysis focuses on environmental groups' structural characteristics, use of political resources, and choice of political activities. Results. Difference of means tests indicate that there are systematic differences between institutionalized and grassroots groups. The former have more members and larger paid staffs, derive more of their funding from other organizations, and are more bureaucratized. Second, principal components factor analysis reveals three kinds of political resources: mobilization resources, expertise, and organizational assets. Environmental groups rely on the first two more than on the last; grassroots groups are especially reliant on mobilization resources. Finally, logit analyses indicate that mobilization resources are positively related to the use of public outreach activities while expertise and organizational assets tend to be positively related to conventional political activities. Conclusions. These findings suggest that the division within the environmental movement exists within Washington State and structures the course of environmental politics within the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on renewed efforts by U.S. congressional leaders and environmental groups to reauthorize the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, know as Superfund. How Superfund was passed in 1980 to help solve the hazardous waste site problems in the U.S.; Controversy over the size of the fund, responsibility of the cleanup programs, remedies for victims of exposure, and the state share of cleanup costs; Estimated cost to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Although some corporations and environmental groups are beginning to collaborate, the relationship between the more extreme environmental activists (such as Greenpeace) and traditional corporate targets (such as DuPont) still shows many characteristics of "malignant social conflict" (Deutsch & Shichman, 1986, p. 229). To analyze the cognitive nature of this conflict, we used multiple regression-based judgment analysis to generate decision profiles for major environmental policymakers at Greenpeace USA and DuPont. We compared two sets of decision profiles: those specified by each group as an ideological statement and those derived from respondents' assessments of 30 hypothetical environmental policies. Taken alone, both groups' ideological statements differed substantially from their actual judgment behavior; and each group's estimate of its counterpart's decision structure was highly stereotyped. However, the ideological judgment profiles of activists were highly correlated with corporate policymakers, as were their assessments of the hypothetical policies. Despite these commonalities, neither group accepted a compromise set of environmental values, suggesting that their policy impasse wilt continue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the failure of national environmental groups and the inability of the U.S. to meet environmental challenges facing them. While environmentalists may have the science right, and devote inordinate attention to crafting proposed policies, they have the politics wrong, and are reaping the consequences of having had them wrong for a long time. Although it is convenient to blame the anti-environment bent of the Bush administration and hostile congressional leadership, environmental groups have significantly contributed to their own marginalization. Ironically, the modern environmental movement was one of the most potent forces transforming American society in the past few decades. It produced the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and many other federal laws that dramatically improved air and water quality, protected millions of acres of pristine public lands, and reformed management of wildlife and other natural resources. Most important, the movement instilled its values in the mainstream of U.S. thought and discourse. Unfortunately, environmental issues have been framed and claimed in polarizing ways that have largely excluded conservation and environmental stewardship from the central tenets of conservatism. And in the poisoned partisan culture of Washington, D.C., environmental policies have become wedge issues. Until we get the politics right again, more science and more clever policies will not make meaningful difference in transforming the U.S. government back into a leading voice for and actor in global and national environmental progress.

The article offers information on the schedule of activities at the New South Wales/ACT branch of the Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand (CASANZ). It is noted that the branch is currently increasing member involvement and membership. The branch also plans to hold more technical meetings to assess the overall performance of the branch. The branch also invited speakers from the DEC to talk on NOx management, from the legal profession to comment on PAHs, and from the consulting sector to delve on risk management. A petrochemical plant site tour is also scheduled.

The article offers information on the schedule of activities at the Victoria/Tasmania branch of the Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand (CASANZ). First in their list is an informative and inspiring talk by Terry A'Hearn from EPA Victoria about the EPA business initiative to become carbon neutral. The next event is a site visit and technical session at the Szencorp Building in South Melbourne, Australia. Other branch events include a seminar on carbon trading and the Werner Strauss Branch Annual Achievement Awards and AGM.