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This paper adds to our understanding of how people's climate change concern and norms influence their leisure air travel. It does so by examining the roles of Norwegians' beliefs about climate change and emissions from air travel, their felt responsibility to limit emissions (personal norm), and expectations and behaviors of friends and family (social norms) in such travel. A representative sample of Norwegians was surveyed in 2019 and 2020 (N = 2842), based on a framework combining institutional and social-psychological perspectives. Structural equation modeling of the data reveals that leisure air travel is habituated and part of a lifestyle, supported by social norms, self-enhancement values and urban residency. Personal norms for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from flying are beginning to emerge in Norway, but their effect on leisure air travel is small and only indirect. Our findings suggest the need for interventions to complement and potentially amplify the emerging moralization process and support an evolution of new habits and travel lifestyle to limit the emissions from leisure air travel substantially. The disruption of travel habits by the COVID-19 pandemic might ease such a process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty-five years since foundational publications on valuing ecosystem services for human well-being1,2, addressing the global biodiversity crisis3 still implies confronting barriers to incorporating nature’s diverse values into decision-making. These barriers include powerful interests supported by current norms and legal rules such as property rights, which determine whose values and which values of nature are acted on. A better understanding of how and why nature is (under)valued is more urgent than ever4. Notwithstanding agreements to incorporate nature’s values into actions, including the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)5 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals6, predominant environmental and development policies still prioritize a subset of values, particularly those linked to markets, and ignore other ways people relate to and benefit from nature7. Arguably, a ‘values crisis’ underpins the intertwined crises of biodiversity loss and climate change8, pandemic emergence9 and socio-environmental injustices10. On the basis of more than 50,000 scientific publications, policy documents and Indigenous and local knowledge sources, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) assessed knowledge on nature’s diverse values and valuation methods to gain insights into their role in policymaking and fuller integration into decisions7,11. Applying this evidence, combinations of values-centred approaches are proposed to improve valuation and address barriers to uptake, ultimately leveraging transformative changes towards more just (that is, fair treatment of people and nature, including inter- and intragenerational equity) and sustainable futures.Following a wide-ranging review of studies, reports and policies about nature’s multiple values, combinations of values-centred approaches are proposed to improve valuation of nature, address barriers to uptake in decision-making, and make transformative changes towards more just and sustainable futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When governments regulate externalities, they inevitably create, modify or reassign property rights. Although these rights have important distributional implications, they are rarely at the center of economic evaluations of policy instrument choice, where the main focus is on allocative efficiency. This is problematic for two reasons. First, the allocation of rights may not receive the attention it deserves, and decisions about rights and more technical policy advice are easily mixed up. The second reason is a circularity problem: proposed (Pareto) efficient regulations modify the same property rights that determine what economists identify as an efficient environmental target. To avoid these difficulties, we propose a perspective in regulation that brings the allocation of rights to the front. We classify basic regulatory options based on how rights are allocated between polluters and potential victims and across income groups and we outline how these options may be implemented through choice of policy instruments. We then propose a regulatory procedure that takes the interdependence of rights and environmental targets into account. Based on this analysis, we discuss the potential of a rights-centered approach for designing environmental policies with desirable distributional outcomes and assumptions about the rights to environmental resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we discuss if existing political and economic institutions can ensure sustainable futures. We do so by combining a global outlook with more specifically examining the situation in China. Present institutions foster growth, they are however weak at motivating actions that keep economies within an environmentally safe and socially just space. We especially note the challenges that strong focus on growth combined with ex post environmental regulations create for natural systems with tipping-points. In this situation, there is a need to change institutions to ensure strong emphasis on long-term sustainability as opposed to short term economic surplus. Regarding political decision-making, we discuss ways to break short-termism through strengthening public deliberation as well as formalizing political responsibility for the future. Regarding economic institutions, we emphasize the need to widen the goals of firms including responsibilities for environmental qualities. The latter may demand changes in ownership structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we are interested in the effects of institutional context on public attitudes towards climate policies, where institutions are defined as the conventions, norms and formally sanctioned rules of any given society. Building on a 2014 survey experiment, we conducted thirty qualitative interviews with car-owners in Oslo, Norway, to investigate the ways in which institutional context and political-value orientation affect public attitudes towards emissions policies. One context (presented as a text treatment) highlighted individual rationality, emphasising the ways in which local pollution impacts the individual citizen; the other highlighted social rationality, emphasising the wider significance of carbon emissions and global responsibility for climate change. We analysed the effects of these contexts on attitudes, finding that institutional context influenced individuals' perspectives as well as their attitudes towards climate policies. Groups with different value orientations differed in terms of their evaluations but not their interpretations of these contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countries considering participating in a REDD+ mechanism need information on what it would cost them to reduce emissions fromdeforestation and forest degradation. This study was conducted to estimate the cost of managing forest carbon under REDD+ initiatives in Kolo Hills Forest, Kondoa, Tanzania. Socioeconomic and biophysical information was collected through structured questionnaires, focus group discussions, and forest inventory, respectively. Results show that the community participated in managing the forest by undertaking a range of activities such as tree planting, patrolling, and fire protection. The estimated total cost was USD 418,349.38 while the average cost was USD 79.06/ha. The average carbon stored was 19.75 tC ha-1, which is equivalent to 72.48 tCO2 ha-1. Costs incurred by managing the forest in relation to tCO2 stored were USD 1.0485 tCO2 e-1ha-1. The project was found to be economically feasible at 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% discount rates withNPVs ofUSD107,102,331.83,USD33,986,255.86, USD 10,312,945, and USD 1,245,905.11, respectively. The internal rate of return was 21.21% which is much higher than the World Bank rate of 15.8% and the Tanzania rate of 14.8%. We therefore conclude that the decision to undertake this REDD+ project was worthwhile and should be favoured against the "do nothing" alternative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deliberative processes provide an important alternative input to environmental politics as they may, in contrast to often used market simulations, provide an arena for 1) discussion of lay participants' values, 2) articulating arguments grounded in other values than consequentialistic, and 3) capturing weakly comparable values. A case study of a Citizens' Jury (CJ) on genetically modified plants was used to investigate how the framing of the process affected the attitude formation among the citizens. The formal set up of this specific CJ made value discussions less relevant. While it opened for value plurality, it failed to facilitate the articulation of weakly comparable values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically analyzes institutional change as a consequence of humanitarian intervention in the tsunami-affected Nicobar Islands in India. It shows that the state and aid agencies distributed resources on the basis of formal rules and norms different from those observed by the Nicobarese. This has created social upheaval by diminishing the stature of the joint family system and imparting greater agency to political representatives. Written communication has overridden the sanctity of the spoken word. Younger, educated Nicobarese, especially men, have been privileged by the new institutional arrangements and are active participants in social change. Thus, humanitarian intervention has resulted in shifting relationships of power and equity. Moreover, the ecological consequences appear to be unsustainable. The article suggests the need for enhanced sensitivity to cultural specificities and inherent human capacity in designing humanitarian intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental policy-making can be challenging because of lobbying by strong private interests. This results in less consideration about what is best for the wider community. The main goal of this study is to evaluate to what extent it is possible to institutionalize a citizen's role in decision-support processes. While the literature makes a clear distinction between private and social values, very little research is undertaken on how the framing of the instituted process influences which types of value become legitimate. Two deliberative meetings with local inhabitants were conducted in a municipality in Norway focusing on land use policy in coastal areas. The meetings were framed to facilitate dialogue and to emphasize the most important values to protect, given the interests of the wider municipality in the longer run. A large majority of the participants found the framing appropriate. Analyses of the dialogues, letters written by participants before the meetings and individual interviews undertaken afterwards document that the format of the meetings influenced strongly which arguments were found legitimate. The setting favoured the identification and specification of social values for inhabitants of the involved municipality such as public accessibility in conserved nature areas along the coast. The data moreover give insights about how the framing influenced the process. Arguments in favour of private construction interests were present, but were found to be weak in legitimacy. The framing might, however, also have influenced which social values were emphasized the most strongly. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compare two reindeer pasture regions in Norway. Both were exposed to the same external changes, such a new technologies, increased market access, and new state policies. As North became overgrazed in the 1980s, South was not. In explaining this, we focus on interaction between such external factors and internal characteristics like the natural resource base and the Sámi institutions. South herder leaders pursued institutional transformations included in state policies, however, the state policy was not legitimate in the North. We recommend focus on self-governance, cultural dynamics, and examining many relevant factors before the imposition of changes in governance structures and incentive systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyse scientists' perspectives on the release of genetically modified (GM) crops into the environment, and the relationship between their perspectives and the context that they work within, e.g. their place of employment (university or industry), funding of their research (public or industry) and their disciplinary background (ecology, molecular biology or conventional plant breeding). We employed Q-methodology to examine these issues. Two distinct factors were identified by interviewing 62 scientists. These two factors included 92 per cent of the sample. Scientists in factor 1 had a moderately negative attitude to GM crops and emphasised the uncertainty and ignorance involved, while scientists in factor 2 had a positive attitude to GM crops and emphasised that GM crops are useful and do not represent any unique risks compared to conventional crops. Funding had a significant effect on the perspective held by the scientists in this study. No ecologists were associated with factor 2, while all the scientists employed in the GM-industry were associated with this factor. The strong effects of training and funding might justify certain institutional changes concerning how we organise science and how we make public decisions when new technologies are to be evaluated. Policy makers should encourage more interdisciplinary training and research and they should make sure that representatives of different disciplines are involved in public decisions on new technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy related transaction costs (TCs) is an important issue when evaluating different policy options. However, TCs are often not taken into account in policy evaluations, but may be as important for efficiency as the direct production costs. Different policies may result in different TCs, and the main aim of this article is to explore possible reasons for these differences. We compare the level of TCs for 12 different agricultural policy measures in Norway, and we analyze the causes of the differences along three different dimensions: asset specificity, frequency, and point of policy application. At the national level we find that all three dimensions are of importance when explaining the differences, while variation in TCs incurred by farmers are mainly due to differences in point of policy application and asset specificity. Data show that direct price support has the lowest TCs, while more direct payments for environmental amenities has the highest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic valuation of the environment is disputed, in part, due to the number of anomalies. Reactions to these anomalies have included adding new auxiliary hypotheses to the core model or dismissing the whole undertaking. This paper takes a third route, and uses observations made in valuation studies to improve choice theory. The paper covers the information problem, the issue of preference formation, and underlines the role of the social sphere in defining what becomes individually rational. While the findings may not simplify theory, they may help us become more realistic and to understand errors produced by illegitimate simplifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the dispute over nitrogen taxes in agriculture in Europe. Debate over nitrogen fertilizer taxes in Europe as empirical basis; Difficulties involved when introducing the logic of economic efficiency into environmental policy; Influence of disagreements over tax effects on the policy-making process; Vulnerability of environmental policy to confrontations across sectors of responsibility.

Integrated pest management (IPM) was introduced in the 1960s as a response to increasing pesticide use and has since evolved from being understood mainly as an economic issue to also including environmental and human health considerations. The EU has made IPM mandatory for all farmers through the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive (SUD). Using a mixed-methods approach, this paper examines how Norwegian cereal farmers have responded to this requirement. The qualitative results show that most farmers have an understanding of IPM that goes beyond economic considerations only. The quantitative results display that farmers' intrinsic motivation for IPM changed after introduction of the SUD. There is increased emphasis on using methods other than spraying, producing grain without traces of pesticides, and preventing pesticide resistance. Farmers' self-reported knowledge of IPM increased, and 41% of farmers stated that they use IPM to a greater extent than before the SUD was introduced. These results demonstrate that mandatory IPM requirements have been a successful strategy for increasing farmers use of IPM in Norway. Clearer IPM provisions and increased intrinsic motivation for IPM among farmers will, however, be important to reduce the risks from pesticides further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The standard policy recommendation to limit pollution is to use taxes or tradeable quotas on emissions. A general emphasis on emissions does not, however, take proper account of the characteristics of the material flow through the economy. An analysis of the relationships between transaction costs and features of this flow shows that it may be less costly to tax inputs into the economy. The paper focuses on the advantages of a mass flow perspective in environmental economics, the trade-off between the precision of an environmental regulation and its implementation costs, and develops criteria for choosing between input and emission-related instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capacity of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) forests to sequestrate carbon has attracted interest from the international community to protect forests for carbon storage and alleviate rural poverty by establishing REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). Using information gathered from interviews, focus groups, field observations, and policy document analysis, this paper demonstrates that REDD+ is not well adapted to the institutional structures of forest governance in the DRC, including both statutory and customary tenure. The lack of harmonization between these systems has created a situation of competition between state and customary authorities. This has created opportunities for powerful actors to 'shop' between the two systems to attempt to legitimize their expanded use and control over forest resources. As the REDD+ process evolves from the preparation to the implementation phase, competing institutional structures may negatively impact the effectiveness of REDD+, as well as the distribution of costs and benefits. While the newly enacted community forest law provides an opportunity to recognize customary rights to forestland, the lack of functional local government at the district and village levels has prompted REDD+ pilot project organizers to establish new village organizations for REDD+. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces the journal by discussing the new partnership with the European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE).

This paper addresses problems related to transferring market concepts to non-market domains. More specifically it is about fallacies following from the use of the commodity concept in environmental valuation studies. First of all, the standard practice tends to misconstrue the ethical aspects related to environmental choices by forcing them into becoming ordinary trade-off problems. Second, the commodity perspective ignores important technical interdependencies within the environment and the relational character of environmental goods. These areall properties that have made many such goods escape the commoditisation pressure of markets in the first place. Further, it is shown that these interdependencies are the source of some of the ethical dilemmas observed. Finally, inherent characteristics of the environment tend to make the concept of the margin, so indispensable to economic calculus, either difficult or irrelevant to define. The commodity 'fiction' twists the perception of the environment from systems preservation to items use or transformation. This is a problem of increased importance as we approach potential systems perturbations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]