Environmental Science & Policy最新文献

{"title":"Forecasting justice: Hurricane knowledge, vulnerability, and meteorological fairness in Puerto Rico","authors":"Ellen Ruth Kujawa","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104252","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104252","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Hurricane forecasts are critical for safeguarding lives and livelihoods, and their production and distribution raise important questions of fairness and justice. Although often regarded as objective and geographically consistent, forecasts' usefulness depends on the social and political contexts in which they are produced and applied. This paper examines the distributive justice of hurricane forecasts for Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, drawing on 30 elite interviews with meteorologists and emergency managers. Puerto Rico faces annual hurricane risk, and its vulnerability is compounded by islandness, infrastructural neglect, economic crisis, and political marginalization. While Puerto Rican decision-makers view forecasts as essential for disaster mitigation, they encounter significant challenges in applying forecasts designed for continental contexts and perceive - with some supporting evidence - that Puerto Rico receives inferior forecast information and institutional support compared to the continental United States. In addition to presenting expert perceptions of forecast utility, this paper applies a Rawlsian framework to interrogate the fairness of the current hurricane forecasting system, suggesting that forecast knowledge should preferentially benefit the most vulnerable. I argue that disparities in forecast access and application reflect deeper structures of unfairness and coloniality – an insidious companion to the more visible coloniality of Puerto Rico, and further proof that meteorological prediction is inherently political. This research, particularly salient in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, traces the connections between two bodies of knowledge: the entangled geographies of vulnerability, islandness, and coloniality; and the complex relationship between meteorology, justice, and political power.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"174 ","pages":"Article 104252"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145414719","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":"Research shaped through context: Lessons from transdisciplinary projects","authors":"Julia Schegg ,&nbsp;Rea Pärli ,&nbsp;Manuel Fischer ,&nbsp;Eva Lieberherr","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104286","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104286","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Transdisciplinary research (TDR) targets societal challenges through equitable knowledge co-production with non-academic actors for a given case context. Frequently, results of TDR projects are harder to generalize compared to those of non-TD projects, primarily because TD projects are designed to address specific, context-dependent situations. Including context (factors, such as COVID-19, public discourse, and action resources of project actors) when assessing TDR projects is thus important for the transferability of effects of TDR projects to other contexts. This study investigates the influence of context factors on TDR projects and their effects. Empirically, we rely on interviews with 23 researchers and non-academic actors involved in 9 TDR projects in the field of natural resources in Switzerland. We find that, particularly, the effects of knowledge integration into practice and into politics are most affected by context factors. We find the context factors: action resources of political support, organisation and consensus, and the system conditions of private economy and external natural events to be most influential for the achievement of aspired effects in TDR projects.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"174 ","pages":"Article 104286"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145577103","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":"Vulnerability to climate change, depopulation and the global food regime: An index-based approach for rural Spain","authors":"Sergio Villamayor-Tomas ,&nbsp;Daniel Gaitán-Cremaschi ,&nbsp;Esteve Corbera ,&nbsp;Ana Beatriz Pierri-Daunt ,&nbsp;Letícia Santos de Lima","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104254","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104254","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rural regions in Europe currently face multiple interacting stressors, including climate change, depopulation, and the deepening of a global a food regime. Research on the overlapping impact of these climate, demographic and socio-economic phenomena on rural livelihoods is mounting, yet efforts to identify larger-scale patterns at country level are still scarce. In this article, we develop a rural vulnerability index that accounts for these dynamics, encompassing 27 variables calculated at municipal and county levels from publicly available data. We apply the index to the case of Spain, one of the largest producers of agricultural commodities and one of the most affected by depopulation and climate change in the European Union. We demonstrate the existence of a vulnerability belt around the country’s central plateau, which is notably driven by shifts in climate, the adverse effects of the global food regime, and low adaptive capacity of the municipalities that conform such belt. We also show that most and least vulnerable counties exhibit contrasting spatial distributions at the municipal level, and that overlapping impacts of the three stressors occur mostly in remote rural areas. The research illustrates the importance of integrating depopulation in the study of multi-stressor rural vulnerability and sheds light on the potential and limitations of using a quantitative and spatially explicit indices for the assessment of rural vulnerability in Spain, and potentially other European countries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"174 ","pages":"Article 104254"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145620812","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":"Catastrophic wildfires in the Pantanal wetlands as catalysts for transformative change","authors":"Alexandre de Matos Martins Pereira ,&nbsp;Geraldo Alves Damasceno-Junior ,&nbsp;Renata Libonati ,&nbsp;Liana O. Anderson ,&nbsp;Allan Henrique de Almeida Souza ,&nbsp;Bruno Henrique dos Santos Ferreira ,&nbsp;Andre Valle Nunes ,&nbsp;André Luiz Siqueira ,&nbsp;Angelica Guerra ,&nbsp;Angelo Cipriano Pacelli Rabelo ,&nbsp;Arnaud L.J. Desbiez ,&nbsp;Arthur Henrique Leite Falcette ,&nbsp;Áurea da Silva Garcia ,&nbsp;Betina Kellermann ,&nbsp;Bruna Gomes de Oliveira ,&nbsp;Bryony Jenkins ,&nbsp;Carlos A. Peres ,&nbsp;Christian Niel Berlinck ,&nbsp;Danilo Bandini Ribeiro ,&nbsp;Edna Scremin-Dias ,&nbsp;Fabio de Oliveira Roque","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104273","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104273","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Catastrophic wildfires, increasingly intensified by climate change and anthropogenic pressures, have emerged as critical drivers of socioecological transformation. This study examines the 2019–2020 wildfires in the Pantanal biome as a case of disruptive change, highlighting their role in catalyzing institutional, technological, scientific, and community-level innovations. Drawing on a transdisciplinary methodology and snowball sampling of key stakeholders, the research identifies rapid shifts in wildfire governance, including the implementation of integrated fire management policies and the establishment of new scientific networks. Technological advancements, such as real-time fire monitoring systems and AI-driven early warning platforms, have enhanced fire detection and response capabilities. Concurrently, community resilience has been bolstered through the formation of local fire brigades, educational initiatives, and restoration programs supported by civil society and governmental actors. These responses reflect a convergence of adaptive and transformative strategies aimed at mitigating future wildfire risks. Despite these advances, sustaining long-term resilience remains contingent upon continued multilevel governance, cross-sectoral collaboration, and financial investment. The Pantanal experience underscores the potential of extreme events to disrupt entrenched systems and foster systemic change. However, it also reveals the complexities of maintaining momentum in the face of escalating climate threats. This analysis contributes to the broader discourse on disaster-induced transformation, emphasizing the need for integrated, inclusive, and anticipatory approaches to environmental governance in fire-prone landscapes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"174 ","pages":"Article 104273"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145620814","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":"The impact of municipal leadership tenure stability on low-carbon transition of urban economies in China","authors":"Xuerong Zhang ,&nbsp;Zhe Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104271","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104271","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Against the backdrop of global climate urgency and China’s “dual carbon” goals, this study investigates how municipal leadership tenure stability shapes low-carbon transition of urban economies (LCTUE). In this study, a network SBM model was employed to deconstruct LCTUE into three systems: low-carbon production (ULP), consumption (ULC), and recycling (ULR), and analyze the heterogeneous impacts of officials’ tenure on each system. In addition, an “externally driven and internally locked-in” theoretical framework was developed under political promotion incentives to understand the mechanisms of impacts. Key findings reveal: (1) Extended tenure of municipal leaders significantly enhances overall low-carbon economic transition (UELT), yet effects vary by role and phase. While mayors’ prolonged tenure consistently improves ULP, party secretaries exhibit an inverted U-shaped relationship with ULP efficiency peaks in early tenure but declines after five years. Neither role demonstrates significant impacts on ULC or ULR. (2) External drivers amplify tenure effects: political promotion incentives strengthen UELT and ULP through intergovernmental yardstick competition, while public scrutiny enhances mayors’ contributions to UELT, ULP, and ULC. Target responsibility assessments improve ULR performance under promotion pressures, though mayors show greater sensitivity. (3) Internal constraints emerge: party secretaries exceeding double the average tenure experience diminishing marginal effects on UELT, ULP, and ULC, whereas mayors face no such penalties. Leaders nearing retirement age display reduced LCTUE incentives. These findings underscore the dual role of tenure stability as both catalyst and constraint, advocating for differentiated tenure management, incentive realignment, and institutional innovations to reconcile the paradox between China’s economic growth and climate governance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"174 ","pages":"Article 104271"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145464375","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 pragmatic framework for local operationalisation of national-level biodiversity impact mitigation commitments","authors":"Thomas B. Atkins ,&nbsp;Natalie E. Duffus ,&nbsp;Amber J. Butler ,&nbsp;Hannah C. Nicholas ,&nbsp;Sophus O.S.E. zu Ermgassen ,&nbsp;Prue Addison ,&nbsp;E.J. Milner-Gulland","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104288","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104288","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Countries around the world are attempting to navigate complex trade-offs between biodiversity and other land use objectives such as infrastructure expansion, with many adopting “net outcomes” policies that aim to ensure economic development leaves biodiversity better off than before. The implementation of net outcomes policies often occurs on a project-by-project basis, which can lead to implementation missing opportunities for integrated thinking that delivers across multiple objectives. Here, we present a new practical framework for delivering a biodiversity mitigation strategy that achieves multiple societal objectives whilst being applicable at the scale of an individual project. We apply the framework to the case study of a major development in Oxfordshire subject to Biodiversity Net Gain legislation. We first calculate the requirement for off-site biodiversity offsetting, given the realistic limits in scope of on-site biodiversity impact mitigation. Three offsetting strategies are co-created with local stakeholders, which all meet the required biodiversity gains, but differ with regards to social equity and the bundle of ecosystem services delivered. Making these contrasting project characteristics transparent and comparable empowers local stakeholders to choose the offset strategy that meets their local preferences across these often-competing priorities, whilst helping contribute to overarching strategic development goals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"174 ","pages":"Article 104288"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145620811","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":"Mapping energy sustainability: An integrated analysis of research landscapes and policy alignment","authors":"Jiayu Li,&nbsp;Michael C.P. Sing","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104282","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104282","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Fragmentation in energy sustainability (ES) research and potential academic-policy misalignment impede global ES progress. This dual challenge motivates the innovations of this work: to synthesize ES literature and examine the academic-policy alignment. Theoretically, it enriches academic discourse by integrating dispersed ES research and offering new perspectives on the academia–policy divide. Practically, it identifies opportunities to help researchers address critical gaps and supports policymakers in designing effective measures to bridge this divide. Methodologically, we combine bibliometric and content analyses to map the ES research landscape, and employ a coupling coordination degree (CCD) model to quantify academia–policy alignment. Key findings reveal: (1) ES research is geographically concentrated in China and Europe; (2) while the definition of ES has evolved from narrow focus on sustainability to include inclusivity, accessibility, affordability, and energy efficiency, resilience remains underrepresented despite its importance for reflecting dynamic nature of ES; (3) three primary assessment frameworks prevail: social–economic–environmental, energy security–equity–environmental sustainability, and SDG-based framework; (4) while MCDM is the most common evaluation tool, dynamic methods such as predictive modelling are urgently needed; (5) Drivers of ES span economic, technological, political, and environmental dimensions, with social factors often overlooked; (6) CCD analysis reveals a U-shaped pattern in China, indicating alternating leadership between academia and policy, whereas France and Poland demonstrate steady CCD growth led by academic research. Conversely, the U.S. presents fluctuating CCD, where academic research is frequently disrupted by policy volatility. These patterns inform context-specific recommendations for improving academia-policy alignment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"174 ","pages":"Article 104282"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145577100","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":"Unlearning as resistance and justice: Toward healing and transforming","authors":"Ramcilovic-Suominen Sabaheta","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104251","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104251","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Multi-trans- and inter-disciplinarity, while important, cannot on their own ensure ontological and epistemic justice or facilitate transformations to justice, sustainability and thriving for all. We need to recognize, problematize, and eventually willfully and consciously let go of the harmful ontological and philosophical assumptions and myths underlying Western science and epistemology. The ontologies and philosophies inform and shape stories we tell, worldviews, values and beliefs we hold, which further shape our actions, habits and behaviours that we are caught in and reproduce. Thus ontological and philosophical views and asumptions inform and guide our day-to-day ways of living, existing, resisting, relating, caring, or not caring. Increasingly scholars of socioecological transformations recognize the importance of ontologies and philosophies in guiding our individual and collective responses to the metacrises, calling for ontological and relational shifts as key to socioecological transformations. This requires questioning, reflecting and deconstructing the harmful ontological bases of modern Western science and knowledge systems, which fine tune our lenses through which we see the world and act accordingly. I refer to this process as a ‘deep transformative Unlearning’. I frame it as a precondition for both, holding space for the existing invisiblized ontologies, epistemologies and worldviews, and for cultivating new ontological and philosophical emergences. As we start to question and let go, we take with us the wisdom of the old ways, while making space for the new ways to emerge. Unlearning harmful ontologies and associated worldviews, assumptions, and myths that uphold the Western science and the (neo)colonial-capitalist ideas-structures is a matter of justice, survival, and healing.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"174 ","pages":"Article 104251"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145369704","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":"Transforming climate change adaptation in South Africa: Addressing leadership, governance, and community vulnerability through inclusive strategies and effective leadership","authors":"Richard Kwame Adom,&nbsp;Takalani Malivhadza,&nbsp;Mulala Danny Simatele","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104274","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104274","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The climate change adaptation framework in South Africa encapsulates multi-layered and dimensional strategies encompassing policies, stakeholder engagements, institutional capacity building, resource allocation, research and knowledge sharing. The framework integrates localised planning, resistant infrastructure development, conservation strategies, disaster mitigation, technological innovation and resilient infrastructure. Despite this well-thought-out framework, the adaptation measures do not address the vulnerabilities of risk communities. Using a mixed-method of qualitative and quantitative approach this paper explores the influence of leadership styles in South Africa’s climate change adaptation process, identifies gaps in leadership, structural and institutional barriers hindering the implementation of framework, and explores alternative strategies to enhance its effective execution. The findings established that climate change adaptation frameworks in South Africa face significant weaknesses that include fragmented leadership across government levels, weak accountability mechanisms, constrained capacity and expertise, inadequate community involvement, insufficient funding, a short-term focus, bureaucratic delays, and poor integration of science into policy. This paper suggests that enhancing the implementation of the framework will require a multifaceted and concerted strategy that incorporates various stakeholders, strong political will and commitments, effective governance structures, and capacity building.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"174 ","pages":"Article 104274"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145526782","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":"Bridging the pathways of industrial and urban sustainability: A perspective for mainstreaming Nature-Based Solutions into Industrial Parks","authors":"Elena Di Pirro ,&nbsp;Maria Rosaria Sessa ,&nbsp;Jia-He Zhou ,&nbsp;Francesco Sica","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104278","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104278","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Industrial and urban areas are known for generating significant environmental and social impacts. While Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) have gained widespread adoption in urban areas to address these challenges, their integration in active industrial zones has been limited. NBS have primarily been applied in post-industrial contexts, but they hold the potential to be similarly utilized in industrial areas to address comparable sustainability challenges, such as pollution reduction, resource efficiency, and climate resilience. This perspective paper presents a viewpoint on the potential incorporation of NBS inside industrial areas to promote eco-innovative systems, particularly Eco-Industrial Parks (EIPs). To better contextualize the possible NBS mainstreaming in industrial areas for the advancement of more nature-positive frameworks, an overview of the main industrial and urban sustainability policies has been offered, followed by a brief literature review assessing the inclusion of NBS and related concepts within current industrial areas. Finally, a perspective is proposed as a framework to highlight NBS contribution for enhancing industrial sustainability by reducing environmental impacts, improving resource efficiency, and fostering biodiversity restoration. Particularly, within industrial areas already facing sustainability processes (e.g., EIPs), NBS projects can trigger public-private partnerships to achieve shared goals. By doing so, industries can contribute to a net-zero and nature-positive future, aligning with broader environmental and social objectives. Future research should focus on fostering collaboration and expanding NBS adoption in industrial contexts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"174 ","pages":"Article 104278"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145526783","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}