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In global sustainability governance, many actors have emphasised the need for policy integration across the economic, social, and environmental dimensions. In 2015, the United Nations agreed on 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to advance such integration. But have international organisations responded to this call, and can we observe any integrative effect of the SDGs? We draw on International Relations theories that incorporate change in their analysis and develop an analytical framework to assess change through the lenses of ideas, norms, and institutions. We use this framework to assess sustainability-oriented change in the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The ILO is traditionally an organisation with a primarily socio-economic mandate and hence an ideal case to study whether the SDGs had any impact after 2015 in strengthening the environmental dimension of sustainability in the ILO’s institutional settings and policy development. We focus on the 2010–2019 period and conduct a systematic qualitative content analysis of primary documentary sources, complemented with expert interviews and data on operational developments. The paper concludes that there is a significant yet instrumental greening trend in the ILO’s approach to sustainable development, but also a bidirectional influence between the ILO and the SDGs.

The Routledge Handbook of Global Sustainability Governance provides a state-of-the-art review of core debates and contributions that offer a more normative, critical, and transformatively aspirational view on global sustainability governance. In this landmark text, an international group of acclaimed scholars provides an overview of key analytical and normative perspectives, material and ideational structural barriers to sustainability transformation, and transformative strategies. Drawing on pivotal new and contemporary research, the volume highlights aspects to be considered and blind spots to be avoided when trying to understand and implement global sustainability governance. In this context, the authors of this book debunk many myths about all-too optimistic accounts of progress towards a sustainability transition. Simultaneously, they suggest approaches that have the potential for real sustainability transformation and systemic change, while acknowledging existing hurdles. The wide-ranging chapters in the collection are organised into four key parts: • Part 1: Conceptual lenses • Part 2: Ethics, principles, and debates • Part 3: Key challenges • Part 4: Transformative approaches This handbook will serve as an important resource for academics and practitioners working in the fields of sustainability governance and environmental politics.

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book reviews prominent conceptual and analytical lenses critical of mainstream approaches to sustainability governance. It addresses the role of religion in sustainability governance and religious actors’ potential contribution to sustainable development, and argues that “one should take seriously the claim that there is a religious answer to the global ecological crisis.” The book suggests that transformative global sustainability governance research calls for empirically oriented social scientists to reflect on the normative ramifications of their work and for normative oriented political theorists not to neglect the empirical grounds for their argumentation. It focuses on well-being and links it back to the question of growth by calling for a move beyond Gross Domestic Product – both as a measure of prosperity and a wider economic paradigm rooted in a growth-centred capitalism.

We explore the relevance of structural characteristics of policy networks for policy outcomes, thereby highlighting the continuing relevance of the policy network approach for policy analysis. Focusing on networks for transparency in the food chain in the Netherlands and the EU, we examine the proposition that network interactions in the form of communication and trust make a substantial difference in the estimation and explanation of transparency policy. Thereby, we identify existing obstacles to a successful transformation of the norm of transparency into appropriate political frameworks and governance mechanisms as well as potential steps for improvement. Data were gathered in structured interviews with the network actors in the Netherlands and at the EU level and are employed in a mathematical model allowing us to highlight the impact of communication and trust relationships on policy output.

The future of food is one of the major world-wide challenges. In this perspective paper, we set-up a framework for a multi-disciplinary future food systems approach, building on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We hereby combine a truly sustainable approach including social science aspects combined with the One Health approach. Scientists from a large number of backgrounds have addressed four key areas that are discussed in more detail in this paper: (i) nature inspired food production, (ii) sustainable immune resilience, (iii) social and cultural change of food behavior, and (iv) food fairness. We believe that transformations to integrated future food system approaches should move beyond single solutions and can only be solved by working in transdisciplinary settings of science, society, and industry.

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book reviews prominent conceptual and analytical lenses critical of mainstream approaches to sustainability governance. It addresses the role of religion in sustainability governance and religious actors’ potential contribution to sustainable development, and argues that “one should take seriously the claim that there is a religious answer to the global ecological crisis.” The book suggests that transformative global sustainability governance research calls for empirically oriented social scientists to reflect on the normative ramifications of their work and for normative oriented political theorists not to neglect the empirical grounds for their argumentation. It focuses on well-being and links it back to the question of growth by calling for a move beyond Gross Domestic Product – both as a measure of prosperity and a wider economic paradigm rooted in a growth-centred capitalism.

During the negotiations of the Sustainable Development Goals, the United Nations consulted worldwide nearly ten million people for their views. Such proliferating megaconsultations are often uncritically accepted as a remedy for an assumed democratic deficit of intergovernmental institutions. We argue, however, that the potential of civil society consultations to democratize global governance is constrained by the limited legitimacy of these consultations in the first place. Global consultations regularly fail to include civil society actors from developing countries, or show other sociodemographic biases. Also, they often fail to strengthen accountability between citizens, international organizations and governments. In this article, we investigate the causes of this phenomenon by exploring the relationship between the design of consultations and their democratic legitimacy. The basis for our argument is an in-depth empirical study of three consultations carried out during the negotiations of the Sustainable Development Goals. We find that design is an important variable to explain the overall legitimacy of consultations. Yet its exact role is sometimes unexpected. Extensive material resources and open access conditions do not systematically enhance the legitimacy of the studied consultations. Instead, developing clear objectives, allocating sufficient time to participants, and formally binding the consultation to the negotiations hold considerably more promise.

"Food security, food safety, healthy consumption habits, and environmental sustainability are essential to the well-being of societies worldwide. Yet, progress in fostering sustainability in the global agrifood system has been slow at best and significant challenges remain. First, food insecurity remains a problem for millions of people, while its range and consequences have been aggravated by the recent food crisis (FAO 2008b). Second, repeated food scandals and health scares constitute additional challenges for food governance (World Bank 2005). Food is the number one cause of premature death in the western world due to the increasing consumption of fattier, saltier, and sweeter foods and drinks (Popkin 2002). Even in many Asian countries obesogenic diets are becoming more prevalent (Florentino 2002; IOTF 2005). Third, threats to the provision of adequate amounts of nutritious food are expected to multiply as a result of climate change (European Commission 2008a). At the same time, the food sector itself is a major contributor to direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions (FAO 2008a). Fourth, alternative food products – while promising environmental and health benefits in relation to their conventional equivalents – are also associated with costs. In India, thousands of farmers have reportedly committed suicide, partly as a result of debt due to unfair biotech deals (Nagaraj 2008).(...)" [authors remark]

"This paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of private food governance in addressing the environmental challenges facing the global food system, today. Greenhouse gas emissions, decline of biodiversity, water pollution, pesticide use and the generation of waster are considered the new agrarian questions of this century. Crucially, the governance of such environmental strains is a rapidly emerging issue for private actors, who have become key players in global food governance. Yet, few studies have tried to understand the actual impact of private rulesetting, in general, and retail governance, in particular, in detail. Drawing on global governance literature and organisational theory, this paper evaluates the effectiveness of private food governance institutions for sustainability, in terms of their comprehensiveness, stringency, compliance and coverage. Next to this quite narrow understanding of effectiveness the paper also identifies the broader political and soci-economic influence of private food governance in terms of structural, cognitive and normative effects. The paper illustrates its arguments in two cases, namely GlobalGAP and the Marine Stewardship Council. As such, the paper advances our theoretical knowledge on private rule-setting institutions and contributes empirically to political science research by making available new data on a currently understudied case of private governance." [author's abstract]

The dissertation is organised in four parts. The first part (Chapter 2) sets the background. It explores the status quo and explains the need for transparency in the food chain. This chapter argues that transparency is a condition for responding to the set of changes that occurred in the food system during the last decades. The second part (Chapters 3, 4 and 5) presents the theoretical approaches that this dissertation draws on as well as the analytical perspective and methods used. Chapter three examines the theories and approaches most valuable for analyzing the process of promoting transparency in a multi-actor context. Having reviewed the major approaches, the dissertation¿s own analytical perspective is presented in chapter four. We view the formation of policy outputs for transparency, as a result of both actor strategies and network structures. More specifically, the network is considered to set the context within which individual strategies can evolve. The way actors and network characteristics are operationalised and measured is presented in chapter five. We also present the dissertation¿s methodology for the collection as well as analysis of data and case selection in this chapter. The third part (Chapters 6, 7, 8 and 9) presents the empirical analyses. Putting the model into force, chapters six and seven assess the political feasibility of efforts to improve transparency in the pork chain in the Netherlands and the EU respectively. In a similar vein, chapters eight and nine focus on the farmed-fish chain in the Netherlands and the EU respectively. Finally, the fourth part (Chapter 10) concludes the dissertation, interprets the results and discusses their implications for transparency and sustainability related policies and politics.