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The causal processes that shape the emergence of environmental attitudes in post-Communist Europe are examined. We describe the widening gap in environmental policy orientations between West and East, and then cite two factors to explain the lower support for environmentalism in this region: first, citizens still evaluate environmental issues through a distinctive ideological lens carried over from the Communist era; and, second, they do not connect environmental issues to other (more salient) economic and political questions in a consistent way. Using the three waves of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) environmental module, these questions are explored with individual-level and multilevel models. It is concluded that the post-Communist effect is unlikely to disappear until environmental issues comprise a component of citizens’ ideological orientations and the programmes of political parties. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The alleged capacity of Payment for Environmental Services (PES) to reach conservation policy goals, while reducing poverty in a cost-effective manner, makes it an extremely attractive development instrument for policymakers and international funding agencies. This article reconstructs the process of envisioning and building the National PES Strategy in Colombia. It reveals how this conservation policy has resulted from the mobilisation of the transnational/national PES epistemic community and its globally expanding discourse. The influential PES network generates internally defined standards of success that proceed without reference to empirical evidence as to the impacts of the implemented policies. PES adoption is influenced by regulatory instruments’ unsatisfactory outcomes, the ways in which market-environmentalist models induce profound indifference towards on-the-ground policy impacts, the discursive power and alignment properties of the PES policy epistemic community, and financial and political pressures by international banks and environmental NGOs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the agenda released by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and the concerns raised by the environmental non-governmental organization Green 10 regarding a lack of clear environmental agenda. Issues include the merger of the climate change and energy portfolios under the Energy Union team, the 7th Environmental Action Programme's call for environmental policies to be integrated into all policy areas, and alleged possible weakening of biodiversity protection.

In environmental governance, the European Union draws on norms of effectiveness, decentralisation, and participation to ensure that its policies and regulations are considered legitimate. This article analyses how the construction of legitimacy in European nature policy has changed over time. Although the norms of participation and decentralisation are increasingly evoked to address the needs of stakeholders and member states in the implementation and financing of Natura 2000, the norm of effectiveness continues to dominate the construction of legitimacy. Effectiveness first acquired its meaning in the context of a science-based approach to Natura 2000 to emphasise the importance of achieving its conservation objectives. More recently, it has become increasingly re-articulated as cost-effectiveness, which reflects a growing influence of neoliberal discourse. The article concludes by discussing the implications of the findings for the legitimacy of European environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Links between national news outlets (Globe and Mail and National Post) and climate-change discourse are examined in order better to understand the cultural politics of Canadian involvement in climate governance. National news media use a narrow range of issue categories to interpret climate change to the public. Both news outlets also privilege national and international political spheres, with less attention to climate governance at the sub-national level. However, there are important differences between them. The Globe and Mail tends to focus on government responsibility, while the National Post tends to focus on climate science and the economic costs of addressing climate change. Four key periods (1999, 2002, 2006, and 2010) are examined in order to trace shifts in climate-change discourse. There has been a shift towards greater issue complexity over time, coupled with a growing polarisation of climate discourse across the two national news outlets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research examines the opportunities presented by policy instrument mixes as tools for public managers to address complex environmental problems by involving public, private, and civil society actors. However, gaps exist in this literature as to how these instruments become applied over a project’s lifetime and whether these applications lead to the desired results. This comparative case study examines the selection and application of policy instruments during four brownfield clean-up and redevelopment projects, selected for their similar economic contexts but varying degrees of project success, in order to consider how policy instrument use over the course of a brownfield project’s lifespan relates to its outputs. Findings suggest that local governments increase the use of policy instruments to retain partner involvement as project uncertainties increase but that the success of this strategy relies upon governance strategies that reflect environmental and political contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

China presents a paradox for scholars of environmental politics. Environmental politics and policymaking in China now includes elements critical to environmental protection in the West, including non-governmental participation and stringent environmental legislation. Yet the country’s authoritarian system constrains popular participation, and environmental outcomes are generally poor. China’s South–North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP) embodies this puzzle: despite the pluralisation and development of environmental politics and policymaking, the SNWTP is a technocratic mega-project that imposes high social, economic, and environmental costs. What explains this puzzle, and what are the implications for understanding environmental politics in other authoritarian developing countries? I evaluate two current theories – Ecological Modernisation and Authoritarian Environmentalism – against the SNWTP case, and argue that it illustrates the ability of governments to co-opt environmental politics to pursue other strategic objectives, in turn necessitating greater attention to the mix of persuasive and coercive strategies in environmental politics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As cities develop climate-change policies, they are likely to engage with and produce new science and information. What influences the choices cities make about this engagement? Our aim is to understand the differences in the ways city governments structure their relationship to climate-change science and expertise, and the extent to which these choices reflect broader governance orientations towards climate change as a policy area. The climate-change policy processes of Delhi and Mexico City are used as case studies. The two cities have made different choices about the structure and formality of the science–policy interface, and demonstrate that policymakers’ choices about engaging scientific expertise are embedded in broader administrative and political systems. Examining the science–policy dynamics in urban climate-change policy suggests ways forward for future research, as there are likely to be political and policy consequences and trade-offs with different approaches to structuring the science–policy interface. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Networks have been embraced as appropriate means for environmental governance because of their potential inclusivity, flexibility, resilience, and ability to comprehend multiple values and ways of knowing. Analysis of networks, however, falls short of accounting for the emergence and persistence of these innovative and complex modes of governance, as well as their failures. We offer a framework for using narrative to understand and evaluate networks. We understand networks to be sets of relationships, between humans and also between humans and their environment, that define and guide behaviour. Narrative is a constitutive element of these networks; narrative and network are co-produced. Narrative analysis enables a critical investigation of environmental action and policy that at the same time captures the variety of environmental relationships and associated meanings and emotions that can inspire collaborative behaviour. Using a case study of the development of alternative agriculture in the United States, we provide a methodology for investigating ‘narrative-networks’ that affords deeper explanations of how and why emergent, often informal and unlikely, environmental networks endure over time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A key dimension of the debate about policy innovation is the extent to which new policies achieve significant and lasting effects on the problems they purport to address. However, little is known about such effects. We break new ground by investigating how far current evaluation practices in a policy system with relatively ambitious climate policies – the European Union – identify the most effective (carbon-reducing) policies. We find that a small number of policy instruments are projected to deliver the lion’s share of emission reductions. Setting aside the special case of emissions trading, these instruments are not particularly innovative. If significant practical and political obstacles can be addressed, more (detailed) evaluations could enhance the evidence base and also the political prospects for delivering deeper emissions cuts through to 2050. An evaluation perspective could also offer a very different way to consider policy innovation dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New markets are key in debates concerning environmental regimes. Critics and proponents share a discourse that characterises environmental markets in terms of scale; many discuss how to scale environmental markets ‘the right way’. Building on previous work in human geography, actor–network theory, and governmentality studies, we unpack the dual but always interwoven politics of scale-making in doing environmental policies, which consists of material-semiotic practices of producing and using scales as ontologically real ordering devices. Drawing from the results of three studies conducted independently by the authors, we analyse material-semiotic scale-making practices in different ways of enacting environmental markets. By revealing the dual politics of scale production and use in environmental markets, our analysis contributes to the study of developing and implementing environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between science and policy in transboundary environmental regulation is dynamic. By elaborating on the concepts of boundary organisations and portable representations, I shed light on how science-based policy and policy-relevant science are co-produced. This perspective is then put to use in an analysis of the scientific representation and political regulation of two different environmental issues: ground-level ozone and biodiversity. Portable representations function as a link between experts and policymakers. By means of portable representations, nature is not only measured and represented but also made governable. Portable representations seemed to strengthen the credibility of both scientific assessments and policy. Science makes itself matter by formally separating itself from policy considerations, although the two are at the same time integrated through portable representations from boundary organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous scholars have used political philosophy to characterise the US environmental justice (EJ) movement’s conception of justice. I build upon that work by identifying and critically evaluating the ideas of justice that manifest in mainstream (non-EJ) environmental politics. I do so through a comparative analysis of two groups of activists concerned with the threats posed by pesticides to human health in California. Mainstream agri-environmental activists’ narratives and practices evince libertarian and communitarian ideas of justice that support the neoliberalisation of an already compromised regulatory system, as they motivate and legitimise policies, practices, and discourses that undermine the state’s environmental protections and shift environmental responsibility to individuals. In contrast, California’s EJ activists, like the broader EJ movement, marshal a pluralist notion of justice as distribution, recognition, participation, and capabilities, which rejects the neoliberal project and explicitly criticises the social inequalities and relations of oppression that help produce environmental inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Situating the ‘post-ecologist turn’ within the framework of post-politics, we not only investigate why environmental issues are so easily represented in consensual and technocratic terms, but also seek avenues for repoliticisation. We thereby try to avoid the pitfall of a voluntaristic or substantively normative approach to what repoliticisation can mean. By pointing to the subtle polemic on a meta-level which lurks beneath even the most consensual discourse, a potential starting point for repoliticisation is uncovered, which also enables a political rereading of the ‘post-ecologist turn’. Finally, we argue that the same characteristics that make the environmental question liable to depoliticisation can also turn it into a field of politicisationpar excellence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For scholars of global environmental politics, transnational actors are a central focus, and many ascribe significant influence to them. However, it is not always clear how their influence is felt or what strategies are most effective. Most studies that do consider these issues focus on the influence of either environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or business groups on one international outcome. Very few studies analyse these actors together. This limits the generalisability of conclusions. Remarkably, almost none of this work has considered the influence of these actors and the strategies they could employ in prolonged environmental negotiations that last many years or decades. Drawing on a rich empirical data set from the international climate negotiations, both are addressed. How the influence of transnational environmental NGOs and business groups is felt in long negotiations is considered, and three strategies are identified that these actors can use to influence not only state behaviour but each other as well. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The combined challenges of climate change and resource depletion demand a rapid socioecological transition on a global scale. However, environmental politics in liberal democracies is caught in an ‘agentic deadlock’ inhibiting the implementation of effective transformative measures. I offer a conceptual framework for the analysis of this agentic deadlock and its structural root causes, building on the analytic distinction between three ‘agentic operators’ – decision, choice, and solution – which connects the analysis of agency with the analysis of structural constraints in liberal democracies, enabling us to understand better why agency channelled through the market or institutions of administrative rationality generates very different outcomes than agency channelled through institutions of collective decision making. While market (choice) and administrative rationality (solution) approaches are more in line with the specific needs of liberal-democratic regime stabilisation, decision-centred approaches have greater transformative potential. The powerful but potentially disruptive agentic operator ‘decision’ is systematically underemployed due to the system’s prioritisation of internal integrity, while the operators ‘choice’ and ‘solution’ are overburdened with transformative tasks they are ill-equipped to fulfil. This imbalance must be corrected if the transition towards sustainability is to be successful. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Public participation in natural-resource management has been theorised as a potential means of slowing or halting the ‘treadmill of production’. We examine the institutional processes for citizen participation in bitumen development proposals in Alberta, Canada, home of the tar sands – one of the world's largest reserves of fossil fuel. Within the context of economic and ecological impacts of fossil-fuel resource development in Alberta, we chart the active treadmill forces, and examine the legal framework that enables public involvement in the province. We also provide a detailed account of the extent of public participation through the available avenues to date. We conclude, in line with the expectations of the treadmill of production, that the institutionalised processes of participation have been restricted to the point of nullifying the possibility of effective, democratic control over the expansion of the tar sands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the law Canada's environmental policy of ecological protection which has come under the new Canadian Conservative Party by its victory. Topics discussed include importance of environmental protection for the people of Canada, Harper Government designed environmental policy rejected Kyoto and attacked the Liberal Party's carbon tax and environmental strategy, and proposal of environmental allowance into a single omnibus spending budget implementation bill for jobs and growth in Canada.

Mainstream analyses have often understood environmental effectiveness as a consequence of the shape of interests and policymaking, and have tested their models through statistical techniques. Results have, however, proved quite erratic. It is argued that these weaknesses reflect a misconception about causality, thus highlighting the need for a shift in both model and method. A different model is therefore developed that explains effectiveness through policy tools and ideas. The model is then applied to the performances of the EU15 member states in mid-2000s, and assessed using Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Cases are polarised around two classic cleavages (‘environmentalists’ vs. ‘productivists’, and ‘pro-marketers’ vs. ‘protectionists’), but give evidence that all the related tool mixes are able to deliver – while the relevant difference between leaders and laggards lies in the use of evaluation devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advancing internationalisation of environmental politics has triggered increasing interest in factors that lead countries to participate in international environmental agreements. But do partisan differences matter for such ratification decisions? An analysis of the ratification responses of 21 OECD countries toward 64 treaties shows that partisan environmentalism matters for ratification behaviour whereas left–right differences do not play a significant role. More precisely, while the likelihood of ratification increases when overall government positions are more pro-environment, pro-environment veto players and environmental ministers are not found to play a role. These results hold against a number of controls and correcting for potential error in the measurement of party positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Parliament has been heralded as a champion of environmental policy within the European Union. However, there have been few recent studies of the European Parliament's treatment of environmental legislation, despite the many changes that have taken place within the EU. To correct this oversight all European Parliament amendments to environmental co-decision legislation between 1999 and 2009 have been classified according to their environmental importance and analysed to determine how the chamber's behaviour has changed over time and which factors shape its success. The European Parliament appears to have become both less radical and less successful in incorporating strong green amendments into legislation, and the European Commission emerges as a central explanation for the European Parliament's ability to do so. Despite the Commission's reputation as a partner seeking to advance the environmental agenda, it does not appear inclined to support the European Parliament's attempts to green legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reforming democratic political systems to handle environmental problems is one of the key political challenges of our time. Here, I analyse how local environmental officials in Sweden perceive the shortcomings of the current political system and what reforms they deem necessary to handle key environmental problems. While green political theory tends to focus on the need to deepen democracy through increased citizen participation, analysis of survey data shows that environmental officials, even though their perceptions of the current system's shortcomings are similar to those presented in the theoretical literature, are more likely to argue for increased expert influence than for direct citizen participation. This result is not easily explained as officials seeking to expand their power, as environmental officials have more complex perceptions of their roles in democracy. The different visions of green professionals and green theory highlight the importance of deliberation on green democratic reforms, including the potentially undemocratic consequences of empowering experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several bibliographies are presented for literature regarding Green parties and their political influence in Western Europe. The bibliographies are categorized by subject and by nations, which include Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, and Italy.

Visual imagery in environmental politics can be an effective way to engage the public. However, research based on 21 interviewees with activists from nine environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) in China suggests that the value of images in promoting environmental initiatives is not limited to the exhibition of them, but is also seen in the making of them. Increasingly in China, ENGOs are offering free natural photographic tutoring to the public. Camera lenses are seen as conduits to recast self-nature relations, which has the potential to raise environmental awareness and promote ENGO membership. Drawing on both theories of social movements and contemporary Chinese subaltern political sociology, this paper provides new insights into grass-roots environmental mobilisation in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigation of the conditions under which formal stakeholder consultations of the Directorate General Energy of the European Commission can help integrate climate change policy in energy policy in the European Union suggests that stakeholder consultations that aim at producing soft law and binding recommendations are rather insular, have low diversity of participants, and do not integrate climate change issues. Forums that aim at providing a discussion platform have higher diversity and integrate climate change issues to a certain extent. Stakeholder consultations can facilitate climate policy integration in European Union energy policy, as they take place early in the policy process. However, integration requires political commitment, and a concrete structure and format of the consultations that would facilitate integration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Environmental politics research frequently centres on the analysis of networks but predominantly from a qualitative perspective. The case is made for combining quantitative analysis of policy networks alongside qualitative research. This enables the structure and form of the network to be considered and focused attention then paid to how actors operationalise the network and give agency to the position of central nodes. This is explored through an empirical analysis of the issue network surrounding the zero-carbon built environment agenda in the United Kingdom in 2009–11. It demonstrates the diffuse yet clustered nature of the network and the importance of expertise claims, internal communication, resources, a unified voice and the organisational business model in shaping organisations' activities within the network. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Towards the end of the last decade, the European Union passed a regulation banning seal products from the European common market. The final legislation deviated from the European Commission's more flexible proposal on key issues, and was therefore not an obvious outcome. Why did the Commission choose to support a conditional ban on seal products in the original proposal, and then why did the European Parliament later reverse the proposal in the second round. To explain the two different outcomes, the types of arguments put forward in the negotiations are analysed and their effectiveness at the different stages of the process is assessed. By identifying four ideal-types of arguments adhering to one of four logics, namely, appropriateness, justification, arguing, or consequentiality, I illustrate how arguments made following the logic of arguing were the most effective in the Commission, while arguments pertaining to a logic of appropriateness were most important in the Parliament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2007, the Australian states of Victoria and New South Wales held reviews of their moratoriums on the commercial release of genetically modified (GM) food crops. The public inquiry form of review selected offered the best strategic pathway to amend these moratoriums to allow commercial release. As such, the reviews represented ‘political technologies’. This proposition is informed by: their formation within a policy context of pro-GM development, which saw ‘stacked’ pro-GM review panels, narrow terms of reference, and outcomes favouring a narrow coalition of agbiotechnology interests; the critical literature on public inquiries; and other evidences that suggest the underlying purpose of the public inquiries was to reach the inescapable conclusion that the moratoriums should be changed. While contributing to the literature on the public inquiry, particularly in relation to science, technology and environmental governance, these findings also invite the suggestion of new deliberative forms of the public inquiry to more adequately address legitimacy and policy effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recycling is an increasingly important tool in global and national efforts for sustainability. Yet, particularly in the United States, there remains disconnect between those who view recycling as a necessity and those who see it as a waste: many conservatives do not support recycling activities, while many liberals do. However, recycling can be framed in language that draws support from both conservatives and liberals. Data from a survey sample of 429 individuals shows that conservative frames of recycling are supported by both conservatives and liberals, whereas liberal frames are supported only by liberals. Similarly ‘duty-based’ citizenship frames are supported by both duty-based and engaged citizens, while ‘engaged’ citizenship frames are supported mainly by engaged citizens. The implications for researchers, educators, administrators, and others involved in recycling are detailed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We re-examine the political interest in and use of ‘new’ environmental policy instruments and other non-regulatory modes of governance. We start by taking stock of the dynamic debate that has emerged around this topic since the turn of the century. We then contextualise that debate by examining subsequent challenges to, and transformations in, state-led governing and the broader and widely acknowledged rise of ‘new governance’, highlighting the mismatch between the animated discussion of new instruments amongst policymakers and academics and the less active adoption and performance of them in practice. We make an overall assessment of the role of instruments – both ‘old’ and ‘new’ – in the wider debate about governance, and suggest some promising steps that could be taken by both practitioners and scholars better to understand and possibly even utilise more new environmental policy instruments in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Whilst environmental issues are now a prominent part of the public policy agenda in Britain, less attention has been paid to the factors shaping contemporary public concern for the environment. The sources of environmentally-related beliefs and behaviours in contemporary British public opinion are assessed, using data from the British Household Panel Survey 2008–9. Exploratory data reduction analysis is undertaken on multiple indicators of environmental concern. Two multi-item scales relating to the perceived impacts of climate change and consumer behaviours are examined. Linear regression analysis shows that sociological and attitudinal factors have similar effects on beliefs and behaviour. The sociological factors showing consistent effects are gender, age, religious salience and education. Attitudinally, there are broadly consistent effects for partisanship and political engagement. The effects of other variables differ across beliefs and behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In April 2010, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the deferral of his flagship climate-change policy, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, after it twice failed to gain the support of the Australian Senate. The decision contributed to the curtailment of Rudd's premiership and confirmed climate change as one of the most toxic issues in Australian politics. Although deficits in policy design and structural obstacles caused by Australia's carbon-intensive economy were major obstacles for the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, it could have passed into legislation had more effective political strategies been used to counter political opposition. A policy network framework is used to explore these political obstacles and how alternative political strategies may help to counter political obstacles to and public concern about new climate policies. In conclusion, the wider merits of policy network and political strategy approaches for the analysis of national climate politics are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a peak in activism against climate change in the UK, new environmental direct action networks have not yet received much academic attention. Taking perhaps the most prominent of such networks – the Camp for Climate Action – which held several high-profile protest events between 2006 and 2011 as a case study, and using a theoretical framework that understands society as being distinctly ‘post-political’ in character, we ask questions about the knowledge claims that form the foundations of radical environmental politics. Drawing on published statements and press releases, as well as from our insights as active participants in the Camp, we analyse the strategy of environmental protest where climate change has become its focus. The Camp for Climate Action was a contested political arena. We argue that the Camp's strategy was characterised by ‘scientised’, ‘post-political’ politics which operated within an ethical framework that prescribed individual responsibility as the primary basis for action. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is considerable cross-national variation in the patterns of adoption and implementation of policies designed to mitigate climate change. The sources of this variation are considered. International relations, economic structures, national cultures and domestic political competition are factors, often in interaction one with another. In situations of multilevel governance, sub-national actors may be significant. Grassroots activism from without the formal political process has sometimes been critical in sharpening the focus of formal political actors, and increasing their willingness to act. Climate change is a global issue, but the political action necessary to address it is inevitably local and national as well as international. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Norwegian climate policy has been marked by several shifts with regard to adopted targets and measures to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Three knowledge-based discourses – respectively a tax discourse, a quota discourse and a technology discourse – have been influential throughout. By tracing the development of Norwegian climate policy from 1989 until 2008, it is shown, however, that while significant in early phases of policymaking, the discourses lose influence in the phase when policy solutions are designed and implemented. Those ideas and ambitions that characterise the ruling discourses in Norwegian climate policy are not necessarily materialised in actual policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1970s and 1980s, Japan was known as the leading innovator in environmental policy. Other OECD countries found much to emulate. Two decades later, Japan appears to have lost its innovative edge to other OECD countries. Why has Japan fallen from its position as the global leader? How should Japan regain its reputation? Possible causes of the rise and fall of Japanese environmental policy are examined by exploring its domestic policy subsystem, the international arena and the arena where domestic and foreign issues converge, the emerging space in which sub-national authorities have become increasingly recognised as direct contributors to global environmental strategies. Each of three approaches – the domestic/foreign divide, interaction and convergence – offers a partial answer to these questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing interest in China's response to climate change, few studies address what is happening at the sub-national level. Hong Kong has implemented several mitigation and adaptation climate-related initiatives. An analytical framework combining multi-level governance with the concepts of institutionalisation and legitimisation is applied to Hong Kong's climate initiatives. Hong Kong's ability to devise a climate change strategy that is institutionalised and legitimated is found to be constrained by a range of climate policy-specific and broader socio-economic and political factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successive New Zealand governments have failed to adopt effective climate change policies. A positive, albeit limited, step was taken with the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme in 2008, a scheme founded on a framework of comprehensive coverage, applying to all sectors of the economy and all Kyoto gases, addressing the challenge of creating an emissions trading scheme tailored for a country characterised by large forest sinks and substantial agricultural emissions. Amendments in 2009 created significant changes in the way the scheme operates. These included delaying the entry of key sectors, moving to an ‘intensity' based approach, to the free allocation of emissions units and implementing a ‘transition period’. The development of New Zealand's climate change policy highlights the difficulties of a unique emissions profile and strong political interests, particularly the influence of a powerful agriculture sector. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To investigate the ‘promiscuous history’ of the efficiency of emissions trading markets, I draw from Actor Network Theory and specifically the work of Bruno Latour, highlighting how the commonly made claim to efficiency was constructed as a ‘fact’. I trace the processes, beginning in the early 1970s, that constructed first the inefficiency of command-and-control regulation through the distinction between the means and the ends of regulation, and the conversion of the specific 1970 Clean Air Act regulations into the archetypal form of command-and-control. Alongside this, the efficiency of emissions trading was constructed through the provision of empirical, modeling evidence and the re-construction of the Environmental Protection Agency's early Emissions Trading System as an ‘ad hoc’ implementation of ‘pure’ economic theory. In this way specific regulatory forms were translated into a seemingly universal economic narrative, and emissions trading was stabilised as a regulatory technology applicable to multiple environmental pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Voluntary environmental governance arrangements have focal attention in studies on environmental policy, regulation and governance. The four major debates in the contemporary literature on voluntary environmental governance arrangements are studied. The literature falls short of sufficiently specifying whether or not voluntary environmental governance arrangements are successful in addressing environmental risks. This is due to the narrow focus of many contemporary studies and a tendency to study the form and content of voluntary environmental governance arrangements in isolation from their contextual settings. In order to gain a better understanding of voluntary environmental governance arrangements, scholars are challenged to study differently structured voluntary environmental governance arrangements in different contextual settings, to move beyond single country or single voluntary environmental governance arrangements studies, and to combine quantitative and qualitative data in studying these arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To assess whether the British government's pragmatic use of the precautionary principle in its environmental policy decision-making is unprincipled or principled, three cases are examined: organophosphorous pesticides in sheep dips; genetically-modified crops; and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE: so-called ‘mad cow’ disease). These cases were chosen because they were particularly difficult to resolve scientifically, and gave rise to heated debates over the merits of the precautionary principle approach to environmental policy. The government's decisions were, respectively: to reject the precautionary principle in the case of organophosphorous pesticides; to adopt a strong version of the precautionary principle in the case of genetically-modified crops; and to adopt a weak version of the precautionary principle in the case of BSE. These decisions were not unprincipled, but principled, in that they applied a consistent and coherent approach to the precautionary principle based on the ethical principle of ‘circumstances’. Drawing on the pragmatic political philosophy of Edmund Burke, it is shown how such an approach is justifiable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The German Greens achieved a record result in the federal elections of 2009. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, it is argued that this excellent result was not an isolated phenomenon but is in line with a long-term growth of Green electoral support that has a strong generational basis. A ‘feminisation’ and ‘greying’ of Green voters is also apparent. Despite the party's effort to emphasise economic and social issues in its campaigning, the chief factors explaining Green voting remain environmental concern and opposition to nuclear energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the earliest and deepest cases of neoliberal reform, Chile's political economic model has been the subject of extensive debate. The associated environmental law and policy that emerged in this context has, however, received little attention. The country's environmental policymaking process as well as the character and effects of the environmental regime that emerged are examined. Environmental policymaking has been tightly constrained by institutional and political arrangements that embody neoliberal principles such that legislation only advances when internal demands connect up with global forces. As a result, and despite many regulatory initiatives, the environmental regime expresses a strongly market-enabling quality instead of the market-regulating character commonly ascribed to environmental law and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

That climate change mitigation strategies may disproportionately affect rural people and communities is evidenced by the introduction of water mitigation policies in Australia. The significant consequences of water policy for irrigation farming families and communities in Australia's Murray–Darling Basin – the food bowl of Australia – are outlined. This policy emerges from a hierarchical model of governance and has resulted in uneven and perverse outcomes for people in rural areas. Lack of attention to metagovernance and a misplaced trust in the water market has left rural people and communities vulnerable to significant stress and disaffection, impacting on their resilience and adaptability to change. A partnership model of governance is suggested to guide climate change mitigation policies to ensure that the capacity of rural people and communities to adapt to significant change is enhanced rather than eroded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]