Environmental Science & Policy最新文献

{"title":"Empowering city decision-makers: A practical guide to learning for decarbonisation at the city-level","authors":"Harriet Barton,&nbsp;Claire Hoolohan,&nbsp;Christopher Jones,&nbsp;Carly McLachlan","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104046","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104046","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The actions of cities will be pivotal in our transition to a low-carbon future. City-level decision-makers are well placed to influence and facilitate this transition. Decarbonising transport, buildings, and energy is key to combating the climate crisis and reaching self-assigned city-level carbon targets to curb warming and protect the environment. However, deciding which decarbonisation projects to implement is an issue. Choosing the wrong project could have financial or reputational repercussions, thus deciding on an appropriate set of interventions can be challenging for city decision-makers. Learning about the successes and challenges of city-level sustainability projects is vital for decision-makers at the city-level hoping to create of their own low-carbon city. To this end, this article outlines a new, practical method developed with city-level decision-makers that identifies key learning opportunities from other cities based on their own decarbonisation priorities. This city-to-city learning framework makes selecting decarbonisation projects easier and more efficient, as it enables users to identify decarbonisation projects that align with their environmental plans and priorities. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) provides a case study for the application of this framework, demonstrating how the learning framework is used to narrow down the most suitable decarbonisation projects for the Greater Manchester city-region, based on bespoke sustainability criteria and targets. This work contributes to the formalisation of city-to-city learning pathways, outlining the ways that cities want to learn from others, and highlighting where to begin this learning process to accelerate climate action.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"167 ","pages":"Article 104046"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143746477","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":"Debates on the future of energy justice: Re-grounding the triumvirate","authors":"Lara M. Santos Ayllón","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104047","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104047","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Energy justice is now a well-established pillar of the energy and social science field, primarily framed as the triumvirate of tenets of distributional, recognition and procedural justice. Triumvirate+ approaches also incorporate restorative and cosmopolitan justice. Most recently, the ‘five principles of energy justice’ was proposed to standardise the field. Prompted by the ‘five principles’ proposal alongside exchanges within critical energy justice scholarship, this perspective is framed by the debate between universalising or plural approaches to energy justice. It considers the triumvirate of tenets in relation to restorative justice, cosmopolitan justice and the triumvirate's broader pluralising potential. Particular attention is awarded to cosmopolitan justice and its anthropocentric tendency. Instead, this perspective proposes a re-grounding of energy justice in its environmental justice conceptual roots while maintaining the three tenets of distribution, procedure and recognition justice as a potential way forward. A re-grounded triumvirate of tenets, enriched by a decade of diverse scholarship and which departs from universalising approaches can continue to add important value across energy transition contexts, while preserving pluralising potential.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"167 ","pages":"Article 104047"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143739025","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":"PFAS insights: A review of historical data, environmental applications, health effects, and pollution challenges in Pakistan","authors":"Amna Chaudhary ,&nbsp;Waqas Bashir ,&nbsp;Abdul Majid ,&nbsp;Muhammad Qasim ,&nbsp;Erum Bughio ,&nbsp;Minahal Fatima ,&nbsp;Siraj U Din","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104056","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104056","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are widely used in different industrial and consumer products due to their high stability and durability. Recently, their application has drawn significant attention from environmentalists due to unchecked discharges of industrial effluents, which have resulted in a substantial rise in their levels in water bodies, rivers, and oceans. Since these environmental pollutants are very stable, therefore, they have long-lasting effects on all flora and fauna, including animals and humans. This review comprehensively analyses the life cycle of these chemicals, their industrial applications, their infiltration in water bodies, and their harmful effects on the human body, particularly on the immune system, endocrine system, renal system, carcinogenic diseases, etc., while considering the prevailing conditions in Pakistan. Industries in developing countries such as Pakistan often release untreated industrial wastewater directly into freshwater bodies due to a lack of government oversight and poor policy enforcement, thus making these effluents primary sources of PFAS in the aquatic resources of Pakistan. While acknowledging the problem, this review paper strongly emphasises the urgent need for extensive research on these emerging contaminants in Pakistan, where present data are limited. The review recommends several measures to address PFAS contamination, including improving research infrastructure, increasing monitoring capacity, strengthening regulatory frameworks, and developing efficient remediation technologies. It also emphasizes the importance of raising public awareness and providing education to promote safer environmental practices and healthier communities. These recommendations aim to improve understanding of different modes of PFAS contamination and their effects on ecosystems and biological systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"167 ","pages":"Article 104056"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143739026","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":"Integrating resilience and socioeconomic demands through adaptive governance: Dilemmas in the Brazilian water sector","authors":"Telma C.S. Teixeira ,&nbsp;Marcia M.R. Ribeiro","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104048","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104048","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Managing environmental resources is a complex task that requires identifying and reconciling socioeconomic goals with ecosystem resilience limits. In the water sector, this complexity is further exacerbated by the crucial nature of the resource and its multifunctional roles. We introduce a Panarchy Tree as an analytical and conceptual model that reveals the multiple interconnected factors influencing water governance decisions. This model is underpinned by a comprehensive literature review on adaptive cycles, ecosystem resilience, and bioeconomic limits and has the potential to enhance the efficiency of the water governance system. We evaluated the model by analyzing water charging impacts and connections in a semiarid river basin, revealing the dissociation between public policy, stakeholders’ plans, and environmental unpredictability that impacts the resilience of ecosystems, thereby affecting the governance process. Vertical impacts arise at different decision-making levels without hierarchical constraints, while horizontal impacts go through up-level nodes, affecting several branches. The model aids in enhancing water management instruments by offering suggestions about reducing disconnections that affect water governance efficiency and offering a sustainable outlook for the future of water resource management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"167 ","pages":"Article 104048"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143739027","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":"Corrigendum to “Can knowledge transfer speed up climate change mitigation in agriculture? A randomized experimental evaluation of participatory workshops” [Environ. Sci. Policy 152 (2024) 103662]","authors":"Živa Alif,&nbsp;Ana Novak,&nbsp;Rok Mihelič,&nbsp;Luka Juvančič,&nbsp;Tanja Šumrada","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104039","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104039","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"167 ","pages":"Article 104039"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143808600","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":"Determinants of effective participatory multi-actor climate change governance: Insights from Zambia’s environment and climate change actors","authors":"Kangacepe Zulu ,&nbsp;Ernest Ezeani ,&nbsp;Zhara Salimi ,&nbsp;Easton Simenti-Phiri ,&nbsp;Chitembo Kawimbe Chunga ,&nbsp;Paul Musanda ,&nbsp;Palicha Halwiindi","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104040","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104040","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Participatory governance has widely been emphasised as essential to achieving SDG 13. However, recent studies have tended to focus on climate change impacts or global-level politics and governance, to the exclusion of providing practical country-level multi-actor climate governance solutions. Our study bridges this gap by examining the determinants of effective participatory multi-actor climate change governance. The objectives were to examine the current state of Zambia’s climate change governance and policy environment, to examine the elements required to actualise participatory multi-actor climate change governance, and to develop a Climate Action Coordination (CAC) Model of participatory multi-actor governance. Using semi-structured interviews with policy-level actors and a survey of implementation-level actors, we find that Zambia’s current climate governance architecture is characterised by intricate political, policy, institutional, and coordination challenges. Despite these complexities, our study reveals that effective participatory multi-actor climate change governance is contingent upon a deep understanding of the prevailing political dynamics and the effective navigation of political interference by climate actor institutions. Within such a political context, a multi-tiered governance institutional framework is essential, anchored on both an influential political authority and robust multi-level technical autonomy. Our results also identify various determinants such as: broad stakeholder inclusion; clarity of roles; decentralisation of decision making, with safeguards to limit policy reversals; harnessing of indigenous knowledge; alignment to the broader national development agenda; adequate financing; leveraging the influence of global commitments; and establishing parliamentary oversight mechanisms, among others. We synthesised these determinants into a practical CAC Model that cuts across the different administrative and sectoral tiers of climate change governance. Our study is unique as it offers a broad, multifaceted, and practical consideration of the determinants of climate change governance. This is particularly useful for a country like Zambia that has embarked on ambitious environmental and climate change sector reforms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"167 ","pages":"Article 104040"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143686188","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":"Innovative governance for sustainable management of Mediterranean coastal aquifers: Evidence from Sustain‐COAST living labs","authors":"Chiara Ceseracciu ,&nbsp;Thi Phuoc Lai Nguyen ,&nbsp;Romina Deriu ,&nbsp;Giampiero Branca ,&nbsp;Anthi-Eirini K. Vozinaki ,&nbsp;George P. Karatzas ,&nbsp;Thouraya Mellah ,&nbsp;Hanene Akrout ,&nbsp;Ümit Yıldırım ,&nbsp;Mehmet Ali Kurt ,&nbsp;Seifeddine Jomaa ,&nbsp;Alberto Carletti ,&nbsp;Pier Paolo Roggero","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104038","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104038","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study focuses on groundwater governance in Mediterranean socio-ecological systems, where anthropogenic and climate-related pressures lead to issues such as overexploitation, salinisation, and pollution, particularly in coastal areas. It provides empirical evidence of the practices and processes that foster governance learning and innovation towards adaptive and sustainable groundwater management, drawing on data from a comparative groundwater governance assessment of four case studies,each representing relevant issues within the mosaic of water challenges in the Mediterranean region. This study addresses several knowledge gaps by proposing a framework aligned with a socio-ecological systems approach, allowing for acomprehensive understanding of groundwater governance by consideringinterconnected social, economic, and environmental dimensions. The assessment process integrates diverse data and knowledge sources, and ensures the active participation of local stakeholders. The findings highlight several cross-cutting themes relevant to water governance innovation. These include transdisciplinary collaborations that recognise the multidimensionality of water governance, the role of cultural and social capital as catalysts for community mobilisation, the potential of community participation tools to promote voluntary behavioural changes, and the creation of social learning spaces to co-design scientifically robust and socially acceptable water management options. Furthermore, this study emphasises the integration of the Theory of Change to effectively engage stakeholders in the co-creation of tailored governance solutions, thereby enhancing the potential for sustainable policy outcomes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"167 ","pages":"Article 104038"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143686189","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":"Just energy transition from coal in South Africa: A scoping review","authors":"Sean M. Patrick ,&nbsp;Joyce Shirinde ,&nbsp;Kableo Kgarosi ,&nbsp;Takalani Makinthisa ,&nbsp;Rico Euripidou ,&nbsp;Victor Munnik","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104044","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104044","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>South Africa’s just energy transition (JET) aims to reduce coal dependency and shift toward a low-carbon, sustainable energy framework. However, achieving this goal requires addressing the socio-economic, health, and environmental burdens that coal dependency has placed on communities, particularly in regions like Mpumalanga. Integrating principles of social and restorative justice is essential to ensure an equitable transition.</div></div><div><h3>Objective</h3><div>This scoping review examine how South Africa's policymaking, regulatory frameworks, and public participation in the JET align with principles of social and restorative justice and global energy transition frameworks.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>A systematic literature search was conducted across Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed to identify relevant studies on energy transition and justice frameworks. Network analysis was employed to compare South Africa’s JET strategies with global trends, focusing on indicators related to health, environmental, and socio-economic impacts.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Findings reveal significant challenges in South Africa’s JET, including regulatory limitations, stakeholder conflicts, and gaps in policy alignment with community needs. Although efforts to incorporate justice principles are emerging, disparities in policy implementation suggest the need for more tailored, inclusive approaches. Network analysis identified both overlaps and gaps between South Africa’s JET policies and international frameworks, particularly in areas of public health and social equity.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>To achieve a balanced and inclusive energy transition, the study recommends strengthening regulatory coherence, enhancing public engagement, and implementing concrete actions for social and restorative justice. Aligning domestic policies with international commitments while addressing local socio-economic conditions is critical for South Africa’s JET to serve as a model for coal-dependent economies globally.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"167 ","pages":"Article 104044"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143685654","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":"People centric policy is needed to create a clean cooling pathway for UK homes","authors":"Richard Hoggett ,&nbsp;Louise King ,&nbsp;Richard Lowes ,&nbsp;Christina Demski ,&nbsp;Carlos E. Ugalde-Loo","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104045","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104045","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As the climate continues to warm, overheating is becoming increasingly common, creating a range of heat-health issues, and leading to a growing demand for space cooling. How that cooling is provided is important, as there are passive and low impact options available, as well as more environmentally damaging active cooling. Without policy intervention, air conditioning (a form of active cooling) could easily become the default solution for cooling homes, locking-in direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, creating wider impacts for energy systems and equity, and risking air conditioning becoming a new social norm. To avoid this, policy makers need to act with urgency to drive low-carbon cooling whilst also creating the right conditions to support people to take sustainable and climate resilient behaviours. These issues should not be left solely to the market; rather policymakers need to develop a comprehensive, integrated approach to people and cooling. To support this, we provide insights from an avoid-improve-shift cooling decarbonisation framework, alongside an approach to behavioural and societal change that supports individuals whilst also shaping the wider environment in which decisions are made. Whilst focussed on the UK, the insights will be of relevance to other temperate countries dealing with the growing challenges of heat resilience and cooling decarbonisation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"167 ","pages":"Article 104045"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143686187","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":"Green-digital transition in municipal waste management: Ethnographic perspective on ‘smart’ waste monitoring and management system","authors":"Celina Strzelecka","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104037","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104037","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper critically examines the Waste Monitoring and Management System (WMMS) implemented in several Polish cities as part of the green-digital transition. Positioned as a tool to advance green and digital transformation in waste management, WMMS promises to reduce environmental impact, improve recycling levels, and optimize waste collection. However, through ethnographic research, including 25 in-depth interviews and participant observations, the study reveals key discrepancies between these promises and the system's real-world outcomes. Rather than delivering environmental benefits, WMMS reinforces private sector control over municipal infrastructures, increases energy consumption due to extended data storage, and exacerbates issues of surveillance and data misrepresentation. These findings suggest that, despite the green-digital narrative, technologies like WMMS risk diverting attention from core environmental challenges by reducing complex ecological problems to technical solutions. The research underscores the need for more integrated approaches that balance technological innovation with local realities to achieve meaningful progress in green policy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"167 ","pages":"Article 104037"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143686186","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}