Abstract This paper conceptualizes power and empowerment in the context of sustainability transitions and transition governance. The field of transition studies has been critically interrogated for undermining the role of power, which has inspired various endeavours to theorize power and agency in transitions. This paper presents the POwer-IN-Transition framework (POINT), which ...Read more >>

Abstract ‘Super-wicked' problems such as climate change require ambitious policies within stable policy frameworks. Key for policy stability is to disincentivise future reversals to carbon-intensive lifestyles resulting in unstoppable climate change. It requires lock-in to a low-carbon development trajectory, requires increasing popular support, and needs to be self-reinforcing, with reversal costs ...Read more >>

Abstract This article focuses on the use of the ecosystem approach to management (EAM) in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). Based on selected criteria for EAM, the article traces and compares the impact of EAM on HELCOM's Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP), the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), the EU Marine ...Read more >>

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Abstract Individual decision-makers at different governance levels operate in social contexts, which means that they sometimes need to compromise their personal values. Yet, this dissonance is rarely the direct target of empirical analyses of environmental decision-making. We undertake a Q-analysis of decision-makers' personal perspectives and the perspectives they perceive to dominate ...Read more >>

Abstract Environmental policy-making increasingly involves ministries beyond environment ministries. In particular, finance ministries are important, since they control the public budget and address environmental issues from a perspective different from environmental actors. The role of finance ministries is especially salient in the European Union's (EU) Emissions Trading System (ETS), which has ...Read more >>

Abstract Since 2006, governments have designated or announced 18 marine protected areas (MPAs) larger than 200 000 km2. Before then there was only one: Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, established in 1975. To explain this marked shift in state governance of marine biodiversity, this article points to the importance of ...Read more >>

Abstract Policy and economic changes in the late 20th century fundamentally reorganized the governance of public forestlands in the US West, throwing longstanding rural development trajectories into disarray. Place-based NGOs emerged across the West in the wake of this transformation to help rural communities gain access to the benefits of new ...Read more >>

Abstract Climate adaptation literature has hitherto devoted limited attention to the roles of residents. Yet their role is crucial in addressing non- or maladaptation, as their initiative or consent is often necessary to take adaptation measures in or around the house. To address this knowledge gap, this paper explores mainstream and ...Read more >>

Abstract Local climate governance has become a key focus of the climate change agenda. Much research has been conducted on the topic in northern countries, but more research is needed in the South, where local governments often are less equipped to deal with challenges associated with climate change. This paper discusses ...Read more >>

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Abstract Disasters have the potential to shake societies and their governance systems not only temporarily, but often for years afterwards as well. Studying disaster governance through lenses of social–ecological systems can provide essential insights in disaster contexts, as disasters occur through the interactions between nature and societies. Drawing upon debates on ...Read more >>

Abstract Ecological fiscal transfers in Brazil, the so-called ICMS-Ecológico or ICMS-E, redistribute part of the state-level value-added tax revenues on the basis of ecological indicators to local governments. We analyze whether the introduction of this economic instrument in a state offers incentives to municipal responses in terms of further protected area ...Read more >>

Abstract Recommendations for improving environmental management often advocate a holistic approach that supports both social and environmental objectives. This should be reflected in approaches to monitoring and evaluation; however, monitoring is often inadequate and hence limits our ability to implement adaptive management. It is important to understand if monitoring practices are ...Read more >>

Abstract European Union (EU) environmental policy can only work in practice when it is implemented by and within the member states. Yet, despite its importance, we still lack a solid and cumulative understanding of the practical implementation of EU environmental policies, mainly because of the dominance of case-specific empirical insights and ...Read more >>

Abstract Based on a review of recent literature, this paper addresses the question of how urban planners can steer urban environmental quality, given the fact that it is multidimensional in character, is assessed largely in subjective terms and varies across time. A novel perspective of urban environmental quality is proposed, simultaneously ...Read more >>

Abstract Implementing renewable energy policies is a complex governance challenge that involves numerous jurisdictional levels. Transforming an energy system towards renewables requires not only top-down activities from the central government, but also bottom-up developments at subnational jurisdictions. This article investigates how complex multi-level governance arrangements affect renewable energy policy implementation in ...Read more >>

Abstract The climate change arena comprises a diverse set of interacting actors from international, national and local levels. The multilevel architecture has implications for low-carbon technology deployment in developing countries, an issue salient to both development and climate objectives. The paper examines this theme through two inter-related questions: how do (or ...Read more >>

Abstract Since 2000, the European Union (EU), a leader in global climate politics, has been looking for alternative avenues to enforce climate relations with other countries. Employing a multi-level governance lens, this article focuses on the EU–India bilateral relations on energy and climate. The analysis finds strong opportunities for mutually beneficial ...Read more >>

Abstract Multi-level global governance was introduced at the United Nations summit in Rio in 1992 as a new model to achieve a broad global mobilization of different actors in sustainable development. This model has been extended to climate governance. It has become a global system with its own inherent logic, dynamics ...Read more >>

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Abstract China is setting increasingly ambitious greenhouse gas targets and backing them up with a wide array of policies and programmes. How successful China will be in slowing and eventually reversing the growth in its greenhouse gas emissions will depend significantly on how well it does with policy implementation at the ...Read more >>

Abstract This article explains the relatively successful performance of the European Union (EU) in climate and energy governance by two factors: (1) multi-level reinforcement and (2) the mobilization of economic interests at different levels of governance through low-carbon industrial policy. The article adds to the literature by further developing existing arguments ...Read more >>

Abstract The financial crisis demonstrated the importance of money and finance for the key concerns of ecological economics: inequality, wellbeing and the conditions for sustainability transitions. To cope with the combined challenge of economic and environmental crises, one of the most popular governance proposals within the ecological economics community is to ...Read more >>

Abstract Issues of disaster and governance in the Brahmaputra Basin of India have been part of different debates within the epistemic boundaries. This study of a social–ecological regime shift, from a prosperous paddy cultivated region within the north bank of the Upper Brahmaputra Valley to a sediment deposited wasteland, unravels the ...Read more >>

Abstract Finland has had problems protecting the grey wolf (Canis lupus) for decades. Over the past few years, the government of Finland has taken several steps to improve its policy on wolves. In this paper, we explore the grassroots activism that institutional adjustments have triggered. This work builds on ethnographic presence ...Read more >>

Abstract Despite growing rhetoric regarding the potential benefits of using knowledge brokers in relation to environmental challenges and decision-making processes, the evidence in support of such claims is mostly anecdotal. This is, in part, due to the lack of established methods to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of knowledge brokers. To ...Read more >>

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