Search

Decarbonization of energy-intensive process industries (EPIs) is a central unresolved challenge for limiting global warming to 1.5°C or well-below 2°C. In this article, we investigate the alignment between government policy and applicable industry strategy in decarbonization efforts across six European countries – Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. We distinguish between 'target alignment' (How comparable are the size of the emission reduction commitments?), 'temporal alignment' (How closely do the timelines match?) and 'solution alignment' (Are the same types of solutions prioritized?). Based on an analysis of national policy documents, company strategies of the 10 largest emitting EPI plants in each country, as well as secondary sources, we find high target alignment. However, we find substantially lower temporal alignment as emitters are reluctant to commit to intermediate targets that match the decarbonization timelines laid out in national government policy. Solution alignment is intermediate across all six countries as emitters generally pursue the decarbonization options prioritized in policy, but with most emitters remaining at the level of ambitions or plans and few examples of commercial investments so far. Key policy insights: Public policies across the analysed countries mainly prioritize CCUS, hydrogen and electrification as decarbonization solutions. Large emitters formulate ambitions or plans for the prioritized decarbonization options, but actual investment commitment remains limited. Governments should continuously survey alignment of their policy targets and prioritized decarbonization options with industry targets and activities. In particular, intermediate targets set by the largest emitters do not match those of national governments. Additional support and incentives to make industry act sufficient fast are required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the influence of compensation spending reviews on government policy by analysing the case of South Africa, focusing on an extended review of the drivers of payroll costs. It addresses the decision by the government to renege on a wage agreement with public sector unions and the subsequent backlash from labour unions, and explains how spending reviews contributed to this. The paper outlines the methodology used for the analysis and summarises the key findings of the compensation spending reviews conducted between 2017 and 2020. It also discusses the implications of the decision and subsequent developments for compensation spending in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the matter of repartos (the sale on credit to Indians of goods they might need) has been extensively studied, the purpose that led the Crown to establish a system around them in 1751 is often neglected. Scholars usually understood the repartos as abuses carried out by the corregidores and alcaldes mayores (judges and local Spanish authorities) in the provinces of Peru and New Spain and tolerated by the government until their abolition from 1780 onwards. It is almost completely ignored that the 1751 decree was not a simple legalisation of the repartos to favour local elites, but quite the opposite, a true Bourbon reform with the intention of increasing the industriousness of the Indians and transforming them into buyers of colonial goods (mules, clothes, food) and European goods (textiles, iron, manufactures). It was a reform aimed at encouraging production, trade and the royal exchequer through taxation. The participation of different social sectors in the system contrasts with the idea of monopoly so often associated with the reparto. It is precisely this idea that results from prioritising the testimonies of the detractors of the repartos in the context of abolition rather than paying attention to the purpose of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do government policies during the COVID-19 pandemic affect investors' risk aversion, as proxied by the variance premium? To answer this question, this study examines data regarding government responses from thirteen countries. The empirical analysis indicates that government interventions were not able to substantially reduce variance risk premium in international equity markets. The results also show that economic support policies, containment, and closure regulations, and health system interventions all played a significant role in shaping equity variance risk price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an insight into the relationship between applied theatre, COVID-19, and UK Government policy in British care homes. This reflection draws upon the experiences of an applied theatre practitioner, who worked in a care home during the height of COVID-19 in 2020. The author shares the impact of COVID-19 government policy, her applied theatre practice, and the implications of this for the practitioner, residents, and staff. The text offers a grounded perspective on the relationship between policy and practice, indicating how uncharted policy terrain can shape a new world of applied theatre in care home contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamics of aggregate public opinion – particularly James Stimson's measure of policy mood – have long been used to explain electoral outcomes and government responsiveness in the United States. However, we still know little about policy mood outside the US and a few Western European countries. Understanding the relationship between policy and preferences outside the pool of advanced democracies is crucial as voters outside that context are often depicted as outcome oriented; that is, they are depicted as voting based on valence issues, where there is shared agreement on the preferred outcome, instead of on a set of coherent policy preferences. We argue that this depiction of voters is attributable to the absence of data in these countries and not to the absence of coherent policy preferences. We test our argument by analyzing nearly three decades of Uruguayan public opinion data including 78 different questions administered 295 times. Our analysis shows that policy preferences across related issues in Uruguay largely move in tandem, suggesting that a coherent policy mood indeed exists. Further, we provide evidence that this policy mood is distinct from symbolic political ideology and that it responds thermostatically to changes in government. This thermostatic responsiveness suggests that Uruguayans do not merely focus on whether the economy is good or bad but, rather, update their policy preferences in response to the direction of government policy. Together, these results offer a much more nuanced depiction of public opinion outside advanced industrial democracies than previous research suggests, with important implications for democratic accountability in Latin America and other developing economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artistic work in Aotearoa has long been underpaid and undervalued. In this paper, we examine policy statements made by the New Zealand government from September 2017 until November 2020 about the nature and value of artistic work. Early statements appear to challenge the economization of the arts, and to suggest alternative ways the arts might be valued, including for their inherent connection to well-being and social justice. However, rather than moving the arts away from commercial imperatives, we argue that government initiatives have been implicitly equipping artists and arts organizations to deliver their own economization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design and implementation of targeted policies and programmes are crucial to addressing climate challenges. In this study, we sought to understand the means by and extent to which the Central American Climate-Smart Agriculture Strategy (EASAC) has contributed to addressing the specific climate challenges facing the regional agricultural sector. We applied a theory-based evaluation and contribution analysis to examine this policy and identified 252 changes at the national and regional levels that align with the EASAC theory of change (ToC). Contribution analysis revealed that none of the 23 changes we assessed could be attributed solely to the EASAC; however, it contributed directly, in combination with other actors and institutions, to 10 such changes. Our results question the efficacy of non-binding regional policies, such as the EASAC, in influencing national policy changes and highlight the dependency of climate policy implementation on international cooperation in the Central American Integration System region. Intersectoral and actor coordination, the availability of technical and research expertise, and research input appear critical to the successful implementation of regional climate policy. Key policy insights Theory-based assessments and contribution analyses are relevant and rigorous tools that can be effectively applied to climate policy. They enable a deeper understanding and more effective management of climate governance. International organizations play crucial roles in translating international agreements into policies, particularly in Central America, where public climate finance remains limited. Such organizations are responsible for developing and funding policies that align with these agreements. Many changes aligned with the EASAC ToC framework have been observed, reflecting the dynamic process of up-scaling regional climate-smart agriculture. Most changes have been focused on policy formulation and adjustment, with fewer related to establishing alliances and platforms for dialogue. The EASAC strategy of targeting non-binding regional governance to influence national governments is inherently limited and may be ineffective on its own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is easy to put words on paper; it is harder to put them into practice. This is evidenced by the frequent discrepancy between a country’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and its actual climate policies. In this article, we examine whether such disharmony should be criticized. We first provide a taxonomy of types of disharmony. We then examine various problems with settling the case for a strong norm of harmonization by simply referring to the general principle that commitments ought to be kept. This opens the door to paying more attention to the long-term effects of such a norm on emission reductions. In conclusion, we call for nuance in expecting countries to harmonize their NDCs and national policies. While climate policy offers the perfect test case for this normative examination, many of our arguments could be adapted to other areas in which deviations between international commitments and domestic policies arise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate action threatens to exacerbate existing social inequities, so it is important for justice to be at the heart of national responses to climate change. Based on an understanding of climate change as a manifestation of severed relationships and exploitative dynamics that are produced and reproduced through colonial, capitalist, patriarchal systems, we argue that the ways in which we conceptualize and enact climate justice must be decolonial, ecocentric, relational and integrative. Consistent with this positioning, we sought to develop an Indigenous climate justice policy analysis tool to assess and inform policy development. We drew on elements of existing frameworks and tools to develop a tool, which was progressively refined following external advisory group review and piloting. The tool addresses five dimensions of justice (relational, procedural, distributive, recognition and restorative), each of which comprises individual criteria assessed according to three levels of achievement. This rating system acknowledges progress within existing social, political and economic systems, but also identifies system transformation as a prerequisite for achieving genuine justice. Application of the tool focuses attention on issues well beyond typical climate policy considerations, such as the capacity of all human and non-human entities to express political agency. The tool has been developed for use in analysing national climate policy in Aotearoa New Zealand, but we have endeavoured to make it adaptable for use in other settings. Key policy insights: Climate injustice is rooted in colonialism; Indigenous decolonial conceptions of climate justice provide a critical grounding for policy responses to climate change. Climate justice is not attainable within existing colonial political systems. It can only be achieved through reform of governance and constitutional arrangements to re-establish Indigenous natural law. Analysis of climate policy must consider not only how to optimize justice within existing social, political and economic systems, but also how policy can disrupt those systems to create transformative change. Our policy analysis tool, grounded in relational epistemologies, extends beyond the scope of conventional analyses to examine critical issues across five dimensions of justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human rights have potential to enhance adaptation because they reflect internationally agreed upon standards of human dignity, aim to advance formal and substantive forms of equality, and can be used to hold public and private actors accountable for rights violations. We assess whether, how, and under what conditions national adaptation policies recognize human rights principles and standards. We analyze 217 adaptation policies from 147 countries to examine whether there is substantive recognition of the vulnerability and needs of equity-deserving groups that experience systemic marginalization and exclusion, and procedural inclusion of these groups in adaptation planning and decision-making. Results indicate that while under the Paris Agreement governments commit to respect human rights in their adaptation policies and actions, few countries are abiding by this commitment. Only one-third of countries refer to respect, promotion, or consideration of human rights within their adaptation policies. While most countries included here recognize specific conditions of different vulnerable groups in their policies, there is minimal evidence of their inclusion in the adaptation planning and decision-making process, and half of countries fail to identify specific measures that will be developed to reduce their vulnerability. None of the strategies that we reviewed pointed to the creation of accountability mechanisms for redressing harms that may arise due to adaptation actions. We also develop a series of regression models to examine whether hypothesized national predictors of adaptation action are associated with attention to human rights principles and standards. The models indicate that countries with greater wealth and equality are more likely to include attention to human rights norms in their adaptation strategies, but countries with less wealth, more inequality, and less political freedom appear to achieve a more substantive level of engagement with these norms in their strategies. Key policy insights: Most countries fail to link human rights obligations and adaptation in national policies. Most countries situate national adaptation policies within various structural drivers of vulnerability. Equity-deserving groups are not being included in national adaptation planning in meaningful ways. Participation of equity-deserving groups predicts inclusion of measures to build adaptive capacity among those groups. National governments do not identify accountability mechanisms that address human rights harms from adaptation actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prostitution has long been stigmatized in socio-political discourse. The mounting empirical evidence shows that stigmatization is discursively attached to sex workers’ occupations. Although much prior research has addressed this phenomenon, little evidence reports to which extent prostitution practice is institutionally stigmatized from a developing state-and-social-sanctioned perspective in which this prostitution stigmatization is viewed as a fundamental cause of social inequality. This study examines to which extent the narratives embedded in policy documents, news articles, and ethnographic interview reports frame ideologies, assumptions, and biases that shape governmental responses to prostitution. Data from policy documents, news articles, and ethnographic interviews were analyzed with a critical narrative approach. Three emergent finding themes presented in this article include knowledge of religious norms shaping government policy and public opinions, the discourse of governmental power, and female sex workers as the main target of government policy. The implication of the present study is how governments and state and social actors mitigate the adverse effects of stigma and promote social justice and equality for sex workers in Indonesia and other developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EU containment and Tunisian domestic policies have produced a new, Black migrant, urban underclass. Based on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork among Ivorian migrant women in Bhar Lazreg, a Tunis banlieue, this paper explores how the women navigate and negotiate everyday life. On the urban margins of society, forgotten and far from the border, migrants reinvent ways to keep moving. The paper suggests that their stuckness is still all about movement as encapsulated in the emic term bouger – akin to treading water, involving a constant motion to stay afloat, but without ever getting anywhere. Tension operates across many levels, between the physical, the temporal–spatial, and the existential. Embedded in this tension is a second emic term prison à ciel ouvert (open-air prison). Juxtaposing a space that feels carceral and limiting while simultaneously bursting with potential for movement, the paper contributes to the literature on immobility within mobility. But beyond that, the empirical findings show a far more complex reality, complicating the notion of transit. By exploring the tensions and entanglements between the emic terms it becomes clear that to understand spaces of transit it is essential to understand stuckness and movement as fundamentally intertwined, overlapping, and co-constitutive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to examine the transfer of informality from mothers to daughters in a group of women who get financial help from a community aid and social development foundation. By administering a questionnaire to a cohort of 1156 female microentrepreneurs in Chile throughout 2021, the findings reveal that having a mother who was employed in the informal sector is linked to a 27% higher likelihood of being engaged in informal economic activities, compared to individuals whose mothers were part of the formal economy. Furthermore, compelling data is presented regarding the significance of education and the adverse impact of parenthood on women. The outcomes yield significant contributions in terms of theory, practice, and particularly public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than 800 municipalities and 11 states and territories in the United States have joined the Network of Age-Friendly States and Communities (NAFSC); however, to our knowledge, no studies have examined the many communities that have not joined. The present study explored the factors that inhibit communities from joining the NAFSC. Data were drawn from semi-structured interviews conducted with 12 community leaders in Massachusetts and Maine. Results indicated variation in perceptions and attitudes, with some participants seeing benefits to joining but encountering barriers to doing so, while others did not see sufficient benefit to joining to make the effort worthwhile. Key themes included lack of human and financial capacity, concerns over aspects of the NAFSC model, and desire to maintain local control over the process and components of age-friendly efforts. Participants voiced a need for funding and technical assistance in order to expand their age-friendly work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy transition is a national agenda, prioritised in many countries, to ensure public safety and achieve climate goals. Although enacting laws is a critical means of realising energy transition policy, legal scholarship has paid little to no attention to the role of law in a sustainable energy transition. Countries are currently experimenting with their legal frameworks to achieve sustainable and smooth energy transition policies that are most beneficial. The pivotal role of law in energy transition has led researchers to place a growing emphasis on introducing and analysing the recently enacted domestic laws in various countries, seeking implications and insights in this regard. This study draws on the example of Korea's legal framework for energy transition to argue that the voluntary nature of this agreement between the government and operator would have policy implications for many countries striving towards sustainable energy transitions. Unlike numerous other countries (eg Germany) that unilaterally force early closure of nuclear power plants by law, Korea tries to innovatively establish legal grounds that enable a voluntary agreement between the government and operators and the considerable efforts on just transition, while the government commits to contributex to bearing the costs of energy transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As most outcropping and shallow mineral deposits have been found, new technology is imperative to finding the hidden critical mineral deposits required for the renewable energy transition. One such seismic technique, called ambient noise tomography (ANT), has shown promise in recent years as a low cost and low environmental impact passive method of three-dimensional (3D) imaging of shear-wave velocity structure of the Earth. Over the last twenty years the method has been well-established in academia to image crustal and regional scale geological features but has seldom been used at the mineral exploration deposit-scale. In this paper we show the application of seismic ANT at an IOCG deposit in South Australia under more than 750 m of sedimentary cover. A 100-site survey in a 10 by 10 grid with site spacing of 1 km, using 3-component nodal seismometers with a natural-frequency of 5 Hz, was conducted over a two-week period. Data were inverted to generate a 3D velocity model to a depth of 2 km. When compared to drillholes in the survey area, the tomographic model delineates cover sequence lithologies and the depth of crystalline basement. A velocity anomaly in the basement has characteristics of a potential IOCG deposit and is aligned with a gravity anomaly due to brecciated haematite. The results of the paper indicate that ANT is a useful tool for deep cover mineral exploration that can potentially expedite the discovery of new deposits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing urban inequalities is at the forefront of the global sustainable development agenda, as well as national and local policies. While existing measures of inequality are mostly focused on income and wealth, it is widely recognised that non-monetary disparities such as in health, education, and housing play a crucial role in creating and reinforcing inequalities. Transport plays a central role in mitigating inequalities by enhancing access to employment, education, and essential services. It is also directly and indirectly related to disparities in housing, neighbourhoods, and health. Policymakers increasingly recognize the potential of transport policies in addressing inequalities; however, the effects of interventions need to be understood beyond the transport sector only and should consider wider impacts. In this review, we concentrate on three interlinked sectors – housing, land-use, and transportation – where local governments possess some capacity to influence the processes by which inequalities are created and exacerbated. Currently, empirical research on inequalities within these domains is fragmented. Models and datasets used for scenario testing, planning, and intervention evaluation are often disjointed, sector-focused, and rarely consider distributional effects. Our aim is to critically review the literature across different disciplines and perspectives and propose future interdisciplinary directions towards better measurement and modelling of transport-associated inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responsible Innovation has recently been taken up in public policies and discourses. However, it remains challenging to institutionalise its core dimensions – inclusion, anticipation, responsiveness, reflexivity, and transparency – in practice. De jure standardisation is increasingly seen as an instrument to embed the core principles of Responsible Innovation in innovation processes, because of its anticipatory and inclusive nature. Yet, Responsible Innovation within the standardisation literature is an under-researched field of study. This paper explores and evaluates the relative importance of Responsible Innovation's core dimensions in the standards development process. We identify eighteen criteria that are deemed essential to the quality of standardisation processes. The Best-Worst Method was used to rank these criteria on their perceived importance. Diversity of participation was found to be the most important contributing factor to the quality of standardisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local knowledge is recognised as a critical element of global energy transition and energy justice. This paper explores the roles local knowledge in the formation of a community organisation responsible for monitoring the nuclear facility operations, governance, and public risk communication. Our case study examines a local nuclear oversight organisation in the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa region in Japan, where suggestions have been made to consider nation-wide institutionalisation of organisations similar to French Commissions Locales d'Information (Local Information Commissions). Our findings reveal the critical roles of three forms of local knowledge, with a particular emphasis on the nuanced yet crucial impact of everyday-life knowledge (seikatsu-chi), a facet not extensively explored in existing studies, in facilitating the establishment of the local organisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractIn 2019, Japan’s Ministry of Environment (MoE), led by Koizumi Shinjirō, embarked on a quest to end the country’s ‘coal addiction’ against the coal industry’s interests, as represented by the powerful Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). Against all expectations, Prime Minister Abe Shinzō sided with MoE and implemented restrictions. It initiated the end of Japan’s government support for ‘unabated’ coal-fired power plant exports despite their continued high demand from overseas. This article uses the Advocacy Coalition Framework to explain the importance of the MoE and Environment Minister Koizumi Shinjirō in shifting Abe’s posture towards the global energy transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores spillover into advanced energy conversion technologies as an oil industry response to US energy and environmental policies from the last third of the twentieth century. These policies initiated the ‘quasi-planned’ renovation of energy infrastructure through an uncoordinated mixture of regulation and innovation/industrial stimulus intended to develop all forms of primary energy and the technologies that could efficiently and cleanly convert that energy. Influenced by this sweeping public policy objective as well as the global consumer electronic industry’s increasing demand for petroleum-derived inputs from the late 1970s, Western oil interests doing business in the US engaged the technoscience of advanced energy conversion. Big Oil researched, developed, and in some cases manufactured materials and components associated with power sources including fuel cells, galvanic batteries, and photovoltaic arrays in projects that illustrate the affinities and antagonisms between enterprises of naturally stored primary energy, energy conversion, and flows and carriers of energy. Case studies of Big Oil’s involvement with these technologies illustrate how public policies supporting all-of-the-above energy and energy conversion limited the extent of oil spillover into advanced energy conversion systems and complicated the transition to a fossil fuel-free future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis study explores the interactive effect of self-help efforts, specifically through household decisions to engage in commercialisation, and external supports provided via government antipoverty policies, on poverty reduction among poor households in northern Vietnam. With observational data from 1383 surveyed households, we use an estimation strategy combining inverse probability weighting, regression adjustment, and two-stage least squares to address selection bias and omitted variable bias in two variables of interest. We find that while these two interventions are individually effective in alleviating poverty, their combination is not necessarily as effective. Our results show that commercialisation only reduces poverty among non-supported households, while government supports are more effective among non-commercial households. This substitution of effects comes from the nature of support targeting and commercialisation. Households receiving supports often have lower capacity, making commercialisation ineffective or even impossible. Furthermore, current support policies are insufficient to enhance the impact of commercialisation. These results suggest that there could be more effective ways to combine external interventions and self-help efforts to better alleviate poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inclusive innovations have the potential to foster socio-economic development and actively involve local communities in innovation processes in sub-Saharan Africa. The importance of inclusive innovations is emphasized in the public strategies and development programmes in the region. Nevertheless, despite some donor-funded initiatives, there remains a lack of systematic knowledge on how to effectively implement inclusive innovation in communities. This research aims to scrutinize the role of inclusive innovation in Tanzania. We conduct policy analyses of the country's official innovation strategies and investigate the inclusive innovation activities undertaken by 12 innovation hubs. These hubs facilitate interactions among diverse actors, provide necessary facilities and technologies, and offer mentorship and peer support. Our results reveal that the definition and significance of inclusive innovation are presented within the national policies. However, implementation programmes are currently modest and scattered. With a few exceptions, innovation hubs have inadequate understanding and limited resources for implementing inclusive innovations in practice. This research contributes by underscoring the need for comprehensive strategies, capacity-building initiatives, and collaborative efforts to fully leverage inclusive innovation for sustainable development in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global energy transition necessitates a rapid increase in infrastructure in developing countries, including for wind energy facilities (WEFs). Concerns arise regarding the negative impacts of WEFs on biodiversity, especially on birds of prey or raptors and other volant animals. In Africa, South Africa has the largest installed wind energy capacity and also hosts several raptor species of conservation importance. One such raptor is the regionally endemic Jackal Buzzard Buteo rufofuscus (family Accipitridae), which has its core population in South Africa. Despite frequent fatalities from collisions with wind turbine blades, this species is understudied. To address this gap, we conducted interviews with key stakeholders in the wind energy sector, including avifaunal specialists, wind energy developers, government representatives, and conservation nongovernmental organisations. The goal was to begin a cooperative process to identify crucial research gaps and to establish a future research agenda for Jackal Buzzards in the context of wind energy development. Stakeholders expressed confidence in current environmental impact assessment (EIA) techniques but highlighted a concern for direct collisions as a significant threat to Jackal Buzzards. The consensus was that WEFs are more likely to cause local rather than national population-level impacts. Although stakeholders generally shared similar opinions, minor differences emerged between groups. Movement ecology studies were identified as a high priority for future research on this species. By collaboratively formulating research priorities, this study aims to improve the relevance of future investigations, fostering stakeholder buy-in for potential policy and EIA practice recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem, research strategy, and findings: State, local, and private-sector climate policies increasingly require estimates of site-generated vehicle miles traveled (VMT) for individual properties. No standard, agreed-upon method exists for this purpose. If alternative methods produce reasonably consistent results, then an analyst may select a method based on convenience. The purpose of this study was to determine whether this is the case. We reviewed existing applications and methods for estimating site-generated VMT, which can be conceptualized as the product of site-level trip generation and average length of a site-generated trip. We identified four plausible methods for estimating site-level trip generation and three for estimating average lengths of site-generated trips. Combining these yielded 12 methods for estimating site-generated VMT. We applied these methods to estimate trip generation, average trip length, and total VMT generated by eight existing office sites in the San Francisco Bay Area (CA) and the Wasatch Front Region of Utah. We found that trip generation and trip length estimates varied widely, with greater variation in trip generation estimates than in trip length estimates. Variation was magnified when the estimates were multiplied to produce site-generated VMT estimates, with the minimum estimate at a single site ranging from 84% to 96% lower than the corresponding maximum. Takeaway for practice: In the short term, planning policies requiring site developers or occupants to produce site-level estimates of VMT should specify consistent methods to allow for comparison across sites and over time as needed. In the long term, if VMT is to be used as a performance metric, industry-wide standards for estimating it for both existing and prospective projects are needed. Alternatively, policymakers should consider whether the goals of VMT reduction might be better met with a different performance metric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discourse surrounding China's influence in the Middle East and North Africa tends to oscillate between extremes, in some instances portraying China as a burgeoning hegemon poised to displace America's regional primacy, while in others describing its influence as insufficient to effect meaningful change. China has made significant inroads in the region through diplomacy, trade, investment and infrastructure projects, enhancing its economic presence and raising Beijing's profile in regional geopolitics. However, examining the nature of interdependence between China and Middle Eastern nations reveals that China's capabilities, while increasingly formidable, are tempered by equally formidable constraints. Mutual dependencies, regional dynamics, limited hard power, domestic priorities, geography and the agency of regional states all modulate the extent to which China can exercise influence and impose its will. While Beijing's strategy of gradually shifting asymmetries in China's favour certainly warrants scrutiny, undue alarmism and complacency alike could increase the likelihood of faulty assessments and misguided policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moscow is actively using the conflict in Ukraine to advance its vision of a different international order. This vision emphasises a world fragmented into spheres of influence centred on a handful of 'civilisational states' embodying distinct political cultures not necessarily compatible with liberalism and democracy. Russia uses its own sphere of influence in Eurasia as the incubator of an alternative set of norms and institutions that it seeks to socialise globally. This Russian vision appeals to other revisionist powers, notably China and Iran, which support Russia's war in Ukraine largely out of a desire to diminish US influence and consolidate their own regional spheres. Elements of it also appeal across the Global South, now a key arena for competition over the future global order. The outcome of Russia's war in Ukraine is perhaps the most important determinant of what the coming world order will look like. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europeans are thinking more about how to respond to transatlantic uncertainty and geopolitical insecurity. The outlines of a new landscape in continental relations are emerging. There is a clear commitment to a stronger 'European pillar' within NATO. A reset in EU–UK defence relations is under way. A new, more influential and more united European Union leadership team will boost the EU's engagement on defence and security. The turnaround will still struggle to match the United States' own step change in defence-industrial production, and is still frustratingly off pace for Ukraine's requirements. There is also a danger that fiscal and populist constraints will undermine the scale and tempo of European ambitions. Nevertheless, a course correction is belatedly under way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential for renewable energy to encourage sustainable development raises high hopes for the future among countries in the Global South. However, there has been less research on how energy transitions are perceived outside of the Global North and democratic contexts. This paper explores attitudes towards the energy transition in Jordan, where expert interviews reveal that a strong renewable energy industry has emerged from top-down government efforts to reduce energy dependency and costs. We perform an in-person household survey with 320 respondents in areas with different transition risks and benefits, and then test a series of hypotheses using regression analysis. In the four communities surveyed, income stress and climate concern influence attitudes, as well as perceptions of community benefits. National-level concerns also matter, including energy dependency and energy costs for all Jordanians. Our results highlight the importance of context: findings from the North are not universal and understanding transitions in the Global South requires studying them in their own right. Policy insights Jordanian policymakers should reverse their policy of blocking renewables to avoid public backlash. Jordanian policymakers and funders should promote projects in communities with high economic dependence on the fossil fuel industry to ensure local support in areas facing transition risks. Policymakers should highlight collective, not just individual benefits of transitions, as perceptions of community and country benefits increase support. Policymakers in highly energy-dependent countries like Jordan should frame renewables as an answer to local and national challenges such as high energy prices. Actors wishing to promote clean energy support in different contexts should investigate local dynamics to build communication strategies that frame transitions appropriately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst heightened global power rivalries, the geopolitical aspects of the energy transition are taking centre stage, with even liberal-minded countries growing wary about foreign investment in the energy sector and the dependencies created by global value chains of green technologies. Building on current debates on the 'geopoliticization' of foreign economic policies, this paper sets out a conceptual framework to assess the extent to which the energy transition is becoming geopoliticized in the European Union (EU) and its impact on international energy relations. Theoretically, the paper makes the case for considering geopoliticization as a missing link in the study of politicization and securitization in International Relations, allowing for a more fine-grained diagnosis of current trends and their likely evolution. Empirically, the analysis identifies structural geopoliticizing dynamics in the EU's framing of the energy transition, although to different degrees depending on the concrete issue at hand. While demands for factoring in the geopolitical consequences of the energy transition are ever louder, normatively, the paper raises a note of caution against the adverse consequences geopoliticization may have for the global transition to low-carbon energy systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental innovation is pivotal in tackling climate change by offering diverse and practical solutions to reduce carbon footprints, promote resource conservation, and enhance ecological sustainability. As anthropogenic activities continue to accelerate global environmental degradation, innovative solutions are imperative for mitigating the impacts of climate change and fostering sustainability. However, the effectiveness of these innovations is threatened by global uncertainties and rising income inequalities. Uncertainties in geopolitical landscape and economic disparities may impede the development and widespread adoption of eco-friendly technologies and practices. Given the above background, this study empirically investigates the influences of environmental innovation, world uncertainty and income inequality on renewable energy generation for a balanced panel of 58 countries between 1990 and 2020. The estimated models also control for the effects of globalisation and economic growth. After diagnosing for necessary panel diagnostic tests including cross-sectional dependence, heterogeneity, and panel unit-root, the Westerlund cointegration test confirms a significant long-run relationship between the variables of the study. Using panel Augmented Mean Group (AMG) estimation, the results reveal that while environmental innovation continues to promote the renewable energy generation, global uncertainty and income inequality hamper it. More importantly, the moderating effects of world uncertainty and income inequality reduce the favourable impact of environmental innovation on renewable energy generation. Besides, economic growth and globalisation continue to play critical roles in speeding up the quest for renewable energy. The PCSE estimation technique confirms the significance of these baseline findings. Potential policy implications are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I examine the Turkish bourgeoisie of the 1920s, focusing on the ship-owning families as a part of the Turkish bourgeoisie that clearly benefited from the formation of the nation-state and the "national economy" policies of the Ankara government. Focusing on the relationship between the economic development of this class and the formation of a Turkish nation-state, I try to show how this class, which has its roots in the nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire, enriched and empowered itself by taking advantage of this nation-state formation process and the prevailing ideology of Turkish nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Battery-assisted bicycles, or E-bikes, are part of a disruptive wave of transportation technology that uses electricity and rechargeable batteries to increase the velocity, the traveled distance and, as a consequence, the ridership. Biking and E-biking are globally recognized to have the potential to play an important role in the transition to a Net-Zero society. The widespread availability of E-bikes is significantly impacting several sectors of the tourist industry. Therefore, Touristic Administrations (TAs) now provide tourists with trail options and the corresponding charging infrastructure for E-bikers with different profiles. Our main objective is to provide TAs with a suitable decision-support tool that serves two purposes: (1) finding locations for charging stations by considering the difficulty and the cost of installing such stations in remote, often off-the-road locations; and (2) designing itineraries that are suitable for different categories of E-bikers. In the scientific literature, the first decision component has been mostly addressed in the context of electric cars, and it is not suitable for E-bikes. On the other hand, works on the second decision focused on muscular bikes, thus ignoring the first decision component. In this paper, we aim at closing this gap. We formulate this problem as a mixed-integer linear program. We develop an efficient branch-and-cut algorithm and present a comprehensive computational experiment. In particular, we provide a case study in the Asiago Sette Comuni Plateau in Italy, where the obtained charging stations and bike trails maximize a measure of attractiveness for three types of users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The residential sector is a critical contributor to global energy consumption. In Ghana, it accounts for 47% of the total electricity consumed. However, inadequate knowledge of categories of residential consumers, their profiles, and the implications on their consumption patterns could impede the development of targeted and sustainable interventions. This study examined the behavioral patterns among low-income urban households in Kumasi, using their socio-demographic and housing characteristics, and self-reported values. This is coherent to the current discourse on Ghana’s transition to zero carbon by 2070 given that Kumasi is the fastest-growing city in the country. Using quantitative methods within a transdisciplinary research design, a survey of 285 households was conducted. The findings yielded varied outcomes. Households reported good electricity use behavior (e.g. covering liquids in the refrigerator) and poor behaviors (e.g. not adjusting the power setting of refrigerators to weather conditions). Logistic regression operations showed associations between energy use behavior, the type of housing units and the type of electricity meters. A significant proportion of respondents exhibited pro-environmental behaviors across all nine value domains. The study concludes that low-income households engage in energy-saving practices. We suggest that policy mediation could enhance the effectiveness of behavioral interventions toward electricity use efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe paper highlights the crucial role of positionality and reflexivity in understanding knowledge creation and research processes, drawing on my experience as a pregnant woman conducting semi-structured interviews with policy elites. Previous literature has acknowledged the impact of appearance and gender on the research process. By employing an adapted self-presentation technique during the interviews, observable effects on the research process were noted. This paper shares my observations as a researcher before and after disclosing my pregnancy. Participant reactions revealed clashes in expectations, worldviews, and meanings within the interviews’ initial moments. The positive experience demonstrated that pregnancy facilitated access to policy elites, recruitment of additional interviewees, and initiated meaningful dialogues, shedding light on the role of positionality and reflexivity in fieldwork. My open vulnerability, transparency in disclosing personal information, and accessibility enhanced participant reciprocity and diminished perceived threats, fostering engaging and profound conversations. These findings underscore how the distinctive attributes of the pregnant body—consciousness, vulnerability, power, and fluidity—significantly influence key methodological aspects, shaping the epistemological process of knowledge creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the Green Deal, the von der Leyen Commission has put forward an ambitious agenda to transform the European Union towards climate neutrality. However, this commitment to environmental and climate policy has been tested by the numerous crises that have shaped her tenure. Historically, previous Commissions have often deprioritized environmental policy in times of crisis. In light of this, we examine the Commission’s leadership in the realm of environmental policy. Our analysis demonstrates that both the President and her Executive Vice President provided strong leadership and maintained a clear focus on the Green Deal. We further explore this leadership by examining the Commission’s actions in relation to four key Green Deal policies: the Climate Law, the Battery Regulation, the Methane Regulation, and the Nature Restoration Law. Our findings reveal that the rhetorical commitment to environmental and climate policy has translated into mostly ambitious policy proposals, marking a significant departure from the more restrained environmental ambitions of previous Commissions. This analysis contributes to the body of research on the European Commission’s role in environmental and climate policy, as well as its leadership dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global demand for lithium is steadily increasing, driving an increased focus on exploration efforts worldwide. Lithium, a crucial metal for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) used in renewable energy technologies, is vital in the global drive to reduce carbon emissions. India’s ambitions to become a manufacturing hub for LIBs and achieve 100% electric vehicle (EV) sales by 2030 require significant quantities of lithium. However, challenges due to limited domestic reserves within the country, prompting efforts to define new exploration targets and develop existing lithium occurrences. Recent discoveries in northern Jammu and Kashmir and southern Karnataka highlight promising lithium deposits. This study focuses on India’s lithium exploration within pegmatite belts across various cratonic blocks, identifying significant potential for lithium exploration and mining. Notably, spodumene-rich pegmatites are found in Karnataka’s Dharwar Craton, while lepidolite-rich pegmatites exist in Rajasthan’s Aravalli-Delhi Fold Belt and the Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh region. Regions like Bihar-Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Assam-Meghalaya also exhibit promise for lithium exploration. These findings emphasize the diverse lithological settings where lithium exploration can be strategically pursued in India. This study recommends adopting modern exploration techniques and developing cost-effective extraction technologies to advance India’s lithium exploration efforts. These initiatives are crucial in meeting the escalating demand for lithium and advancing India’s clean energy objectives in the transition to renewable energy sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along most of the 2005–2019 period, Uruguay experienced an impressive economic growth. The country extended its public policies across industrial, technological, and social domains. However, there was a dearth of significant structural changes, constraining Uruguay’s ability to embark on a sustained developmental trajectory. Our findings reveal that the majority of implemented policies were designed to enhance competitiveness and build capabilities horizontally, rather than promoting structural changes. This allows us to discuss the dynamic nature of developmental processes marked by increasing policy challenges. In doing so, we stress the relevance of policy support and coordination to sustain inclusive growth processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iran’s contemporary transnational connection with Turkish Alevis and Shiites has been a curious case. This study examines the perceptions of Alevi, Shiite, and Mutashayyi (converted Shiite) religious minorities in Turkey towards the Islamic Republic of Iran, shedding light on the complex interplay between denominational public opinion and international politics. The research unveils divergent perspectives held by these minority groups through semi-structured face-to-face interviews with the ‘opinion-maker’ religious elites. While Alevis, motivated by secularist concerns, shows political opposition to the Iranian regime despite the common religious symbolisms, Shiites and Mutashayyis demonstrate different degrees of sympathy or allegiance towards Iran. The study elucidates the complexities of multi-layered identities and their possible ramifications for international relations. Furthermore, the findings provide insights into the Iranian regime’s soft power potential and dynamics through religious diplomacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the European Union over the years has significantly advanced our understanding of the domestic impact of EU policies. However, notable blind spots persist regarding the broader impact of EU legislation on national policy portfolios and its interaction with domestic policy-making. To address this gap, we introduce a novel analytical concept that adopts a macro-perspective to scrutinise the impact of EU policy-making on national policy portfolios and their trajectories over time. We analyse EU-induced change dynamics through three dimensions of national policy portfolios: policy efforts, policy innovation, and policy design quality. Applying our framework to clean air policy across 13 EU countries over 38 years, we find ambiguous effects on national policy-making. Our findings reveal that while the EU’s role in clean air policy has expanded, it simultaneously has constrained innovative potentials within national portfolios and challenged design quality, substituting rather than complementing national policy efforts. We contribute to the state of the art by providing a novel conceptual framework on the macro dynamics of multi-level policy-making, offering theoretical arguments on the expected effects of EU influence, and presenting empirical evidence of these dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of costing new and existing government programmes is to mobilise and systematise information to present different options for how to move forward. There has always been a need for such information, and this need will remain, given the imperatives to improve the use of government funds to meet social needs. It is therefore important to build capacity in government to do costing studies, and to use costing information in policy-making and management processes. This paper explores the history of policy costing in South Africa. It shows how the experience gained from the early policy costing projects fed into the methodology for Spending Reviews developed by the Government Technical Advisory Centre (GTAC) in 2013. It then documents key methodological lessons learned from our experience with costing policies. The paper ends with a few observations regarding the outlook for policy costing in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applies the rational choice perspective to government religion policy in Turkey. We argue that a rational choice analysis can provide a new perspective on how the pro-Islamist Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi – AKP) transformed Turkey's religion policy from one that was constitutionally secular to one which strongly supports Islam. We also further develop the rational choice approach arguing that radical transitions in religion policy are often incremental and require support from political allies. Also, while the motivation for transitioning from a secular regime to a religious monopoly may be due to a desire for religious legitimacy, the nature and timing of this transition may be influenced by the rise or decline of other bases for legitimacy. Overall, this study demonstrates the utility of applying the rational choice theory of religion to Muslim-majority countries and the mechanisms through which countries change their religion policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consultative authoritarianism is associated with regimes that provide mechanisms for citizens' voice on public policy issues. The existing research considers the implementation of this concept through two mechanisms: civil society working in partnership with the state and public consultation channels that provide opportunities for citizens to influence government decision-making. This study examines consultative authoritarianism in Central Asia. Using a case study of Kazakhstan, a 'softer' authoritarian state, we investigate whether the operationalisation of this model fulfils the claims made for it. Through qualitative data gathered from key stakeholders, the study finds mixed evidence of success: there is greater political space for civil society but public consultation mechanisms have limited impact. It is unlikely that either of these changes is sufficient to address the frustrations of citizens and forestall random demonstrations and political protests, which, in turn, may lead to violent repression by the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the moderating effects of public deliberation on policy support determinants: self-interests, symbolic attitudes and sociotropic perceptions. It explores how individual attitudes and policy preferences evolve during deliberation, focusing on Gyeonggi Province's basic income policy held in 2020 in South Korea. The paper reveals that while public deliberation, through information and group discussions, reduces the influence of material self-interests on policy preferences, it has a relatively limited effect on symbolic attitudes and sociotropic perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While religion and religiosity in Turkish society have long been topics of discussion, there has been a flourishing debate on the ascendance of deism, particularly among the youth. Simultaneous claims for the growing spectre of deism and religious backsliding and the Turkish government's policies of 'Islamization' seemingly resulted in a paradox. This article will start by tracing the evolution of the debate on deism and, through qualitative analysis, dissect the arguments raised by those who increasingly self-identify as deists into two interrelated categories: those directed against the very concept of God and those directed against the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad. Furthermore, it will explore the factors explaining the growing prevalence of deism, drawing attention mainly to trends of secularization and the broader socio-political context of Turkey in recent decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union's Recovery and Resilience Facility is an unprecedented investment opportunity for economic modernisation. However, while the supranational European Commission assumes considerable influence over the design of national Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRPs), there is substantial diversity among RRPs. This paper analyses the interaction between national governments and the Commission in the coordinative RRP design process. We argue that national policy preferences, rooted in the partisan profiles of governing coalitions, ultimately explain variation in RRP content. We analyse the policymaking process in three semi-peripheral economies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) – Estonia, Romania, and Slovakia. CEE countries are especially suitable because as expected rule-takers, they function as least likely cases for the relevance of government agency, i.e., national partisanship. Through elite interviews, we trace various elements of each RRP to specific positions of governing coalitions and, with national variation, the Commission's ability to impose its own policy preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inclusive design considers usability first: to design with the needs of everyone to decrease the mismatch between the end-user and the design object. In advertising, the mismatch may be in the opportunity to process an advertisement due to design strategies (i.e., executional ad cues). Based on the Motivation-Opportunity-Ability model of information processing, we focus on legibility as an important but underexplored encoding issue that can enhance consumers' opportunity to process ads based on visual clarity and lead to perceptual fluency effects. Visual acuity declines with age, so legibility is particularly important for older adults and those with vision loss. In line with recommended accessibility guidelines, we manipulated two advertising design factors believed to impact legibility—color contrast and font style—in the supers of a video advertisement for a pharmaceutical drug and tested the communication outcomes (cognition, persuasion). Across three studies with three different-aged populations, we show that legibility was positively related to awareness of information in the supers and to positive perceptions of the advertisement. In line with accessibility guidelines, legibility was rated the highest for most people in the high-color contrast sans serif font supers. Implications for theory, accessibility and older people, and public policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National climate policies have generated a considerable body of research in academic literature. Focusing on the little-studied case of France, this article examines the way in which, in this country, the State has drafted its latest low-carbon strategy (SNBC). Drawing on approaches such as ‘bureaucratic politics’ and ‘administrative capacity’, it questions the ability of the administration responsible for writing this document (and thus defending the climate cause) to make its voice heard within the political-administrative arena. Based on an in-depth sociological study, this article shows that this administration found itself in a position of ‘powerlessness’, due to three main factors: instrumental (the limited scope of the tool, reflecting an initial will to reduce its impact), organizational (the subordinate position of this administration within the bureaucratic hierarchy) and political (weak support from government). The result is a contested strategy, unlikely to bring about a credible roadmap to implement the necessary changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the impact of climate policies on electoral support for governing parties in Sweden through mixed methods combining a sentiment analysis of news articles and regression discontinuities of voter support over time. The regression discontinuity models indicate that the effects of climate policies on government support are not robust and are spurious across different model specifications. To ensure that we can detect effects, we used a set of political events that could have affected government support, such as elections and the Covid-pandemic as robustness checks. Contrary to expectations from literature and analyzed news reporting, we cannot determine robust effects of introducing climate policies on governmental support in Sweden. This suggests that governments do not need to anticipate losing substantial support when implementing climate policies – at least in favorable conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]