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This paper analyses the effectiveness of regional governments’ environmental taxes and policies in reducing industrial waste. We propose a spatial and dynamic model for the Spanish regions during the period 1999–2017. The results suggest that there are spatial and dynamic components in the generation of industrial waste; and that the specific environmental tax policy applied to industrial waste is not very effective, although the induced effect of these taxes and other environmental policies reduces the waste generation. Our model also suggests a relative decoupling between growth and waste, although many regions are still far from the waste Kuznets curve (WKC) turning point.

Jointly with the Global North, the rise of the Global South has come at a high cost to the environment. Driven by its high energy intensity and the use of fossil fuels, the South has contributed a significant portion of global emissions during the last 30 years, and is now contributing some 63% of today's total GHG emissions (including land-use change and forestry). Similar to the Global North, the Global South's emissions are heavily concentrated: India and China alone account for some 60% and the top 10 countries for some 78% of the group's emissions, while some 120 countries account for only 22%. Without highlighting such differences, it makes little sense to use the term 'Global South'. Its members are affected differently, and contribute differently to global climate change. They neither share a common view, nor do they pursue joint interests when it comes to international climate negotiations. Instead, they are organised into more than a dozen subgroups of the global climate regime. There is no single climate strategy for the Global South, and climate action will differ enormously from country to country. Furthermore, just and equitable transitions may be particularly challenging for some countries.

Environmental policy advocates are increasingly proposing ‘bundled’ clean energy policies to combat climate change while also creating jobs and transforming the economy. While such strategies may b...

Policy processes traditionally dominated by government increasingly are open to participation by diverse non-governmental actors. This can result in more inclusive policy making, but undue influenc...

Environmental communication and policy formation must address complex challenges as society faces unprecedented environmental issues. Program evaluation is one method for mobilizing support for new...

Policy goals regarding many environmental topics have undergone a shift in recent decades, from environmental protection and elimination of hazards to the enhancement of sustainability. Yet the con...

Annual emissions from commercial aviation are forecast to reach 1820 MtCO2 by mid-century, where carbon-neutral growth would demand near full substitution of petroleum-based aviation fuels with alt...

Chile’s Northern Patagonia attracts thousands of tourists, who every summer venture to undertake a range of outdoor activities. In this article, we explore the local production of outdoor activities, by conceptualizing small-scale nature-based tours as a social practice. The study is based on empirical research, taking as a case study the development of the Marble Caves tour, an iconic destination in Northern Patagonia, Chile. The touring practice is analyzed based on the interplay of its material components, required competences and symbolic meanings. Our findings demonstrate that the persistence of the practice is particularly reliant on the competences of the tour operators, and on the abiotic nature of the tourist attraction. Fostering tour guide competences therefore contributes to the sustainability and performance of the practice. We contend that tourism policy interventions that aim to harmonize local development and environmental protection need to carefully analyze and take into account existing social practices.

Biodiversity offsets are a mechanism for allowing economic development to proceed while ensuring that this is not to the detriment of environmental and social values. In order to achieve this, biod...

Environmental policy in the European Union is a hot topic for both practitioners and researchers. Their interests are attracted mainly by the main tool of this policy—emissions trading within the E...

India's textile industry is among the largest in the world and contributes significantly to India's GDP and economic growth. As the second largest total exporter globally after China with more than...

This paper studies environmental policy integration (EPI) in eco-city/island, building an empirical model to quantify EPI levels based on decoupling analysis. EPI integration levels have been highl...

Ghana lacks an environmental policy on contaminated land. This commentary aims at suggesting a proactive risk-based contaminated land management policy by presenting precedents of land contaminati...

This study discusses important aspects of policy modeling based on a leader-follower game of policymakers. We specifically investigate non-cooperation between policymakers and the jurisdictional sc...

Efforts to involve consumers in the transition towards sustainable diets often presume a degree of reflexivity on the concepts of health and sustainability in the minds of consumers ‘doing healthy and sustainable food’. Departing from the hypothesis that people with type 2 diabetes have been confronted with a physical health issue which has spurred some reflexivity around food consumption, we study how this reflexivity subsequently relates to sustainability in food practices, through the process of de- and reroutinization of mundane food practices. We take a practice-theoretical approach to compare and contrast reflexivity and performance in food practices, combining in-depth interviews with observations during food shopping and cooking. Our findings illustrate a diversity in the extent to which food practices are disrupted after being diagnosed with diabetes. We conclude that reflexivity is not necessarily inspired only by being diagnosed with a major health issue, but that there are more factors determining whether or not lifestyle changes actually take place, such as experiencing bodily discomforts and broader societal attention to lifestyle change. In terms of sustainability, positive environmental effects could be identified ‘piggybacking’ onto changes in practices that were performed towards a healthier diet, such as diversifying protein intake and eating less processed foods.

This paper examines the influence of developing countries during the construction of international institutions that govern the global commons. It argues that developing states are empowered by the...

Roma communities in the CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) region work in the informal economy through scavenging municipal waste. This conceptual paper has the aim of examining the extent for integr...

Visualizations are increasingly important for environmental policy and planning. They have great impact on how we perceive environmental problems, their solutions, and if we consider policies legitimate. The systematic review in this paper brings together 20 years of studies in visualization in environmental policy and planning. This review shows that over the last two decades, more and more studies have demonstrated that visualization plays a role in data-communication, influences decision making, public perception, public participation, and knowledge cocreation. Based on the systematic review, three research lines are developed that aim to better take into account the challenges of a global and active public that through internet and social media is formed around environmental and planning issues. We can do this by (1) moving beyond a knowledge deficit model (2) pay more attention to the material dimensions of visualizations and their role in opening up spaces for cocreation, and (3) include the study of found images as these contain information on public sentiment, and are a form of public accountability.

This paper examines the relationship between the early adoption of new technologies, the probability of firm survival, and environmental regulations through a case study of dry cleaners in the Sout...

In this article, we challenge two assumptions embedded in many ex-ante analyses of environmental policy instruments. Firstly, it is often assumed that target groups in environmental policy are homo...

Amid increasing climate change and environmental degradation, illegal mining (galamsey) has received widespread public concern in Ghana, with greater attention in recent times due to increased medi...

In this Policy Brief, we argue that current U.S. waste disposal strategies (recycling, displacement and disposal) do not address waste reduction, are perceived as socially unfair, and cannot keep p...

In recent years, the EU has experienced different integration ‘crises’ in its policy domains. Some policy fields such as the environment have been driven by an integration process of consensus amon...

This study aims to answer the following research question: how do collaborative networks affect the performance of individual policy actors embedded in the network? We examine this question with a ...

This research investigates the state of student participation in the Eco-Schools programme in two selected secondary schools located in Spain and the Netherlands. The focus is on understanding the levers of student participation and of the factors leading to a whole-school approach. Engeström’s Second Generation Activity Systems Model is used as an analytical framework. The study also reflects on the merits and shortcomings of this framework. The analysis of the two cases revealed contradictions in the intended effect of the Eco-School programme on fostering student-led change towards sustainability and a whole-school approach. The research suggests that student participation in Eco-School programme can be fostered by using an activity-based ‘whole institution’ approach that interlinks a reflective and action-based procedure, by adapting the students’ learning environment according to their needs and capabilities, by providing for close teacher guidance in Eco-School activities and establishing good student-teacher-relationships, and, finally, by incorporating the Eco-School programme into the school’s overall educational framework.

African countries are among the prime destinations of electronic waste (e-waste) also called Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), and have been challenged with the management of its environmental and health impacts. This paper was carried out to understand the e-waste sector and policy responses in selected African countries. Data for the study were generated from sources; such as policy documents, legislations and literature. Findings show that the import of WEEE is on rising in Africa while landfill and incineration continued to be widely used handling approaches. Countries studied lack WEEE specific national policies and stringent policy instruments to enforce proper collection and recycling systems. Despite the start-ups in emerging recycling operations, a major gap is that informal e-waste actors dominate the e-waste chain from collection to material extraction and refurbish activities through rudimentary tools that cannot detect toxic elements. Tackling the problem demands integrated multi-actor interventions with multiple stakeholders to reduce WEEE inflow on one hand, and ramping up safe recycling capacity on the other hand.The article attempts to explain the electronic waste problem in African countries, the nature of existing policy responses and limitations, and ways forward to address policy gaps. Electronic waste is a global problem but with local impacts with the hazardous substances it contains. Because E-waste is still not well recognized health and environment threat, less attention is given for the problem especially in African countries making the uneducated youth more vulnerable to toxic elements. The epistemic community, hence, is supposed to write about it and develop knowledge so that evidences for policy decision making would grow. The focus is on Africa because the problem needs special attention. E-waste has been dumped in Africa for long time and people who work with such waste are mostly uneducated and vulnerable to toxic substances. This problem requires certain attention in the scholarly and policy community at the international level.

Aquaculture plays a significant role in meeting the world’s demand for seafood. There is much controversy about aquaculture, and fish farming in particular. Previous research has explored public pe...

In light of increasing calls for environmental policies that reduce meat consumption and promote more plant-based diets (i.e. Meat Curtailment Policies, MCPs), this study aimed to increase knowledge on how consumers may react to these policies. Participants (N = 784) were randomly presented with a small real news piece about an actual law approval referring to a MCP, or assigned to a no-information control condition. The study measured a set of ideological and consumption variables, and support for MCPs. Participants with increased pro-environmental ideology were more positive toward MCPs, whereas participants who endorsed human supremacy beliefs, and who were more attached to meat consumption, were less supportive of MCPs. Despite these associations, reading about the law approval increased participants’ support for MCPs irrespectively of individual differences in ideology and consumption. This suggests that communicating legal innovation on the topic may be used to increase support for policies that promote more plant-based diets. info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

This paper uses discourse theory to obtain a broader understanding of how research impact of sustainable tourism research develops in the environmental policy domain. Discourse theory shifts emphasis from the substance of science versus policy to the use of science in policy processes and explains the political dimensions of policymaking. We first review a well-documented science-policy gap in sustainable tourism research on climate change to develop an alternative conceptualisation of research impact. Then, using a case study approach, we investigate this framework by evaluating the impact of a PhD thesis about aviation’s global CO 2 emissions on the Dutch aviation policy process. The case study shows research impact is entwined with various other elements, and embedded in a specific governance context. Research influenced contrasting science-policy interactions and contributed to conflicting policy actions and reactions. The impact of research in this case was manifested through the formation and interplay of multiple knowledge objects that were both embraced and marginalised. In settings like this, research is used to legitimise pre-existing policy positions rather than to develop new policies. We discuss the implications of narrow conceptions of research impact. The paper highlights the need for advanced policy analysis in sustainable tourism research.

Farm animal welfare is becoming a subject of politicization strategies. The conflicting policy preferences are pronounced in the United States, with its large and highly intensified livestock secto...

National-scale analyses of land cover effects on water quality can aid in directing environmental policy. We compiled a coastal water quality database for New Zealand comprising 320 estuarine and c...

The urgency of climate change necessitates a transition to more sustainable practices and policies. Individuals have a significant role in reducing carbon emissions by modifying their personal beha...

Transparency in environmental governance is no longer an uncontroversial answer to problems of accountability and effectiveness. How to design effective transparency systems and in what policy contexts they are effective remain contested issues. This special section, consisting of this introduction and four research articles, interrogates complex and potentially conflicting links between transparency, accountability, empowerment and effectiveness in environmental governance. Building on existing literature and the four contributions, we discuss persisting diversity in varieties of transparency, the evolving dynamics of commodity chain transparency, and the consequences of emerging novel forms of digitalized transparency. As we show, the contributions to this special section interrogate in novel ways the transformative potential of transparency, through shedding light on the performative effects of transparency in ever more complex environmental governance contexts. These contexts may include, inter alia, the growing ubiquity of traceability in transnational commodity chains, the need for ever more anticipatory (ex-ante) forms of environmental governance, and an ever-broadening quest for digitally monitored environments. In particular, the impacts of the realtime ‘radical’ transparency engendered by use of novel digital technologies remain under-analyzed in the sustainability domain. We conclude by raising several critical concerns that deserve further scientific research and policy debate.

Deforestation driven by agricultural expansion is a major threat to the biodiversity of the Amazon Basin. Modelling how deforestation responds to environmental policy implementation has thus become a policy relevant scientific undertaking. However, empirical parameterization of land-use/cover change (LUCC) models is challenging due to the high complexity and uncertainty of land-use decisions. Bayesian Network (BN) modelling provides an effective framework to integrate various data sources including expert knowledge. In this study, we integrate remote sensing products with data from farm-household surveys and a decision game to model LUCC at the BR-163, in Brazil. Our ‘business as usual’ scenario indicates cumulative forest cover loss in the study region of 8,000 km2 between 2014 and 2030, whereas ‘intensified law-enforcement’ would reduce cumulative deforestation to 1,600 km2 over the same time interval. Our findings underline the importance of conservation law enforcement in modulating the impact of agricultural market incentives on land cover change.

How can site‐based fieldwork support big‐data research? We reflect on this question by sharing our experiences in combining on‐site fieldwork with an existing big‐data analysis using call‐detail records (CDR), which detected anomalous population flows in Bangladesh during cyclone Mahasen. In the original study of the CDR, this mobility was hypothesized to reflect late evacuations from homes. We discuss how site‐based fieldwork enabled us to discover that the detected patterns in our area of study reflected something different: the movement of fishers seeking to protect their trawlers located at harbor areas. Moreover, the fieldwork, in conjunction with remote sensing shoreline evolution data, allowed us to identify and study high‐risk behaviors of immobility that the CDR analysis was not able to detect. In sharing our findings, we are reflective of our own endeavor to optimally combine qualitative and big‐data methods. While mistakes were made and challenges had to be overcome, insights were gained on how a combined methodology makes research well‐grounded, reflective, and more interactive

Promoting the continuous use of conservation practices by farmers is an important environmental policy issue to minimize the impact of agriculture on environmental quality. The effectiveness of env...

This work studies the direct impacts of environmental policies on logistics practices. Specifically, the authors estimate the potential changes in inventory and fleet purchase decisions under a set...

Why is there variation in the level of overfishing in European Union member states? The Common Fisheries Policy sets politically-negotiated quotas for fishing, but different states break the quotas...

Energy saving is an explicit goal of housing retrofitting in both the Netherlands and China. Retrofit providers expect to achieve this goal by applying insulation to apartment buildings and improvements in heating, cooling and ventilation. The aim of this paper is to explore both conceptually and empirically the interactions between householders and retrofit providers. Interaction activities are conceptualized in a framework of overlapping practices of retrofitting and everyday life. Empirical material is derived from interviews with retrofit providers and householders in the Netherlands and China. This paper shows that full energy saving potential in housing retrofitting fails to be accomplished, due to a limited involvement of householders at the consumption junctions in retrofit processes. Central to this failure are the limited options for residents to share pre-retrofit living experiences, to test future housing equipment beforehand and to customize retrofit packages. Also post-retrofit educational support, evaluation and monitoring is falling short to engage householders in their appropriation of their retrofitted apartment.

This study aims to investigate the determinants of citizens’ preferences for policy instruments. In particular, this study examines the impacts of social trust, government capacity, and the state-s...

The use of renewable and alternative energy technologies, which have the potential to reduce carbon emissions worldwide, is limited. Common environmental policy environments may encourage inventors...

The objective of this study is to examine the role of surface water quality for the decisions by Swedish municipalities to adopt environmental targets and action plans, as well as allocating these decisions to a responsible authority. To this end, we assess how environmental, socioeconomic, and political factors, as well as the availability of environmental expertise, affect these municipal decisions. Questionnaire data from the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, in combination with environmental monitoring data and official statistics, are used for the econometric analysis. Results show that: (i) municipalities with bad water quality, greater coastal length, and higher income are more inclined to adopt local policies; (ii) collaboration with interest groups increases the likelihood of adopting local policies; and (iii) municipalities with high Center Party representation tend to set responsibility for environmental policy with the municipal council board. Go4Baltic

Defra (UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) published its 25 Year Environment Plan in January 2018. The Plan sets out the Government's goals for improving the environment with the...

Environmental policy and disaster management are two of the most difficult concerns with which governments must contend. In some sense, this is counterintuitive; the problems of environmental polic...

Research on the termination or reduction of policies under the header of policy dismantling is becoming increasingly relevant within public policy analysis. To foster the understanding of d...

The European Union (EU) has become the main driver for environmental policy output for its member states whose number has more than tripled over the past four decades. The EU’s deepening and wideni...

An internet-based social survey was conducted longitudinally in urbanised and nuclear-power-plant-hosting prefectures from 2015 to 2017, covering 12 prefectures in four regions by 2017, to ...

Scholars of environmental market-based policy instruments (MBIs), such as cap-and-trade and biodiversity offsetting programs, have extensively documented MBI's market-like features, including the w...

This study aims to identify green-hotel attributes and determinants that contribute to guests’ intention generation for visiting a green hotel and practicing pro-environmental actions during their ...

iStock/arquiplay77Historically, energy policy has often dealt with issues relating to resource allocation, infrastructure development or international diplomacy,1,2 whereas environmental policy was...