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Copyright of Journal of Planning Education & Research is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Cuadernos Europeos de Deusto is the property of Universidad de Deusto and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Cuadernos Europeos de Deusto is the property of Universidad de Deusto and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

El objetivo de esta investigación fue analizar la percepción de los agricultores sobre el uso de fertilizantes en la producción agrícola del Valle del Cunas, Junín, Perú, abordando la dependencia de estos insumos para la productividad agrícola y los diversos factores que influyen en su uso. Se utilizó un enfoque cualitativo con el método hipotético deductivo de diseño no experimental y de corte transversal. La población fue de 250 agricultores del mismo subsector hídrico, seleccionando una muestra de 47 mediante muestreo no probabilístico por conveniencia. La recolección de datos se realizó en dos etapas: entrevistas abiertas a 7 agricultores y un cuestionario a 40. Los resultados mostraron que los fertilizantes son cruciales, especialmente para cultivos como papa y maíz, con una notable preferencia por el fosfato diamónico (72.5 %), cloruro de potasio (57.5 %) y nitrato de amonio (37.5 %). Sin embargo, el 92.5 % de los agricultores enfrentan dificultades para adquirir fertilizantes, a pesar de un aumento del 70 % en su disponibilidad. La conclusión resalta la necesidad de políticas gubernamentales que mejoren la accesibilidad y distribución de fertilizantes, y apoyen específicamente a los agricultores de pequeña y mediana escala para asegurar un desarrollo agrícola sostenible en la región.

El medio ambiente y su protección suponen un reto mundial para el que, además, la Unión Europea precisa de herramientas que permitan realizar una eficaz gestión, tendente a alcanzar un objetivo delineado hace ya décadas, y que encuentra su punto de conexión con iniciativas más genéricas como One Health o Global Health, dimensionadas en el Plan de Acción de la Unión Europea: Contaminación cero para el aire, el agua y el suelo (adoptado en 2021). Teniendo presente esta línea de actuación, varias de las contribuciones de este número se centran en temas cruciales de actualidad y de gran preocupación para la Unión Europea. El reto que suponen los conflictos armados, también para el medio ambiente, se pone de relieve en el caso paradigmático que se vive en Ucrania, tras los acontecimientos acontecidos desde febrero de 2022, con la invasión por parte de Rusia. Las consecuencias de dicha guerra se han hecho patentes en la Unión Europea, prácticamente en todos los ámbitos, de los que no escapan la seguridad, la energía y también el medio ambiente, conformando un eje de materias conexas indisolublemente unidas. También, al hilo de los cambios necesarios que los objetivos a medio-largo plazo pretenden alcanzarse en la Unión Europea, la necesaria reevaluación y modernización de Directivas relacionadas con el medio ambiente es una realidad. El caso test de la regulación de la calidad de las aguas de baño en la Unión Europea constituye un ejemplo, que por nimio que pudiera parecer, alcanza enormes dimensiones de importancia económica y de salud, en este contexto regional europeo. Con el Convenio de Aarhus (sobre acceso a la información, participación del público en la toma de decisiones y acceso a la justicia en materia de medio ambiente) como telón de fondo y la idea de justicia climática, el rol de la Unión Europea en este escenario será igualmente objeto de atención. Todo ello, al hilo del Proyecto de Investigación MESESA, del que es Investigadora Principal la persona que suscribe estas líneas, resultado de las contribuciones de algunos de sus miembros y que conforman, entre otros trabajos, el presente volumen de Cuadernos Europeos.

Aunque la política medioambiental de la Unión Europea se consagrase en los tratados hace décadas, no ha sido hasta los últimos años en que la Unión Europea ha afrontado con seriedad y logros esta materia, constituyéndose en verdadero baluarte de la protección del medio ambiente, incluido el cambio climático. El medio ambiente está indisolublemente asociado a la cuestión de seguridad nacional e internacional. Esto ha sido ejemplificado con el conflicto bélico entre Rusia y Ucrania de 2021. También ha supuesto una serie de amenazas y oportunidades a la seguridad medioambiental y energética europea y ha evidenciado su impacto en la acción exterior de la Unión. Este trabajo analiza dichas amenazas y las repuestas ofrecidas para reflexionar sobre el verdadero efecto del conflicto en la Unión Europea. Recibido: 06 mayo 2024 Aceptado: 06 junio 2024

Policy makers in the modern age must confront complex and expanding knowledge on a daily basis. It has been put forth that policy making requires increasingly higher levels of policy analytical capacity at the individual, organizational, and system levels. Analytical capacity can enable better policy design and facilitate policy learning. Previous studies mostly operationalized the concept at the individual or organizational level with survey instruments, but the lack of widely and regularly conducted surveys limits the applicability of this method. Here, we propose new indicators of policy analytical capacity at the system level, using publicly available data. Our metrics are based on the outputs such as academic journal publications, government and stakeholder publications, and think‐tank rankings. As an illustration, we apply this approach to the case of renewable energy policies in three countries: Germany, Japan, and the United States. Though each of the underlying metrics is susceptible to uncertainties and biases, a totality of the indicators presents a useful, proxy measurement of policy analytical capacity. The proposed approach can supplement the survey method by enabling longitudinal and geographical investigation into policy analytical capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local climate policy in Germany is embedded in a complex and dense multilevel system. While higher levels of governance confront cities with legal frameworks and regulations, they are not constrained to mere implementation of requirements from the national or supranational levels. Cities can influence and make strategic use of opportunities stemming from the multilevel structure to introduce innovative climate policy measures as best practices. Within a multilevel structure, they can engage in trans‐local action and become actors in various processes of upscaling. In this paper, we analyze the configurations of success for local climate innovations. We focus on the impact of cities' trans‐local and strategic activities within the European multilevel system in conjunction with city‐specific context conditions. The research is based on a concept‐structural framework that combines trans‐local activities and internal context conditions in a way that accounts for interactions between the two spheres. A comparison of the German cities of Darmstadt, Hagen, Offenbach, and Oldenburg indicates that configurations of strategic action in the multilevel system and beneficial local conditions explain the adoption of climate innovations. Therefore, such trans‐local action should not be understood as a sufficient condition of innovative climate policy measures, but as an enabling factor embedded in local contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sub‐national governments are a crucial non‐state actor for mitigating climate change. This importance has recently strengthened as increasing numbers of municipalities declare net‐zero carbon emission goals to support the Paris Agreement, often well ahead of national governments. In Japan, net‐zero declarations have also diffused widely, with nearly 800 declarations appearing in domino‐like fashion over 2019–2022. To elucidate the factors that propelled this rapid diffusion, we used an event‐history analysis based on data from a survey to develop an integrated statistical model. We then deepen understanding of diffusion mechanisms through seven brief case studies informed by interviews and document analysis. We find that the drivers of policy diffusion varied over time. During the early stage, internal factors drove the spread of declarations; namely participation in transnational city networks, endowed human and financial resources, and political leadership. But in later stages, diffusion was mostly propelled by external factors; namely declarations by neighboring cities and the affiliated prefectural government. Through these findings, we contribute to scholarship through two novel perspectives. First, we reveal the factors driving policy diffusion across both early adopters and the ordinary majority. Second, we show how the influence of well‐known factors can vary during different stages of policy diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Opuntia Brava is the property of Universidad de Ciencias Pedagogicas de Las Tunas, Centro de Documentacion e Informacion Pedagogica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Foco (Interdisciplinary Studies Journal) is the property of Revista Foco and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Political ideology is an increasingly powerful force in support of public policy. Historically, nuclear energy has found more support among political conservatives. This study updates the literature on political ideology and support for nuclear energy by examining how political ideology is associated with perceptions of nuclear energy and trust of nuclear information sources. After excluding participants with incomplete data, and participants within 50 miles of a nuclear reactor, the analytical sample size for the analysis examining political ideology and perceptions of nuclear energy was 4153. The analytical sample includes a total of 1035 participants within a 50‐mile radius of INL, 710 participants from within Idaho who lived further than 50 miles from INL, 1899 participants from other states (more than 50 miles from a nuclear reactor), and 509 Non‐Idaho participants living within 50 miles of a nuclear reactor. Logistic regression was used to determine how political ideology was associated with perceptions of nuclear energy and trust in different sources regarding radioactive waste, after controlling for demographics and location. While liberal participants near INL were less favorable towards nuclear energy, and more trusting in impact scientists to tell the truth about radioactive waste than their conservative counterparts, this was not consistent across the US. Our findings reveal the complexity of political ideology and the perceptions of nuclear issues and how proximity influences perceptions. The perceptions of political moderates were particularly important in providing a more complex understanding of political ideology and nuclear energy issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence is giving rise to intense debates in the doctrine about its compatibility with the humanist ethics prevailing in Western society. This anthropocentric perspective of the paradigm shift posed by artificial intelligence does not, however, exhaust the line of pernicious consequences that may accompany it. Thus, the environment also emerges as a legal asset to be protected against the phenomenon of this new technology. The enormous amount of energy demanded by some of the artificial intelligence models erodes any energy efficiency objectives that may be set in the field of ICTs. For this reason, the aim of this paper will be to analyze this new challenge that environmental law will have to face sooner rather than later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a critical global issue with profound local impacts. Recent scholarship on local government action to address climate change has primarily focused on cities, with less attention paid to how smaller municipalities and rural communities are tackling the issue. Our research investigates how the capacity of urban and rural municipalities in New York State (NYS) affects their ability to take climate action, utilizing data from a statewide survey, interviews, and secondary data on municipal participation in the NYS Climate Smart Communities program. We investigated how municipal capacity (including individual, management, and broader contextual factors) influences climate change action in rural and urban communities. We find that only a quarter of NYS municipalities have taken climate action, and most are mitigation rather than adaptation actions. There is significantly more climate action and municipal climate network participation in urban versus rural communities. Most local municipal officials believe that climate change is occurring and feel the impacts, yet most are unsure about addressing it at the local level. Climate action is best predicted by individual municipal capacity variables of strong climate beliefs and knowledge, and contextual variables of being in an urban municipality versus a rural one, and participation in climate networks. Key barriers to local climate action include the lack of human, financial, and technical resource capacity. Municipal climate networks can help overcome capacity limitations, particularly for resource‐limited rural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Opuntia Brava is the property of Universidad de Ciencias Pedagogicas de Las Tunas, Centro de Documentacion e Informacion Pedagogica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Recent work has applied the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) to examine narrative strategies in policy debates on social media platforms. We contribute to the literature by applying the NPF to fracking policy debates in New York using well‐established Natural Language Processing tools, including sentiment analysis. We combine this computational approach with a qualitative hand‐coding of pro‐ and antifracking Twitter influentials. This approach allows us to consider a much larger corpus of tweets over a much longer time frame than has been done thus far. We adapt and test NPF propositions related to the use of the devil/angel shift strategies before and after a major state‐wide policy change, that is, a state‐wide moratorium on high volume hydraulic fracturing or fracking. Overall, we find evidence for the use of the devil shift narrative strategy by the pro‐fracking coalition aimed at the Governor prior to the moratorium. After the moratorium, the relative percentage of Tweets containing devil shift sentiments decreases as the pro‐fracking coalition generally downshifts in its use of angel shift language without a corresponding increase in devil shift language, whereas, conversely, the anti‐fracking coalition generally downshifts in its use of devil shift language without a general increase in angel shift language. When we shifted our analysis to Tweets containing fracking and the Governor, we found a similar postban decrease in devil shift language among anti‐fracking users. Our findings offer lessons for using computational tools in the NPF as an approach to expand analytic ability and for the operationalization of concepts such as narrative strategies and policy entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In high‐conflict policy debates, individuals often make strategic decisions about the ways in which they engage in efforts to influence the direction of the debate. Some individuals act to expand the scope of the conflict, whereas others would prefer to contain the scope of the conflict and maintain status quo. This study empirically examines the relationship between activities of political engagement and goals of conflict expansion or containment in a particular setting in which there are clear "winners" and "losers." This research first explores the tactics an individual undertakes as either conflict expansion or containment. The patterns uncovered are then tested against sectoral affiliation, to draw conclusions about key factors that explain some variation in policy engagement. Findings confirm that there are predictable patterns to engagement decisions, paving the way for future testing in different policy arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) is one of the most widely adopted clean energy policies in the U.S. However, organized elite power groups, backed by ample political and economic resources, have been known to lead RPS termination efforts. In the context of state renewable energy politics, organized elite power includes legislators affiliated with American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and anti‐renewable energy business groups. Focusing on the roles of organized elite power, this study investigates the drivers of the formulation of RPS rollback (goal freeze) and termination bills, which we refer to collectively as negative policy experimentations. We find that RPS termination attempts are explained by the presence of ALEC legislators and anti‐renewable energy business groups, whereas RPS goal freeze bills are better explained by conditions of policy operations. This study contributes to the policy process theory by providing critical insights into the post adoption decisions, including policy termination and rollback legislations, with a focus on the role of organized elite power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The climate crisis and associated push for distributed, renewable electricity generation necessitate policy changes to decarbonize and modernize the electricity grid. Some of these changes—e.g., smart meter rollouts and tax credits for solar panel adoption—have received attention in the media and from social scientists to understand public perceptions and responses. Others—e.g., allowing peer‐to‐peer electricity sales, promoting residential electrification, requiring solar panels on new development, funding microgrids, and paying customers to allow for utility control of electricity use—have received less attention. Here, we explore public perceptions of these understudied policies among California residents (n = 804), a state recognized for innovative energy policy. A majority of respondents supported only one of the policies—requiring solar panels on new development. Others elicited more indecision; few were strongly opposed. In general, male respondents and those with college degrees were more supportive of such policies, as were those more concerned about climate change and with a more open orientation to smart home technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and the implementation of climate‐energy policies remains highly contentious in the United States. Prior research makes clear that the way polices are "framed" powerfully shapes how they are conceptualized. This article explores framing dynamics within a 2015–2016 case of subfederal climate‐energy policy conflict in the state of Illinois, which culminated with the passage of the Future Energy Jobs Act: legislation that contained significant environmental initiatives. I investigate this episode through a process tracing case study, incorporating qualitative content analysis and semi‐structured interviews with stakeholders. Results suggest that stakeholders strategically framed their policies in terms of economic benefits, and other aspects of a policy's design, as opposed to focusing on climate change or climate science. In this way, Illinois was able to pass a comprehensive climate‐energy policy with bipartisan support—an outcome infrequently seen in other states around the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines trends in American state environmental policy scholarship from 1990 to 2019 and assesses the progress that has been made during that time in addressing the numerous deficiencies noted by Lester and Lombard (1990). A survey of more than 300 published articles suggests that researchers have made significant advances in theory and methodology over the last three decades. Yet some core elements of Lester and Lombard's critique continue to apply, and more work needs to be done to reach their goal of a theoretically coherent and methodologically sound body of research. The article concludes by offering suggestions for scholars working in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La energía para el desarrollo y crecimiento de cualquier país juega un importante papel, en tanto que insumo de primera mano para lograr la transformación de bienes y servicios en el mundo actual. A partir de los hallazgos en la Cumbre de Río del 1992 el mundo se hizo eco de la necesidad de un cambio significativo en la forma de producir la energía, la cual, entre otros factores, influye de manera directa en la conservación del medio ambiente y consigo un arrastre de la calidad de vida y salud de las personas. En la década actual se ha logrado grandes avances en la producción energética de fuentes renovables y limpias, con lo que se persigue reducir la huella de carbono, la emisión de gases de efecto invernadero, además de tener un esquema de generación más eficiente y de menor costo a largo plazo, aportando de tal forma a una sostenibilidad en el tiempo y una sustentabilidad en el presente. Para los seres humanos el tener acceso a la energía repercute de forma directa e indirecta en su calidad de vida, pues se logra reevaluar el uso de los recursos naturales para las actividades cotidianas como el alumbrado, la cocción de los alimentos con leña, entre otros. Pero también a nivel general la gente se siente más cómoda y a gusto, a la misma vez que su nivel de resiliencia crece.

Regarding the impact on the environment that technologies have to generate power, is relevant to consider it in the design and implementation of public policies. In Mexico, since the structural reforms of 2013, changes have been made that includes private investment and promotion in the use of alternative technologies. Additionally, the new Clean Energy Certificates seek to influence the generation of energy with lesser environmental impact.

Trust is a key component of democratic decision‐making and becomes even more salient in highly technical policy areas, where the public relies heavily on experts for decision making and on the information provided by federal agencies. Research to date has not examined whether the members of the public place different levels of trust in the various agencies that operate within the same policy subsystem, especially in a highly technical subsystem such as that of nuclear energy and waste management. This paper explores public trust in multiple agencies operating within the same subsystem, trust in each agency relative to aggregate trust across agencies that operate within the nuclear waste subsystem, and trust in alternative agencies that have been suggested as possible players in the decision‐making process. We find that trust accorded to different federal agencies within the nuclear waste subsystem varies. The variation in trust is systematically associated with multiple factors, including basic trust in government, perceptions about the risks and benefits of nuclear energy/waste management, party identification, and education. These findings have significant implications for research on public trust in specific government agencies, alternative policy entities, and for policy makers who want to design robust and successful policies and programs in highly technical policy domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy transitions are fiercely contested. The incumbents of the fossil‐ and nuclear‐based energy systems have much to lose from a transition to a sustainable and decentralized energy system. They therefore employ their material and political resources to reverse, halt, or slow down this transition. They also attempt to stop and reverse the decentralization of energy production. This article provides a framework that can be used to analyze the contestation that surrounds energy transitions. The analytical framework breaks apart the macro paths of energy transitions, and differentiates between three meso‐paths (political, economic‐technological, and legitimation), emphasizes the feedback processes between these paths, and acknowledges the crucial role that actors play in engendering these feedback processes. It uses Germany as a case study to illustrate the analytical model. It also provides hypotheses that will be tested in the subsequent contributions to this special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Members of parliament are key actors for the implementation of energy transitions, such as phasing out nuclear power. Before legislators can cast their maybe decisive vote in parliament, they need to run for office and actively strive for election. This paper assesses what political candidates oppose renewable energy transitions and questions whether the energy issue matters in national elections, and thus has consequences for the implementation of new sustainable energy sources. We analyze these questions by first describing the specific characteristics of political candidates. The paper then evaluates the relevance of the energy issue for electoral success in three national elections in Switzerland (2007, 2012, and 2015). Based on candidate data from the voting advice application smartvote.ch, we find that female candidates support ETs more than men do; that especially the French‐speaking part of the country is more in favor of a nuclear phase‐out, and that younger candidates are also more open toward restructuring the energy system than older candidates are. Our models further show that the energy issue does not matter in elections, independently from its salience in the respective election campaigns. Candidates are thus relatively free to choose their position on the issue and do not have to fear consequences at the ballot. However, candidates of center parties, in contrast to the pole parties, are sensitive to the energy issue and reflect public mood in their positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adoption of climate policies with visible, substantial costs for households is uncommon because of expected political backlash, but British Columbia's carbon tax and California's cap‐and‐trade program imposed such costs and still survived vigorous opposition. To explain these outcomes, this article tests hypotheses concerning policy design, framing, energy prices, and elections. It conducts universalizing and variation‐finding comparisons across three subcases in the two jurisdictions and uses primary sources to carry out process tracing involving mechanisms of public opinion and elite position‐taking. The article finds strong support for the timing of independent energy price changes, exogenous causes of election results, reducing the visibility of carbon pricing, and using public‐benefit justifications, as well as some support for making concessions to voters. By contrast, the effects of the use of revenue, industry exemptions/compensations, and making polluters pay are not uniform, because the effects of revenue use depend on how it is embedded in coalition building efforts and a middle path between exempting or compensating industry and burdening it appears to be more effective than pursuing just one or the other approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas but it has received strikingly less social science attention than carbon dioxide in examining climate policy options. This article explores American state policy toward methane that is not captured and instead released into the atmosphere during oil and gas production. It examines whether states have adopted market‐based approaches to price methane flaring and venting through long‐standing severance taxes on natural gas extraction. Such taxes exist in all but one production state, routinely materializing after prolonged adoption battles. Most states have maintained methane release exemptions from these taxes through either statute or administrative discretion between 1960 and 2000, although a few have allowed some form of pricing. Two state legislatures have explored applying these taxes to methane releases on multiple occasions since 2000, amid expanded shale era output and growing public concern about climate and air quality impacts. Steadfast production industry opposition, rather than technical feasibility, emerges as the primary factor leading to rejection in these cases. Even when framing releases as a conventional air contaminant or as permanent loss of a nonrenewable natural resource, states largely continue to exempt flared or vented methane from severance taxes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El artículo analiza la influencia que tiene el consumo en el desarrollo humano y en el sentido de la vida y desarrolla los aspectos bioéticos que contribuyen al éxito de una política de consumo, en especial, para los servicios de energía en los hogares. La reflexión crítica de fuentes secundarias, desde una perspectiva ética y bioética, permite el cumplimiento de los objetivos. Se propone como aporte bioético a la política de consumo la armonización del nivel público e individual mediante el principio de responsabilidad y la voluntad de sentido, haciendo énfasis en el consumo de energía en los hogares. En este sentido, una política de consumo responsable conectada con la voluntad de sentido tiene como prioridades centrales la justicia y la libertad. El consumo no se puede constituir en sentido de la vida, sino debe ser un medio para expandir las potencialidades humanas más allá de sí mismo; es decir, construir la voluntad de sentido, “hacernos más humanos”, tener la capacidad de ser responsables. Por lo tanto, el desarrollo humano necesita de la voluntad de sentido

What is the relationship between political institutions and air pollution generated by the power sector? Here we focus on the association between democracy and power generated from coal, the most polluting of all fossil fuels. Using a new dataset on coal‐fired power plants commissioned between 1980 and 2016 in 71 countries, we find that the relationship between democracy and coal varies according to the environmental Kuznets curve logic. Democratic political institutions at lower levels of economic development are correlated with increased commissioning of coal power plants, as governments seek to appeal to an electorate prioritizing economic growth and affordable energy access. As a country becomes richer, democracy comes to have a negative association with coal power, as clean air becomes a more salient issue for the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is the central element of climate change policy in many jurisdictions. Reduced to technology development and linked to market‐driven priorities, innovation accommodates the interests of large emitters in the energy sector and underpins a sustainable development discourse that denies ecological limits to economic growth. This study examines the use of innovation as a key component of climate change policy in the case of Alberta's Climate Change Emissions Management Corporation, utilizing a political economy approach to explain the drivers of government funding priorities. An analysis of this technology fund's investments over nine years, under two different governments, revealed that nearly half of the revenue has been used to subsidize R&D in the fossil fuels industry in the name of clean energy development, and that this priority has continued despite recent government commitments under the Paris CoP agreement. The carbon levy system that generates revenue for the fund has been unsuccessful in incentivizing facility reductions, pointing to the need for more stringent regulation. Innovation as a framework for transition to a post‐carbon economy is severely limited by its exclusion of the roles of social knowledge and citizen participation in envisaging and designing paths for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reform of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) adopted in November 2017 was surprisingly strong, given the previous opposition from central member‐states like Poland and key stakeholders like the energy‐intensive industries. The carbon price has also increased substantially since then. To explain why such major reform was possible, we present several findings with wider relevance. Importantly, all the actors pushing for a more ambitious reform benefitted from having a central, "second‐best" mechanism in place—the Market Stability Reserve (MSR)—which could be further tightened. By focusing cancelation on allowances in the MSR and taking place only after 2023, policy entrepreneurs managed to make the distribution of costs obscure and diffuse, whereas the benefits (a probable higher carbon price and related greater auctioning revenues for member‐states) were more specific and closer in time. That is what we call "smokescreen politics." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Nordic countries pursue ambitious energy transition goals through national energy policies and in the framework of Nordic cooperation. We propose that the transition is realistic only if it involves the public, private, and nongovernmental organization sectors as regulators, innovators, and advocates of relevant policies and solutions representing the multitude of interests involved. We examine these interests through Q methodological experiments, where 43 expert stakeholders' rank‐order statements concerning their preferred policy measures vis‐à‐vis the electric energy system. Factor analysis of these subjectively held views produces three distinct views. The first two enjoy strong inter‐Nordic support. The first view prioritizes market and grid development, and the second view prioritizes electric transport, and solar and wind power. The third, "Finnish" view seeks to enhance security of supply, also via microgrids, and prioritizes biofuels over electric transport. Examining the common ground among the three views, we find that enhanced cooperation requires reinforced stakeholder interaction and policy coordination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sectoral interests play an important role in distributive politics, but their influence is difficult to measure. We compare the effect of international oil prices on subsidies for domestic gasoline and diesel consumption. Because diesel is used by a smaller number of organized agricultural and transportation interests, they are more capable of collective action than the dispersed beneficiaries of gasoline subsidies. The conventional wisdom holds that sectoral interests could mobilize to stop reform (e.g., price increases, deregulation). Challenging this view, we consider the possibility that sectoral interests promote reform by facilitating the targeted allocation of compensation and exemptions. An empirical analysis of gasoline and diesel prices, 1991–2012, strongly supports the second hypothesis: diesel prices respond to international oil prices more strongly than do gasoline prices. Quantitative tests and case studies allow us to explore causal mechanisms, verify that the gasoline‐diesel difference is related to actual policy reforms, and reject alternative explanations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China launched its national emissions trading scheme (ETS) in late 2017. This article examines the key drivers behind China's 2011 decision to opt for ETS as a GHG mitigating policy tool and what lay behind the choice of the system's design features. Given the existence of the frontrunner EU ETS and that market mechanisms have spread across the world in recent years, we analyze the role played by policy diffusion in the decision to launch an ETS and in the subsequent design process, seen in relation to domestic drivers. The article investigates policy developments culminating in the 2011 carbon market announcement, and the reasons these design elements were chosen for the pilot schemes and the national market in the period 2011–2017. The article contributes to our understanding of policy diffusion at different stages of policy development in China, by revealing which diffusion mechanism is more prevalent at different stages. We find first that overall domestic conditions and drivers had the most consistent impact on policy decisions to establish a carbon market and on the selected sectors. However, a second key finding is that the role of policy diffusion varied over time, with such diffusion, in the form of ideational impact, playing the most important role early on, providing a powerful inducement for China to go for a carbon market. Third, sophisticated learning from international projects took place in the pilots, allowing China to adapt policies and design features to match local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable portfolio standards (RPS) are an important policy tool for reducing carbon emissions and advancing the global shift toward renewable energy. As the U.S. federal government backs away from commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, subnational governments play an increasingly important role in mitigating climate change. In June 2015, Hawaii became the first state in the United States to adopt a 100% RPS. Through understanding the conditions that gave rise to Hawaii's RPS, policy actors will be better informed as they navigate policy processes in other states and jurisdictions. This study uses Kingdon's Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) to explore the policy process that led to Hawaii's 100% RPS. Data were collected during the summer of 2016 via interviews with 25 key policy actors and informants in Hawaii. Expectations based on the MSF are confirmed, and the results suggest factors that might be included or explored in future studies of RPS adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the impact of increasing the stringency of renewable portfolio standards (RPS) on the consumption of energy produced from renewable sources. Putting prior findings in the context of policy learning, first we focus on technological innovation, factor endowments, and economic energy dependence of American states to track how RPS have proliferated and strengthened. Next, we look at the net effect of this RPS evolution on state fossil fuel energy divestment. To evaluate the interplay between: a) the political desire to lower fossil fuel use, b) technological feasibility to do so, and c) the economic trade‐offs and risks, we focus on the industrial sector dependence on energy security and affordability. Our results indicate that energy security is a priority and even in light of increasing RPS stringency, states with relatively weak but mandatory RPS are leaders in aggregate renewable energy consumption. This fact is due to favoring biofuel and hydro generation rather than solar and wind because of lower deployment costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Over the past decade, directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing enabled an unconventional oil and gas extraction (UOGE) boom in many regions of the United States, including parts of Pennsylvania. This revolution has created serious concerns about the capability of existing institutions to govern important societal outcomes associated with UOGE. We present a conceptual framework for assessing key societal outcomes influenced by UOGE governance. In applying this framework to Pennsylvania, we discern certain institutional strengths that have allowed the Commonwealth to reap appreciable short‐term economic growth from rich resource endowments. We also find, however, that several institutional weaknesses have allowed costs externalized to the environment, public health, and community integrity to offset some proportion of those economic benefits. Likewise, we find that governance of UOGE in Pennsylvania has contributed to a bifurcated sociopolitical landscape wherein adversarial coalitions dispute the legitimacy of the industry and its governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The concept of learning has long played a central role in the theories and frameworks used to understand policy processes. Findings described here aim to contribute to the theoretical and methodological understanding of individual learning in the policy process by explicitly examining belief change and belief reinforcement as products of policy learning, measuring both, as well as measuring the absence of either. The objective of this study is to use the lens of the Advocacy Coalition Framework to examine some of the factors that promote and shape policy learning, including policy actors' beliefs and the extent to which policy actors engage in various policy activities within and between belief coalitions. The results indicate that extreme beliefs are associated with belief reinforcement, relative to policy actors with more moderate beliefs, and that collaboration with individuals with differing policy views is associated with belief change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regarding the impact on the environment that technologies have to generate power, is relevant to consider it in the design and implementation of public policies. In Mexico, since the structural reforms of 2013, changes have been made that includes private investment and promotion in the use of alternative technologies. Additionally, the new Clean Energy Certificates seek to influence the generation of energy with lesser environmental impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy makers frequently learn from the policy experiences of other governments. Lessons inform decision making, diffusing policy across borders. Using interviews with key policy actors and a comparative analysis of United States and European policy contexts, this study identifies and describes causal mechanisms through which newly emerging offshore wind energy policies diffused across governmental borders. In so doing, this article demonstrates a new approach to understanding policy learning and diffusion to complement the large-N, quantitative analyses that form the bedrock of the literature. The findings support the argument that future studies must account for policy diffusion between subnational and foreign national governments, as well as diffusion between coequal administrative agencies in different policy subsystems--"directions" of diffusion that are invisible to traditional methods, yet likely to become increasingly common in the face of climate change and other wicked problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Prior research on policy conflicts indicates a tendency among policy actors to misperceive the influence of actors engaged in policy debates based on the degree of distance between their relative policy positions. This research develops a measure for assessing the degree and direction of the misperception effect. This measure is then utilized as a dependent variable to assess the relationship between theoretically relevant factors and the degree to which actors will exaggerate the influence of their opponents and allies. The research uses original survey data of policy actors engaged in the debate over hydraulic fracturing in New York. The results indicate misperceptions of relative influence are prevalent and most associated with the experience of a policy loss and holding relatively extreme policy beliefs. The findings provide new insight into factors that influence the demonization of political opponents. These insights are timely in the context of polarized debates over environmental and energy policy in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article examines the role that overlapping committee jurisdictions play in fostering or hindering attention to environmental and energy issues in the U.S. Congress. The Select Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee, created by House Democrats in , and its chairman Rep. Ed Markey took advantage of opportunities within the existing jurisdictional arrangement to increase attention to these issues despite lacking any legislative authority. Data from the 110th and 111th Congresses show that the Select Committee held more hearings on climate change and alternative energy, and on environmental and energy policy generally, than any other committee. The committee also increased the range of sources informing debate on these issues by calling different witnesses than other committees. These findings have important implications for the relationship between institutional structure and agendas and for Congress' policy‐making role on energy and the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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