Environmental Science & Policy最新文献

{"title":"Learning from practice: Expanding the OECD’s impact evaluation criteria based on experiences of subnational climate assemblies in France, Spain and Portugal","authors":"Emma Lancha-Hernández,&nbsp;Isabel Becerril-Viera","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103978","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103978","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Climate Assemblies (CAs) aim to incorporate citizens’ perspectives into public policy. To evaluate their policy impact, researchers often rely on the OECD’s evaluation criteria, which are designed for a broad range of deliberative processes. However, recent CAs developments—particularly at the subnational level—have introduced innovative practices that are not fully captured by these existing frameworks. In response to ongoing academic debates on CAs and its impact measurement, this study draws on practical experiences and discourses to refine and expand the OECD’s policy impact criteria. Based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 14 key informants involved in 8 subnational CAs in France, Spain, and Portugal, our aim is to adapt the policy impact criteria by integrating academic debates and empirical insights from subnational contexts. Traditionally, policy impact evaluation has been treated as a separate dimension, disconnected from the design and implementation phases. However, our thematic analysis reveals that a holistic evaluation of the entire CA process is necessary to accurately assess its impact. Thus, we argue that key factors—such as the alignment of mandates with existing public policies, the inclusion and roles of various social actors throughout the process, and internal governance structures—must be considered in future evaluation frameworks. Ultimately, we offer new considerations and adaptations that enhance the assessment of policy impact for subnational CAs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103978"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143098132","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A decision support system for aiding watercourses classification processes","authors":"Murilo Brazzali Rodrigues,&nbsp;José Antônio Tosta dos Reis,&nbsp;Antônio Sérgio Ferreira Mendonça","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103965","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103965","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Economic and social development has imposed challenges for the management of water quality, leading to conflicts among users and the need to develop tools and regulatory frameworks to protect water resources. In this study, a decision support system (DSS) was developed to assist the phases of diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring, resulting from the implementation and monitoring of water bodies classification processes. The construction of the DSS involved the integration of a mathematical model of water quality and water quality permanence curves within the geographic information system (GIS) environment. By adopting water quality permanence curves, the DSS allows decision-making based on the frequency of compliance with the maximum allowable load of the pollutant under different flow conditions, considering scenarios of pollution increase or control. The DSS was applied to the Jucu river basin as a case study, where it was possible to identify the watercourses most impacted by pollutant inputs and which quality parameters require attention to compliance the quality conditions of the most restrictive classes. By allowing the joint visualization of field monitoring data with water quality permanence curves, the system allows the monitoring of established quality goals and may assist decision-makers in revising goals or improving pollution management. The results indicated that the developed system is useful in assisting managers to define fair water resource management rules and can be applied in the definition or monitoring of water bodies classification in other river basins.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103965"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143102245","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Navigating climate policy: The influence of lobbying trends and narratives in Europe","authors":"Grazia Errichiello ,&nbsp;Pasquale Marcello Falcone ,&nbsp;Lilit Popoyan","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103974","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103974","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study explores the evolving influence of climate lobbying on EU climate policies within the context of pressing climate change challenges. Employing a multilevel perspective (MLP) combined with discourse theory, the research focus on how global and local lobbying actors shape policy outcomes through various strategies. It identifies three dominant lobbying narratives: sustainability and alignment with global climate goals, innovation and technological advancement, and competitiveness and taxation concerns. The study reveals that substantial financial resources underpin negative lobbying from major sectors, while local positive lobbying efforts offer contrasting dynamics. The findings highlight the necessity for policymakers to reconcile global and local interests, enhance transparency, and incorporate diverse viewpoints to craft effective and equitable climate policies. The integration of MLP and discourse theory provides a robust framework for understanding these complex lobbying interactions and their implications for policy development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103974"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143102693","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A proposed method for analyzing historical adaptation pathways of coupled natural-human systems","authors":"Tess Doeffinger ,&nbsp;A.R. Siders","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103969","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103969","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Historical adaptation pathways (HAP) analyses identify sequences of multi-causal factors that shape climate change adaptation actions. Such analyses can be valuable for understanding why systems respond differently to climate risks, assessing important adaptation drivers and constraints, and identifying potential path dependencies. This paper synthesizes existing (and still emerging) HAP methods in order to present a more standardized and generalized approach to studying historic adaptations. The proposed method combines inductive and deductive approaches and draws on established practices from grounded theory to increase validity, including process tracing, memoing, construct definition, and member checking. This approach is designed to provide historical and contextual information that can be incorporated into a decision model or be shared with stakeholders and community members. In addition, future comparative studies based on this replicable approach could allow for theorization as to the casual mechanisms that engender successful adaptation. The approach is illustrated using a coastal adaptation case study in South Carolina, USA, with one of the main insights being that the island would not exist in its current form without the actions taken by concerned citizens, whose efforts ultimately helped combat the erosion caused (in part) by local jetties. Several areas for methodological improvement and theoretical development are also noted, as the aim of this work is both to enable cross-study comparisons of future HAP research – which can inform adaptation practice – and to provide a method that can be improved upon in future iterations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103969"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143102695","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Providing a comprehensive thematic review of the Science-Policy Interface (SPI): A probabilistic topic modeling approach","authors":"Yoann Guntzburger ,&nbsp;Marine Hadengue","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103966","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103966","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Interactions between the scientific community and policymakers have substantially increased over the past two decades, reflecting a collective effort to craft evidence-based policies and foster policy-relevant scientific research. This evolving relationship has given rise to a growing body of academic research aimed at analyzing the characteristics of, or the challenges related to, such interactions often grouped under the concept of ‘<em>Science-Policy Interface</em>’. Recent studies have initiated endeavours to consolidate this still fragmented field through global reviews, but such attempts remain scarce, which limits our understanding of this rich and complex concept. This article aims to contribute to this integrating effort by applying a text mining approach based on a latent Dirichlet allocation model on 1048 Scopus-indexed abstracts published from 1964 to 2023. This analysis uncovers 60 distinct latent topics, which are then synthesised into 15 meta-themes using hierarchical clustering. Five of these dominant themes relate to specific challenges inherent to the nature and the dynamics of the knowledge interaction process and its organization within the Science-Policy Interfaces, while the remaining themes pertain to specific issues that are addressed by these interfaces. Persistent gaps in this literature regarding the concepts of trust, power, and the issue of energy are identified. By discussing the interconnectedness of the clusters in relationship with previous reviews, this study not only provides a comprehensive thematic review of the Science-Policy Interfaces field but also identifies pivotal research directions and offers a structured synthesis that can guide future evidence-based policy research and practice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103966"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143102682","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Knowledge brokers at the interface of environmental science and policy: A review of knowledge and research needs","authors":"C. Cvitanovic ,&nbsp;DB Karcher ,&nbsp;J. Breen ,&nbsp;N. Badullovich ,&nbsp;P. Cairney ,&nbsp;R. Dalla Pozza ,&nbsp;J. Duggan ,&nbsp;S. Hoffmann ,&nbsp;R. Kelly ,&nbsp;AM Meadow ,&nbsp;S. Posner","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103973","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103973","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The largely negative impacts of human activities on social-ecological systems are becoming increasingly apparent. Efforts to address these impacts require effective knowledge exchange among researchers and decision-makers to facilitate evidence-informed decision-making processes. Despite this, however, examples of achieving effective knowledge exchange in practice are few. One solution to reducing barriers to knowledge exchange and building capacity for evidence-informed decision-making is through the use of knowledge brokers. Recognition of the role and value of knowledge brokers is becoming increasingly common in the environmental sector, but there are important gaps in understanding the divergent practices of knowledge brokers working to inform solutions to environmental challenges that hinder their successful implementation. To this end, we undertake a systematic map of the peer-reviewed and grey literature on knowledge brokering at the interface of environmental science and policy. We find that traditional conceptualisations of knowledge brokers are insufficient for capturing the true diversity of practices and identities that knowledge brokers can take. Instead, we show that within the environment sector, knowledge brokers, and the work they do, can take a variety of forms that are influenced by (among other things) the processes through which brokering roles were created, their mission, their budgets, and the contexts in which they work. In doing so, we also emphasize the ‘invisible’ work that knowledge brokers do, seeking to bring to the fore the range of activities that are central to supporting knowledge exchange, but often go unnoticed and are almost impossible to quantify. Drawing on our results and our collective knowledge, we outline a research agenda that articulates the most critical remaining knowledge gaps relating to knowledge brokering. Bringing these together, a core goal of this paper is to support and serve a growing global community of practice (both in theory and application) on knowledge brokering at the interface of environmental science and policy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103973"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143102685","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Is climate change the problem? A feminist analysis of climate change discourses in Spain and Catalonia","authors":"Maria Borràs Escayola ,&nbsp;Federica Ravera ,&nbsp;Marta G. Rivera Ferre","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103970","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103970","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The way climate change is framed and represented matters because it influences the type of actions and strategies promoted by climate-related policies. To understand how policies address climate change in the Spanish context, we performed an analysis of the discourse applying the “What’s the Problem Represented to be” Bacchi’s framework. We apply a feminist political ecology perspective, countering the dominant discourses around mitigation and adaptation to climate change, as well as identifying the silences on public policy at national (Spain) and regional (Catalonia) scales. Our results show that in both cases, the official policy discourse on climate change follows a techno-positivist and market driven narrative, mainly motivated by economic growth, not questioning much of the current economic model and without clearly addressing the responsibilities regarding the climate crisis and the resulting inequities associated to it. This representation presents climate change as a biophysical problem of increased concentration of greenhouse gases, which provides an opportunity for modernization and progress but at the same time, it is a threat to national security and a catalyst for existing vulnerabilities in the country. In contrast, the exploration of the silences of official public policy shows that climate change is represented as the visible consequence of a failed, patriarchal, and colonial system that needs to be solved under a social justice, human right and degrowth perspective. Alternative degrowth and ecofeminist discourses criticize the fallacy of greening the economic growth model and urge us to rethink the productive (and reproductive) current model, focusing on the sustainability of life as the central axis of transformation, “to live a life deserved to be lived”.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103970"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143102247","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"“Are you prepared or not?”: An intersectional analysis of a community-engaged climate change vulnerability assessment and adaptation planning process with Tsáá? Ché Ne Dane","authors":"Michaela Sidloski ,&nbsp;Maureen G. Reed ,&nbsp;Sheri Andrews-Key","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103984","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103984","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Intersectional analyses of climate hazards have demonstrated that social dimensions play important roles in how people experience and respond to climate change and extreme weather events. Despite these insights, intersectional scholarship has faced criticism around its theoretical orientation and the resulting challenges of doing applied intersectional research to understand social dimensions of climate change. This article demonstrates the value of an intersectional feminist lens to community-level planning for climate change. Working with an Indigenous community in northern British Columbia, Canada, the research revealed that social dimensions including culture, age, gender, and spirituality combined in distinct and various ways to influence how the community framed the problem of climate change, expressed agency, understood impacts and vulnerability, and proposed responses. Attending to these dimensions throughout a community-engaged climate change vulnerability assessment and adaptation planning process illuminated differences among groups, while also exposing shared goals and areas of overlap among diverse perspectives and worldviews. Beyond exposing commonalities, consistent consideration of social dimensions also enhanced local adaptive capacity and shaped the planning and decision-making process by informing project framing and design, methods selection and participant recruitment, and developing meaningful outputs. We use this evidence to demonstrate the practical application of an intersectional lens and to explain how embedding consideration of social dimensions within climate change vulnerability assessment and adaptation planning processes can produce better contextualization, greater buy-in, and more meaningful outcomes for communities across Canada and beyond.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103984"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143102251","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Achieving the paris agreement goals by transitioning to low-emissions food systems: A comprehensive review of countries’ actions","authors":"George Amenchwi Amahnui,&nbsp;Marth Vanegas,&nbsp;Louis Verchot,&nbsp;Augusto Castro-Nunez","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103968","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103968","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Meeting the 1.5°C Paris Agreement target requires ambitious strategies to transition to low-emissions food systems. This study aimed to identify strategies for reducing food-system greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs), including their co-benefits, tradeoffs, challenges, and opportunities for implementation applied by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Annex I and non-Annex I countries. The study was based on a systematic Scopus database literature review of peer-reviewed papers. PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyse) methodology was used to identify, assess, and select 201 articles related to our research questions. We analyzed data by identifying GHGE-reduction strategies reported for four food-system levels (pre-production, production, supply chain, and consumption) across Annex I and non-Annex I countries. Our findings show that 65 % of the articles published results for Annex I, 19 % for non-Annex I, and 16 % for both Annex I and non-Annex I countries, indicating that food-system GHGE-reduction has gained more attention in Annex I than in non-annex I countries. Among the 94 GHGE-reduction strategies identified applicable to the four food-system levels, dietary changes, such as reducing red meat consumption and restricting 'forest-risk' agricultural commodities were the most reported, particularly in the Global North. The supply-chain level reported the highest number of GHGE-reduction strategies (38), while the pre-production level recorded the lowest (2). The co-benefits, tradeoffs, challenges, and opportunities associated with the GHGE-reduction measures presented were underreported. We conclude that, with increased economic growth, increasing urban populations, and a rising middle class in non-Annex I countries, Annex I GHGE-reduction strategies could also be promoted in non-annex I countries across the Global South or serve as a springboard for those countries that have yet to apply a food-system GHGE-reduction approach.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103968"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143102684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"What triggers an examination of seabird bycatch levels in Canada?","authors":"Mark L. Mallory ,&nbsp;Victoria Johnston ,&nbsp;Jennifer F. Provencher","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103967","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103967","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In Canada, two federal departments have responsibilities relevant to fisheries bycatch: Environment and Climate Change Canada manages seabird populations, while Fisheries and Oceans Canada manages fisheries. Both departments need to determine population-level impacts of fisheries on seabirds to fulfill respective mandates, but gaps in policy implementation prevent access to, or analysis of, collected bycatch data. No formal processes exist to bring together these data. We provide examples of how seabird bycatch assessments have been triggered in Canada, and we describe key elements in resolving this impasse for future conservation efforts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103967"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143102246","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}