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Local actors have growing prominence in climate governance but key capacities and powers remain with national policymakers. Coordination between national and local climate action is therefore of increasing importance. Underappreciated in existing academic and policy literature, coordination between actors at different scales can be affected not only by politics and institutional arrangements, but also by methods of data analysis. Exploring two datasets of GHG emissions by local area in England-one of consumption-based emissions and the other of territorial emissions-this paper shows the potential for a data scaling problem known as the modifiable areal unit problem and its possible consequences for the efficacy and equity implications of climate action. While this analysis is conceptual and does not identify specific instances of the modifiable areal unit problem or its consequences, it calls attention to methods of data analysis as possible contributors to climate governance challenges. Among other areas, future analysis is needed to explore how data scaling and other aspects of data processing and analysis may affect our understanding of non-state actors' contribution to climate action., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Coastal erosion is an emotive issue with deeply held views that are often resistant to consensual approaches to identify mutually acceptable solutions. Using the village of Happisburgh on the East Anglian coast in England as a case study, this research analyses how the issue of coastal erosion has been framed and whether the presence of different frames acts as a barrier to building consensus between stakeholders. The study uses Frame Theory and Cultural Theory to understand how the UK Government and the Coastal Concern Action Group (CCAG), a local pressure group based in Happisburgh, communicate and perceive the issue of coastal erosion. Additionally, the study explores whether the different ways of understanding coastal erosion resonate within the community itself. A multi-method approach was used (policy discourse and media frame analysis) to identify the dominant framings of coastal erosion. The resonance of these frames was tested within the community of Happisburgh through a questionnaire with follow-up focus groups. The study revealed that the Government discourse of coastal erosion shares many of the characteristics associated with Cultural Theory's hierarchical worldview. Conversely, CCAG's discourse can be likened to the egalitarian position. The community of Happisburgh was found to strongly agree with the discourse that is representative of an egalitarian worldview. Furthermore, there was an increased uniformity of views regarding coastal erosion compared with attitudes towards nature more generally. The study concludes that different framings act as a barrier to building consensus. Efforts should be made to develop governance solutions to tackle the explicit disagreements (revealed in this study) whilst acknowledging the more implicit origins of these differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change adaptation and mitigation have become key policy drivers in the UK under its Climate Change Act of 2008. At the same time, urbanization has been high on the agenda, given the pressing need for substantial additional housing, particularly in southeast England. These twin policy objectives were brought together in the UK government's 'eco-town' initiative for England launched in 2007, which has since resulted in four eco-town projects currently under development. We critically analyze the eco-town initiative's policy evolution and early planning phase from a multilevel governance perspective by focusing on the following two interrelated aspects: (1) the evolving governance structures and resulting dynamics arising from the development of the eco-town initiative at UK governmental level, and the subsequent partial devolution to local stakeholders, including local authorities and nongovernmental actors, under the new 'localism' agenda; and (2) the effect of these governance dynamics on the conceptual and practical approach to adaptation through the emerging eco-town projects. As such, we problematize the impact of multilevel governance relations, and competing governance strategies and leadership, on shaping eco-town and related adaptation strategies and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The launch of the Journal of Environmental Law coincided with the first proposals in England and Wales for a specialised environmental court or tribunal. Nearly 25 years later an environmental tribunal has now been established. The long saga provides an important reflection of competing visions of the role of environmental law, and a lesson in the role that chance and opportunism plays in significant policy development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 2007, the UK Government announced an ambitious zero-carbon target for all new housing in England. This paper shows how the definition and its associated policies emerged from discourses of environmental policy innovation; how the problem subsequently became framed as one of mainstreaming, consequent upon the apparent success of experimental schemes and defined in more detail through the interaction between pressure group politics and the technical analyses that accompanied the government's consultation exercises. Finally, it shows how regional and local variations in housing and property markets are likely to influence the ease of zero carbon development. The analysis uses concepts drawn from both the science and technology literature and the literature on policy implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the environmental knowledge of small-scale rural landholders and comments on the implications of this for environmental policy. The paper draws on conceptualisations of knowledge as ‘know what’, ‘know why’, ‘know how’ and ‘know who’, recognises a distinction between tacit and codified environmental knowledges and highlights the need to consider the politics of knowledge surrounding environmental issues. Both quantitative and qualitative data are reported, and are derived from structured interviews with 30 small-scale landholders who were participants in a nature and landscape conservation initiative – the Landscape Heritage Scheme – within South Devon, England. These data are used to explore the place of environmental concerns within the land management objectives of respondents; the nature and extent of their environmental knowledge; how a range of factors alongside their environmental knowledge shaped the environmental practices of respondents; and the politics of knowledge associated with the Landscape Heritage Scheme. The paper suggests that small-scale landholders should be of interest to environmental policy, prioritising environmental objectives in their land management, being relatively knowledgeable about the environment and highly responsive to environmental advice and financial incentives that support environmental management. A case is made for developing research in this area, given ongoing processes of rural demographic change and the rising importance within this of an increasingly diverse landholding population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Internationally, pressure is being exerted on governments and regulators to develop modern forms of regulation that deliver more for less, and in better ways. We discuss the ways in which one large regulator, the Environment Agency for England and Wales, has responded to such pressures by implementing risk-based approaches to regulation. After exploring the context for key elements of risk-based environmental regulation, we consider the evolving influence of such approaches. We discuss the impacts against the UK Government''s principles for better regulation and the key criteria for policy evaluation, before considering some of the challenges: the need to i) understand the best practice and promote consistency in risk-based regulation; ii) develop reliable, responsive forms of risk assessment and monitoring; iii) build capacities for responsive risk regulation; iv) evaluate the influence of different regulatory styles; and v) better understand the potential role of the private sector. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Much of the Environment Agency of England & Wales's recent experience of the regulation of open-loop ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) has come from the increasing number of systems being installed into the confined Chalk of central London. Information collected through a Consent to Investigate a Groundwater Source demonstrates the likely well yields and the impact on other protected rights or water bodies, information that is then included in an abstraction licence application. As a result of the Environment Agency's local licensing policies in London and the net cooling requirements of developments, the majority of systems return heated water to the aquifer, thus requiring a Consent to Discharge. To gain this consent, applicants must provide enough information to assess the effects of re-injecting heated water into the confined Chalk. In the last 5 years, valuable lessons have been learnt as the Environment Agency has had to adapt existing regulatory processes to manage the environmental impacts of these systems. However, as GSHPs increase in number and proximity within London, applications become increasingly complicated for both the applicant and the Environment Agency. It is expected that the granting of future licences and consents will depend upon the quality and thoroughness of supporting assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to growing pressure to meet recycling targets set by the UK central government, it is becoming increasingly important for local authorities to understand the characteristics of recycling behaviour and the factors that influence them. The demographic, situational and psychological factors that influence recycling behaviour were drawn from existing empirical research studies and used to create an on-line survey of university students in Oxford. Students' recycling behaviour was influenced by situational variables such as provision of a domestic recycling box and the recycling behaviour of family and friends, whereas the student's reported willingness to minimise waste was linked to psychological variables such as environmental concern. These fundamental differences in the behavioural characteristics of waste minimisation, compared with recycling, demonstrate the importance for local authorities to identify which types of behaviour they wish to encourage. The authors recommend strategies for local authorities to facilitate waste minimisation and increase recycling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The English derive a wide range of values from allotments, but nearly 35% of allotments have disappeared in the last 20 years. The real value of allotments has probably been underestimated. The contingent valuation method (CVM) was used to give a monetary value to benefits derived from allotments by allotment holders and local residents. The study was conducted in southeast England (Wye and Ashford, Kent and Greater London). A postal survey with open-ended questions was filled in by 124 allotment holders and 74 residents. Respondents were asked to express their maximum willingness to pay for allotments (WTP) and the minimum willingness to accept (WTA) compensation for loss of allotments. The mean annual WTP for keeping allotments of allotment holders were £78.93, £35.64 and £79.43, and for local residents were £41.66, £46.14 and £283.57, in Wye, Ashford and London, respectively. The allotment holders' WTP was strategically more than WTA compensation and they were only willing to pay rent for using allotments, not for retaining them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The science on the effects of global climate change and air pollution on morbidity and mortality is clear and debate now centres around the scale and precise contributions of particular pollutants. Sufficient data existed in recent decades to support the adoption of precautionary public health policies relating to fossil fuels including shale exploration. Yet air quality and related public health impacts linked to ethical and environmental justice elements are often marginalized or missing in planning and associated decision making. Industry and government policies and practices, laws and planning regulations lagged well behind the science in the United Kingdom. This paper explores the reasons for this and what shaped some of those policies. Why did shale gas policies in England fail to fully address public health priorities and neglect ethical and environmental justice concerns. To answer this question, an interdisciplinary analysis is needed informed by a theoretical framework of how air pollution and climate change are largely discounted in the complex realpolitik of policy and regulation for shale gas development in England. Sources, including official government, regulatory and planning documents, as well as industry and scientific publications are examined and benchmarked against the science and ethical and environmental justice criteria. Further, our typology illustrates how the process works drawing on an analysis of official policy documents and statements on planning and regulatory oversight of shale exploration in England, and material from industry and their consultants relating to proposed shale oil and gas development. Currently the oil, gas and chemical industries in England continue to dominate and influence energy and feedstock-related policy making to the detriment of ethical and environmental justice decision making with significant consequences for public health.