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This article develops and tests a refined theoretical account of de-Europeanisation to assess how well it explains the increasing differentiation of UK environmental policy after 2016. Drawing on an original analysis of relevant policy documents, parliamentary processes and legal reforms, it reveals how policy, politics and polity have changed more significantly than was originally foreseen. It departs from the existing literature by revealing that the devolution settlements of the late 1990s opened up the possibility of not one, but multiple pathways of change ranging from de-Europeanization, through to dis- and active re-engagement. It describes how UK policy – once outside the framework of EU processes and institutions – is being re-shaped via a multi-level negotiation between actors in Brussels, London and the devolved administrations. It concludes that despite conflicting policy objectives across the UK, the predominant pattern of change is nevertheless one of gradual disengagement from the EU environmental rule-book. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the potential effects to the United Kingdom's (UK) economy and environmental policy if it exits the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) under the law of treaties. Also cited are the countries exiting ECT like Australia, Russia, and Italy, the efforts to modernize ECT, and how the ECT could hinder the UK's transition to renewable energy and sustain its dependence on fossil fuels.

In 2015, the European Commission laid out its Circular Economy Package for providing the way to a transition towards a sustainable European economy. The package was followed by a serious of measures aimed at increasing circularity in the EU economy. While the first steps were carried out, it proved to be a long way to establish a circular economy. In 2019, the circularity rate stood around 11% with large variations among the Member States. When the new Commission proposed its EU Green Deal in 2019, a new impetus was given to promote the economic transition. However, efforts come at a time when the Union is confronted with several serious enormous challenges (e.g., increased global competition, raw material scarcity, mounting volumes of waste, climate change, Covid-19). Furthermore, in February 2020, the United Kingdom left the European Union after four years of draining negotiations. With the departure of the UK, the EU has not only lost a major economic power but also a Member State actively steering discussions during EU environmental policy-making processes. Accordingly, Brexit will change the face of the EU and its efforts in establishing a circular economy. True, in the past UK governments showed a mixed record of environmental policy engagement. And London did not spare criticizing, down-washing or even blocking several environmental regulations of the EU (e.g., habitat laws, glyphosate, energy efficiency directive, national renewable targets), but the Union lost an active and highly developed economic and political power with extraordinary capacities, international outreach and influence. Accordingly, Brexit not only represents a major change to environmental governance in the United Kingdom but also for the Union. The study seeks to reveal major consequences of Brexit in regards to environmental policy-making of the EU-27, particularly focusing on the circular economy. To what extent does Brexit hamper EU efforts in establishing a circular economy? What are the consequences for EU policy-making aimed at reducing material consumption, increasing resource efficiency, and closing industrial loops? The study discusses short-term and long-term consequences in the economy and also in the political realm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What helps or limits the use of ecosystem services ideas in practice? In this paper we develop and test a new institutionalistbased analytical scheme to explore how ecosystem services as a "new" policy idea might interact with established policy regimes, processes, and norms. The scheme is based on three different decision-making levels: micro, meso, and macro. To test the plausibility of the scheme, it is applied to the case of the UK where a specific ecosystem services framework (ESF) was prioritized as a new way of doing environmental policy after 2011. Drawing on findings from 32 elite interviews, the paper shows how dynamics at all three levels intersect with differing institutional explanations. It helps explain important factors for embedding, or restricting embedding, of the ESF in policy making. The scheme provides a useful way to link analysis of the "lived experience" of policy actors implementing the ESF with the institutional landscape they occupy, and allows for a nuanced and integrated analysis of the potential barriers faced by ecosystem services ideas generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population control of feral horses has been the subject of public debate in many parts of the world in recent years due to wide-reaching ecological and societal impacts. However, the feral populations in these high-profile cases are not 'native' but are instead descended from animals which escaped from or were released by settlers. This paper considers i) the potential role of indigenous equids as conservation grazers within native ecosystems currently in poor condition, and ii) the value of supporting semi-wild native ponies specifically. We argue that the high ecological overlap between ponies and cattle reported in a range of studies means that they should be considered as alternative tools for conservation management, particularly in scenarios where there is a need to reduce the dominance of plant species avoided by more-selective small ruminants such as sheep. Semi-wild ponies could be particularly suited to conservation grazing because their genomes have been predominately shaped by natural and not artificial selection, meaning they may have adaptations no longer present in domesticated equids. With agricultural and environmental policy in the EU and UK under major review, it is anticipated that the wider delivery of public goods, rather than primary production, will be prioritised under future subsidy payment schemes. Recognising the value of native ponies as conservation grazers would broaden the range of routes by which land managers could achieve biodiversity gain, whilst simultaneously supporting at-risk equine genotypes. • There is high dietary overlap between ponies and cattle. • Ponies should be considered as alternative tools for conservation management. • Semi-wild ponies' genomes have been shaped by natural and not artificial selection. • Conservation grazing could provide a sink for excess animals from semi-wild herds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical commentaries have often treated the smart city as a potentially problematic 'top down' tendency within policy-making and urban planning, which appears to serve the interests of already powerful corporate and political actors. This article, however, positions the smart city as significant in its implicit rejection of the strong normativity of traditional technologies of planning, in favour of an ontology of efficiency and emergence. It explores a series of prominent UK smart city initiatives (in Bristol, Manchester and Milton Keynes) as bundles of experimental local practices, drawing on the literature pointing to a growing valorisation of the 'experimental' over strong policy commitments in urban governance. It departs from this literature, however, by reading contemporary 'smart experiments' through Shapin and Schafer's work on the emergence of 17th-century science, to advance a transhistorical understanding of experimentation as oriented towards societal reordering. From this perspective, the UK smart city merits attention primarily as an indicator of a wider set of shifts in approaches to governance. Its pragmatic orientation sits uneasily alongside ambitions to 'standardise' smart and sustainable urban development; and raises questions about the conscious overlap between the stated practical ambitions of smart city initiatives and pre-existing environmental and social policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric nitrogen pollution has severe impacts on biodiversity, but approaches to value them are limited. This paper develops a spatially explicit methodology to value the benefits from improvements in biodiversity resulting from current policy initiatives to reduce nitrogen emissions. Using the UK as a case study, we quantify nitrogen impacts on plant diversity in four habitats: heathland, acid grassland, dunes and bogs, at fine spatial resolution. Focusing on non-use values for biodiversity we apply value-transfer based on household's willingness to pay to avoid changes in plant species richness, and calculate the benefit of projected emission declines of 37% for nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) and 6% for ammonia (NH 3 ) over the scenario period 2007–2020. The annualised benefit resulting from these pollutant declines is £32.7 m (£4.4 m to £109.7 m, 95% Confidence Interval), with the greatest benefit accruing from heathland and acid grassland due to their large area. We also calculate damage costs per unit of NO 2 and NH 3 emitted, to quantify some of the environmental impacts of air pollution for use alongside damage costs for human health in policy appraisal. The benefit is £103 (£33 to £237) per tonne of NO 2 saved, and £414 (£139 to £1022) per tonne of NH 3 saved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the impact of ammonia on air pollution in the U.S. Topics include research led by atmospheric scientist Jeff Collett, the role of agricultural sources and automobiles in urban areas in causing air pollution, and air quality regulations affecting ammonia emissions in Great Britain. Possible U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) policies are noted.

The New Zealand government recently announced an intention to make the country carbon neutral by 2050. Interest has been expressed in using the United Kingdom's Climate Change Act 2008 as a model to achieve this goal. However, more needs to be done to critically review the UK legislation's applicability to the New Zealand context. This article identifies some of the issues emerging from a ten-year review of the UK act. It is hoped that close consideration of these issues will inform New Zealand policy and legislative development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: In the final decades of the nineteenth century, concern was building about the status of migratory bird populations in North America. In this literature review, we describe how that concern led to a landmark conservation agreement in 1916, between the United States and Great Britain (on behalf of Canada) to conserve migratory birds shared by Canada and the United States. Drawing on published literature and our personal experience, we describe how subsequent enabling acts in both countries gave rise to efforts to better estimate population sizes and distributions, assess harvest rates and demographic impacts, design and fund landscape‐level habitat conservation initiatives, and organize necessary political and regulatory processes. Executing these steps required large‐scale thinking, unprecedented regional and international cooperation, ingenuity, and a commitment to scientific rigor and adaptive management. We applaud the conservation efforts begun 100 years ago with the Migratory Bird Treaty Convention. The agreement helped build the field of wildlife ecology and conservation in the twentieth century but only partially prepares us for the ecological and social challenges ahead. © 2017 The Wildlife Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the innovative approach to setting environmental flows proposed by Baxter in 1961, describes its immediate impact across both engineering and fisheries disciplines and explores the reasons why his approach was not adopted in river flow regulation and management in the UK. Yet, the basic approach was to be used world-wide by the end of the century. Several barriers constrained innovation in flow regulation in England during the 1960s: the overwhelming pollution problems; serious concerns about water shortage and food security, not least in the context of the severe 1959 drought; the influence of the 1963 Water Resources Act and the legacy of previous legislation; the limited availability of both river flow data and biological data; and the lack of awareness of human impacts on the environment. The paper also provides lessons for promoting environmental science into policy and practice to advance the implementation of environmental flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a detailed review of the basis and prospects for United Kingdom (UK) proposals for the most ambitious mainstream social, economic, and environmental policy program of the 21st century: the Green New Deal (GND), providing critical reflection for its implementation at a local or regional level. Through a review of academic, policy and book publications we examine the key proposed features of a UK GND, identifying five core elements: financial reforms; green infrastructure investment; financing the GND; ownership structures; and economic, social and climate justice. We subsequently review these policy areas through the lens of multi-level governance (MLG) to understand what scales of policy action are required for these aims to be achieved. We find that, whilst core elements of a UK GND, such as reforms to the financial system, and expansionary fiscal and monetary policy require policy change at national and supra-national level, the majority of GND investments require implementation at the local level. We suggest that, in the context of contemporary UK MLG, there are challenges for fully funding and delivering a GND without a national programme, while highlighting emerging options for coordinating and implementing a GND by local government actors, in the absence of national support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legislation and fiscal policies have remained the key drivers of construction waste minimization. It has often been suggested that reducing waste to the landfill does not only require improvement on existing waste management policies and fiscal framework; there is a need for adequate inputs from the construction professionals. As a means of engendering effective waste management policies, this study explores industry practitioners’ viewpoints on effective policies for minimising waste landfilled by the UK construction industry. Using exploratory sequential mixed method approach, qualitative and quantitative methods were used. In the first phase of the study, data was collected through focus group discussions with 24 experts from the UK construction industry. Findings from the qualitative study served as an input into a questionnaire, which was used to elicit a wider opinion from 63 experts at the quantitative stage of the study. The study suggests that for waste management legislation and policies to effectively drive construction waste minimization, six key measures are important. These include (i) provision of tax breaks and incentives to good waste performers and waste management businesses; (ii) increased targeting of design stages in policies; (iii) Extension of sustainable design appraisal systems by allocating more points to proven waste performance measures; (iv) increased stringency of legislative measures by requiring use of proven waste efficient design, procurement and construction methods; (v) increased stringency of fiscal policies by increasing penalties for poor waste performance; and (vi) corroboration of policy requirements with enablers and facilitators. The strategies through which each of the legislative and fiscal measures could be tailored and enhanced are discussed in the paper. By embracing both stringent and palliative policy measures suggested in the study, substantial construction waste could be diverted from landfill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The politics of climate change is much discussed, but there has been little investigation into how politicians themselves understand or articulate the issue. Corpus analysis, a method developed within linguistics, is used to investigate how UK politicians talk about climate change, using the example of the 2008 Climate Change Bill. Corpus techniques, including keyword analysis, collocation and semantic tagging, are used, alongside critical reading of the text. The analysis shows that politicians frame climate change as an economic and technical issue, and neglect discussion of the human and social dimensions. They are selective in their use of scientific evidence, with little mention of abrupt or irreversible change. In doing so, they attempt to ‘tame’ climate change, rather than confronting difficult realities. While this strategy has the benefit of political acceptability, it does not allow for discussion of the full political and social implications of climate change, and precludes more radical responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

The winter of 2013/2014 saw a series of severe storms hit the UK, leading to widespread flooding, a major emergency response and extensive media exposure. Previous research indicates that experiencing extreme weather events has the potential to heighten engagement with climate change, however the process by which this occurs remains largely unknown, and establishing a clear causal relationship from experience to perceptions is methodologically challenging. The UK winter flooding offered a natural experiment to examine this question in detail. We compare individuals personally affected by flooding ( n = 162) to a nationally representative sample ( n = 975). We show that direct experience of flooding leads to an overall increased salience of climate change, pronounced emotional responses and greater perceived personal vulnerability and risk perceptions. We also present the first evidence that direct flooding experience can give rise to behavioural intentions beyond individual sustainability actions, including support for mitigation policies, and personal climate adaptation in matters unrelated to the direct experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The canon law rules addressing 'Church Pollution' provide a long-standing example of social regulation. A survey of historical material, and secondary sources, identifies a sophisticated set of precepts that developed over centuries. This development included application to one of the most important events in medieval England: the murder of Thomas Becket. Perhaps more importantly, the regime was widely used and thus of great significance to the ordinary citizens of the Middle Ages. Though largely historical, more recent examples of employment can also be found. When viewed through a contemporary lens, there are some connections that can be made with modern concepts of 'pollution' and contemporary environmental law and policy, such as that relating to contaminated land. While the relationships should not be overplayed, that analysis suggests a social and cultural heritage that has been drawn upon, whether consciously or not. When attempting to view matters from the perspective of medieval society, so conceptualising the 'environment' to include consideration and protection of the spiritual environment, further associations can be found. The differences in focus for the regulatory endeavours reflect differing fears, values and priorities. They also identify how these factors influence our definition and regulation of 'pollution'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents comments from Trinity Chambers, one of the leading sets of barristers chambers in Great Britain, on topics including Brexit, European Union (EU), and environmental protection.

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the use of climate science for adaptation policy in Queensland, Australia and the UK. We examine policy players’ perceptions of climate science alongside prevailing political influences on evidence-based policy making. In Queensland, the evidence-based mandate has been weakened by partisan politics so that the political acceptability of evidence is a foremost concern for policy makers. In the UK, the evidence-based mandate is enshrined in the Climate Change Act (2008), yet here too political forces have sought to limit the acceptable use of climate science for policy making. Both cases reveal normative and political tensions in the interpretation and use of climate science, suggesting that important political challenges must be overcome by the scientific community to ensure the ongoing utility of climate science for policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the domestic environmental law of Great Britain in which the Member States or the European Union have acted over the Single European Act 1986.

The article discusses tax breaks for oil and gas industries in Britain's 2016 Budget, the government's commitment to zero emissions to improve air quality, measures taken to improve energy efficiency, and the implementation of commitments made at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change.

The 2008 Climate Change Act has committed the UK to reduce carbon emissions by 80 per cent in 2050from 1990 levels. Key to achieving this is a focus on reducing carbon emissions in residential property, where more than a quarter of the nation's carbon dioxide is emitted. The assessment of dwellings is an essential part of this process and this paper investigates the role of the assessor and the various energy models as applied in the UK. Within this context, the authors consider the building energy modelling system that is in place for reporting carbon reductions, with a focus on the role of assessors. In doing this, the authors will simulate errors in data collection and input, and analyse their ramifications for building performance and the incentive systems in the UK. The paper closes by considering how the problem may be further investigated to better understand the linkages between policy, knowledge and performance analysis in UK domestic properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental taxation is different from many other forms of taxation as it is not only used to raise revenue but it is also able to marginally influence behaviour to protect and enhance the environment. It provides valuable market led mechanisms to help limit greenhouse gas emissions, encourage sustainable behaviour and improve environmental performance to address climate change. The Post Paris (COP21) agreement provides a framework for global actions to address climate change and this sets the context for the discussion of environmental taxation. Environmental taxes have enormous potential to change carbon usage. In 2012, the Coalition Government (2010-2015) opined that the definition of an environmental tax includes three principles, namely that the tax is explicitly linked to the government's environmental objectives, that the primary objective of the tax is to encourage environmentally positive behaviour, and that the tax is structured in relation to environmental objectives, particularly the more polluting the behaviour the greater tax levied.¹ The current Government has adopted and applied this definition. By way of contrast, the definitions of environmental taxation favoured by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), respectively, give a wider remit for environmental taxation and policy making and include, for instance, various transport taxes which, as will be seen, do not fall within the Government's definition of an environmental tax. The Climate Change Levy, which is the focus of this article, was introduced as one of a series of new environmental taxes on business energy use in 2001. It is charged on electricity, gas liquefied petroleum gas and solid fuels used by business. Generally, environmental taxes are intended to increase investments in renewable technologies while reducing carbon emissions, but they are vulnerable to political influence and policy changes. Thus, the rationale for environmental or 'Green' taxes has shifted perceptibly to raising revenue rather than enabling government to meet its obligations under the Climate Change Act 2008. Environmental taxes are also susceptible to oil prices and fluctuations in the global economy. The North Sea oil and gas industry is going through a difficult period of retrenchment. A recent independent report has suggested that the industry has two years to adjust to changing economic circumstances.² Inevitably, this will impact on the tax revenues raised from this sector. In an ideal world, environmental taxes should be easy to avoid through a change in behaviour and, consequently, hard to evade. Environmental taxes provide important means to achieve policy objectives, but their full potential requires public support and, especially, engagement by the business community. The future of environmental taxes may depend on the success of 'green' investment. There is a case for introducing a single climate tax on business. Undoubtedly, environmental taxes deserve greater attention in the economic toolbox to meet climate change commitments. The UK faces some difficult policy decisions under the Climate Change Act 2008 to meet the 2030 energy and climate change package targets.³ Currently, the UK receives 7.5% of tax revenue from environmental taxes.4 To date, environmental taxation has had mixed outcomes in the UK, though few doubt its potential to define the future of carbon based energy use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2011, the UK government set in motion a process to establish a formal biodiversity offsetting programme in England, as an attempt to tackle biodiversity loss as a result of development. Drawing on critical approaches to the commodification of nature, this article traces the dilemmas encountered by the UK government in its endeavours to roll out a biodiversity offsetting programme in the English planning system. Based on 34 in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, documentary analysis and participant observation at policy-focused events, the paper aims to show how the promise of reconciling development and conservation proved difficult to deliver. In government attempts to enrol sympathetic actors, disputes emerged over the purpose and fine detail of the proposals. Deeper tensions were revealed in clashes between governmental emphasis on deregulation and advocates’ calls for strong mandatory rules and well-resourced oversight, while efforts to balance complex ecology with market demands for simplicity and certainty undermined the promise of objective biodiversity metrics delivering uncontroversial hard numbers. Though the English case is in many ways context-specific, the problems experienced raise wider political questions around establishing meaningful offsetting schemes in any part of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the performance and impact of the Green political party of Great Britain during the 2015 general election and mentions their campaign, manifesto and the election results. Topics discussed include the election of Green party member Caroline Lucas to the British parliament, the discussion on the agenda regarding the environmental policy during the election by Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democratic parties and the performance of the Green party before and after elections. It also provides an analysis of their performance during the general elections and discusses the reasons for their popularity.

Theorists have argued that environmental justice requires more than just the fair distribution of environmental benefits and harms. It also requires participation in environmental decisions of those affected by them, and equal recognition of their cultural identities, dimensions most clearly articulated in relation to indigenous struggles, where past devaluation of place-based cultural identities is seen as a source of injustice. An alternative concept of environmental justice is proposed that draws on accounts of how attachment (and place attachment specifically) is constitutive for both self-efficacy and collective agency in the face of an intrinsically uncertain future. Drawing on the work of Peter Marris and using a case study of UK gas pipeline infrastructure, it is shown how disruption to attachments also disrupts lived strategies for dealing with an uncertain future. The source of injustice involved in such disruption should be viewed as the ‘colonisation of attachment’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A successful carbon capture and storage (CCS) policy and programme is widely considered essential to curbing carbon dioxide emissions. What explains the strikingly different policy outcomes in two key European Union political heavyweights and coal economies, the UK and Germany? The UK has decided to contract two specific CCS projects, with explicit timelines for realisation; Germany has made no such decisions. From scrutiny of official documents and in-depth high-level interviews, it was found that the UK has more favourable structural capacity, including offshore storage capacity (which evokes less conflict) and significant oil-industry expertise, and thus an easier task. Moreover, this structural capacity has interacted with a solid political commitment to bring CCS forward in the UK, including specific, multistage funding and a high-level drive to develop CCS, especially after 2009. In Germany, by contrast, CCS has encountered increasing local and central opposition since 2009, with the Energiewende and renewables being accorded priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to understand how the UK government's headline climate change targets are translated into action at the local level in the transport sector drawing on the findings of research in two English regions. In doing so, these headline targets are identified as a symbolic meta-policy that results in little action on the ground and which challenges established conceptions of policy implementation. Both the 'meta' and 'symbolic' aspects of the policy offer part of the explanation for the lack of substantive action on the ground. As a meta-policy, the headline targets across government require the elaboration of other policies at other levels such as targets for government departments and local authorities, but these are largely absent, leaving the meta-policy without teeth. Over time, these headline targets have developed into a symbolic policy, serving political goals but having little practical effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) was created from the amalgamation of the functions of the Environment Agency Wales (EAW), the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) and the Forestry Commission Wales. The statutory functions of the three legacy environmental bodies had previously overlapped to some degree, and the rationale for a single body was to streamline activities and resources. However, the legacy bodies had differing – potentially conflicting – interests and duties, for example, in relation to balancing obligations regarding decisions affecting nature conservation. NRW’s duties now differ according to function. Furthermore, in certain circumstances, legislation required statutory consultation between the former bodies, such that EAW had to seek nature conservation advice from CCW as part of the environmental permitting process. NRW is now required to carry out such consultation internally. This research examines the duties of EAW, CCW and NRW with regard to nature conservation, and critically analyses the effect of the creation of a single body on the statutory consultation requirements. It concludes that the duties imposed on NRW with regard to nature conservation are weaker than those of the former CCW, and that the independence of the nature conservation body as consultee and the transparency of the statutory consultation process has been compromised by the creation of the single body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article does two things. First, it explores the emerging field of ecology and law through the examination of Earth Jurisprudence developed in the work of Berry, Cullinan, and Burdon. Second, it puts this Earth Jurisprudence and the emerging field of ecology and law in connection with the wide ranging philosophical work of Deleuze & Guattari. Earth Jurisprudence and the emerging field of ecology and law are introduced through the exploration of four themes that characterise the field of study: a critique of the dominant western worldview and image of thought; a new philosophy of nature widely informed by contemporary science and cosmology; a new relation to the Earth and nature in affectual intensities, image of thinking, and investment of the social field; and, the realisation of the necessity and centrality of a fundamental reconceptualization of legality and governance. The Earth Jurisprudence of Berry, Cullinan, and Burdon (particularly Cullinan's Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice) is then explored substantively in Cullinan's reconceptualization of legality, the Grand Jurisprudence that informs Earth Jurisprudence, the Earth Jurisprudence of the promotion of mutual ecocentric human-Earth enhancement, the development of Earth rights, the reconceptualization of property and land, and the Wild Law that Earth Jurisprudence produces as the outcome of its creativity. Earth Jurisprudence and the emerging field of ecology and law are a far-reaching development within legal studies, with potentially profound implications for our contemporary conceptualisation of legality and governance and the creation of a concept of law for a new Earth. When put into connection with the wide ranging philosophical joint work of Deleuze & Guattari there emerge striking commonalities, convergences, and a common jurisprudential project of the creation of a legality for a new Earth. The article concludes with the argument that the work of Deleuze & Guattari could provide a key resource for the development of Earth Jurisprudence and the emerging field of ecology and law, particularly the Deleuze & Guattari jurisprudential concept of emergent law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although in recent years great emphasis has been placed on global agreements and national commitments on climate change, ultimately action on mitigation and adaptation must take place at the local level. Many local authorities have to face questions of whether they should develop policies on climate change, and if so, on what evidence should policies be designed and delivered. This paper describes how academic research on the economics of low carbon cities (the 'mini-Stern review') helped create such an evidence base for the Leeds City Region and its constituent local authorities. We describe how the response to the evidence and the pathways to impact were different in the individual local authorities and what this means for our understanding of evidence in local policy making. In terms of Weiss' (Social sciences and modern states: national experiences and theoretical crossroads. Advances in political science, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, ) classification, the study was mainly useful as an argument and idea rather than being used instrumentally. We find that the policy and political context in each authority determines to a large extent whether such an academic study is useable as evidence. The contents and timing of the study need to align with existing policy and/or political agendas: is climate change on the agenda at all, with what priority and how is it framed. We find confirmation of a relationship between the policy problem type and the role of evidence as argument, idea or data. The mini-Stern study itself was just one contribution to wide-ranging processes of informing, convincing, pressurising, etc., not just within the different councils but also within the wider communities. Other contextual factors include composition, agenda and activities of local civil society and the local business community. Finally, it depends on the expertise of policy officers in the councils what use is made of evidence. Making policy takes (much) time, translation and negotiation across levels and sectors. Policy work describes how policy officers bring their diverse forms of knowledge to bear on policy questions; how this work is done is something that is learned from practice rather than from the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will outline the existing regulatory framework with regard to shale gas extraction and development in the UK and analyse potential implications for the functioning of European and UK legislation in this field with consideration of environmental provisions. Moreover, the impact on wider energy policy objectives of the individual Member States' implementation of these guidelines will be described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orthodox depictions of a fraught labour–environmental relationship privileging class, ideological and programmatic differences are problematised by newly quantified evidence of British unions' pro-environmental policy-making since 1967. The following narrative blends widely accepted accounts of the fortunes of both movements with an evaluation of Britain's shifting political opportunity structure and coalition theory to identify an alternative range of constraints and opportunities influencing the propensity and capacity of both movements to interact effectively, culminating recently in unions' emergence as environmental actors in their own right. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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]

This paper challenges “Big Society (BS) Localism”, seeing it as an example of impoverished localist thinking which neglects social justice considerations. We do this through a critical examination of recent turns in the localist discourse in the UK which emphasise self-reliant communities and envisage a diminished role for the state. We establish a heuristic distinction between positive and negative approaches to localism. We argue that the Coalition Government's BS programme fits with a negative localist frame as it starts from an ideological assumption that the state acts as a barrier to community-level associational activity and that it should play a minimal role. “BS localism” (as we call it) has been influential over the making of social policy, but it also has implications for the achievement of environmental goals. We argue that this latest incarnation of localism is largely ineffective in solving problems requiring collective action because it neglects the important role that inequalities play in inhibiting the development of associational society. Drawing upon preliminary research being undertaken at the community scale, we argue that staking environmental policy success on the ability of local civil society to fill the gap left after state retrenchment runs the risk of no activity at all. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Insects provide key ecosystem services for our sustainable future, which rely upon effective conservation policies to protect insect biodiversity. To date, however, we still do not know how effective current conservation policies are for protecting insect biodiversity, opening up the possibility that policies are unfit-for-purpose. Given the considerable debate and public awareness on the potential global decline of insect species, it is important to understand whether or not current policies can protect insect biodiversity. Here, we used IUCN listing of species status and developed a quantitative framework to analyse the potential effectiveness and coverage of current conservation policies pertaining to insect biodiversity in the UK and Ireland. We contrasted this against coverage for a well-known group – mammals – as a benchmark, to find that while the vast majority of the UK mammalian species in the European IUCN red list are directly protected by current policies, insects remain largely unprotected. Moreover, for those insect species that are explicitly protected by current policies, there is a taxonomic bias whereby the majority (>50%) of insect species are Lepidopterans (moths and butterflies), while a minority are Coleopterans (beetles), and none are Hymenopterans (bees, ants, wasps). Similar trends were observed in the UK priority biodiversity lists. Based on our data, we conclude that current biodiversity policies in the UK and Ireland have significant gaps in their protection of insect biodiversity and, there is a taxonomic bias that may skew some conservation efforts toward butterflies and moths. We anticipate that our findings are likely to occur worldwide, highlighting the need for more directive policies to manage and protect insect biodiversity for the sustainability of ecosystem services. • UK policies show biases toward Lepidoptera over other large insect orders. • Policy protection of mammals shows greater uniformity between orders than insects. • Policies in Ireland lack protection for any insect species. • UK priority lists do not prioritise all insects assessed as at risk of extinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Equestrian land could be a potentially important environmental resource, given that pastureland can help to sequester carbon from the atmosphere, prevent soil erosion and provide diverse ecosystems for native plant and wildlife species. However, equestrian land has been overlooked in environmental research and policy. This study reports on the ways which horse, pony, donkey and mule keepers in the UK described environmental practices as part of their equid care. Through an analysis of survey responses (N = 758) from equid keepers using alternative grazing systems, we report on three very different management approaches which resulted in keepers aiming to promote healthy pastures and healthy animals. This study provides the basis for future research exploring attitudes to sustainability in equid keepers, as well as evaluating the impact of their efforts. Equestrian grazing management is a poorly researched area, despite potentially significant environmental impacts. This study explored keepers' use of alternative grazing systems in the care of UK horses, donkeys and mules through an internet survey. The survey was available during the summer of 2020 and comprised closed and open questions, which were analysed with descriptive statistics and iterative thematic analysis, respectively. A total of 758 responses was incorporated into the analysis; the most popular system used were tracks (56.5%), Equicentral (19%), "other" (e.g., non-grass turnout) (12.5%), rewilding (7.5%) and turnout on either moorland (0.7%) or woodland (2.5%). The thematic analysis highlighted that equid keepers across the systems were highly engaged in exploring sustainable practices. Their approaches varied according to each system, yet all aimed to fulfil practices in three major categories, i.e., supporting diverse plant life (usually through restricting equid access to certain areas), supporting wildlife (through the creation of biodiverse environments) and sustainably managing droppings and helminths. Additionally, proponents of the Equicentral systems declared to be aiming to support soil health. These data provide a promising insight into equid keepers' behaviour and attitudes to sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the trajectory of attitudes and policy commitments on the environment within the British Conservative prior to and following the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition formed after the election held in May 2010. The first part addresses the environmental policy of the British Conservative Party under the leadership of David Cameron from 2005 to the general election in 2010. The second examines how Cameron's environmental commitments were translated into practice following the formation of the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition in May 2010. The third part characterises and employs the idea of 'politics as usual' to describe the forces directed against strong environmental policies and draws together the themes of the first two parts through a consideration of the Coalition's attitude to airport expansion in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to analyze environmental public participation in the UK from the perspective of the polluting organization. Public participation, or an organization's stakeholder management, describes various channels available for the public to engage with and influence decision-making processes. Over the lifetime of an organization, the public seeks to engage with the organization or with specific goods or services offered. Such concerns and requests are made, and the organization responds to them, according to how salient members of the public are as stakeholders at a given time and place. Using case study examples from the UK, I illustrate the channels of engagement, the public interest groups that do engage and how effective these procedures are. It follows from this that early, inclusive and open engagement with the objective of participation in decision-making processes are the most effective public participation models and have the greatest social quality potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]