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The effective integration of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability by actors in all sectors is a core objective of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Do trade unions, as important socio-economic actors, contribute to this agenda by aligning with environmental concerns? We conducted a qualitative content analysis of primary documentary sources from the International and European Trade Union Confederations focussing on the 2012–2022 period. We complemented this with in-depth interviews from The Netherlands and Belgium. We found that trade unions have been 'greening' their discourses and initiatives, and cooperating more with environmental movements. They also use the SDGs not only as discursive frames, but also to shape concrete initiatives. However, they overwhelmingly see greening still in instrumental terms rather than as a transformative prioritization of environmental concerns. This is reflected in their engagement with the SDGs, as unions shape the implementation of the SDGs according to their priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effective integration of the environmental with the economic and social dimensions of sustainability will only succeed when the core problem perceptions of professionals in these fields adjust as well. Yet, while sustainability integration in general has been thoroughly researched, few studies have analysed the specific role of subjective understandings among professionals. This article bridges this gap by asking how professionals understand and operationalise sustainability integration. Which factors shape their perceptions and practices? We present the results of an online survey that was circulated to a diverse sample of professionals and then analysed using statistical methods. Responses from 508 participants show that sustainability integration is mostly perceived as a balance across all three sustainability dimensions rather than a hierarchy with the environment at its basis. However, perceptions also vary significantly across professional and geographical contexts. This signifies the need to better account for how individual circumstances affect processes of integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy will be a crucial ingredient in the transition to a more sustainable future. The renewable energy sector requires a variety of financial support mechanisms in order to further consolidate and expand. Currently, the most prominent renewable energy support mechanisms are feed-in tariffs and renewable energy auctions. Although these mechanisms have been used and analyzed extensively in Western countries and, more recently, economies in transition, they have rarely been examined in the Arab Gulf region. Yet, particularly the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have undertaken important steps towards renewable energy adoption, which could be greatly facilitated with the use of financial support mechanisms. This paper analyzes the feasibility of feed-in tariffs and renewable energy auctions adoption in GCC. Based on an extensive meta-analysis of the literature on these two mechanisms in both developed and developing countries, the paper identifies a set of conditions necessary for success and evaluates the presence of favorable these conditions in the GCC context. Our findings reveal that while conditions that would ensure political feasibility are largely absent for both types of mechanisms, auctions could be a more successful strategy at the moment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Private rule-setting organizations increasingly design, implement, and monitor rules and standards that prescribe behavior in the global governance for sustainability. In this article we develop criteria against which we evaluate the output legitimacy of these organizations along two dimensions on the basis of their acceptance by different constituencies. The internal dimension refers to the acceptance of the organization's rules and standards by the relevant target group, and is assessed on the basis of standard uptake and compliance. The external dimension signifies the ability of the organization to have broader political and socio-economic impact that reaches beyond the target group, and is evaluated on the basis of structural, cognitive, and regulatory effects. With reference to the Marine Stewardship Council and Friend of the Sea, our analysis illustrates that while claims by private organizations to output legitimacy are not unfounded in sustainability governance, they can also be contested when considered in a global context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governance, from local to global levels, relies increasingly on private governance arrangements. Private actors, specifically corporations and civil society organizations, increasingly design, implement and monitor rules and standards that guide and prescribe behavior in a range of policy areas, including sustainability, banking and international security, to name a few. Even though the involvement of private actors in global politics is not a new phenomenon, the creation of cooperative arrangements in the form of organizations that lead to private regulation – thus complementing traditional ways of political influence – is relatively novel. This paper focuses on private rule-setting organizations that have emerged in the global governance of sustainability. It starts from the observation that, despite seemingly performing similar roles and functions, organizations differ both in terms of outputs they produce as well as rules of participation and decision-making. Accordingly, the paper evaluates whether organizations providing a more inclusive and participatory approach in relation to others have different implications for the quality and relevance of rules (outputs). Hence, it aims to shed light on the way private rules and standards are decided and the associated implications, in view of their increasing role and relevance in sustainability governance. In more detail, we contend that there is no linear relation between democratic legitimacy and effectiveness. While inclusiveness and representativeness in the standard-setting process will probably lead to more stringent and comprehensive rules, those regulatory systems with high stringency will be the ones least taken up. Empirically, the paper illustrates its argument with a comparison of five private rule-setting organizations that have emerged in the global governance of fisheries sustainability: the Marine Stewardship Council, Friend of the Sea, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, the Global Aquaculture Alliance and GlobalGAP. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Over the past fifteen years a number of transnational certification and labeling schemes have emerged with the aim to foster sustainable fisheries and aquaculture practices worldwide. Despite notable successes in the uptake and implementation of these standards, few measurable environmental improvements have been achieved on a global scale to date. This paper explores the conditions for effective governance taking into account external and internal attributes of the relevant rule-setting organizations. The analysis provided in this paper is situated in a broader debate regarding the effectiveness of transnational forms of governance and thereby contributes to recent efforts to build clearer theoretical propositions on the basis of more nuanced theoretically and empirically informed analyses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper investigates the creation and consequences of private regulation in global food governance. It points to the power to govern and the authority to govern as the two crucial conditions for the emergence and diffusion of private food regulation. More specifically, the paper argues that the power to govern is a function of the structural power of agrifood corporations, particularly retail food corporations in our case. The authority to govern is a function of the perceived legitimacy of retail food corporations as political actors. By linking power and authority to the material and ideational structures existing in the global political economy of food, this paper analyses the processes that serve to create, maintain and reproduce private regulation in food governance. With its analysis, the paper aims to contribute to the theoretical and empirical debates on private authority, private regulation and the challenges for sustainability in the global food system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the food sector, retailers often present themselves as guardians of consumer interests, with superior efficiency and effectiveness in the governance of food, in relation to public actors. Concerns about retail governance institutions, such as private standards or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), mainly emphasise a lack of input legitimacy, that is legitimacy relying on democratic procedures. Less often concerns are raised regarding output legitimacy, that is legitimacy based on the effectiveness of retail governance institutions. Based on concepts of discursive power, this paper explores how retail corporations establish their claim to legitimacy in food governance via concepts of output legitimacy. The paper pursues its aim by performing a critical discourse analysis of retailers' discursive strategies identified here as imperialist, recursive, symbiotic and ironic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]