Environmental Science & Policy最新文献

{"title":"Governing through inscription: eDNA biodiversity monitoring in North Sea offshore wind energy parks","authors":"Samantha G. Kristensen ,&nbsp;Annet P. Pauwelussen,&nbsp;Simon R. Bush","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104335","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104335","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The planned expansion of wind energy in the North Sea holds significant implications for marine biodiversity. Wind energy infrastructure can enhance biodiversity by providing hard substrates and reef-like habitats or degrade it by disturbing existing benthic habitat. However, it remains unclear what kinds of biodiversity will in practice be enhanced, in whose interest and for what purpose. To assess the effects of offshore wind energy parks on biodiversity, a range of new monitoring technologies are being developed, including monitoring technologies that incorporate environmental DNA (eDNA). However, which biodiversities eDNA sampling strategies can observe starts with their design; with different assumptions, priorities, material affordances, and ways of knowing biodiversity inscribed into material sampling technologies and their deployment. Using a framework to examine processes of inscription, this paper explores how assumptions and priorities, conditioned by the material affordances of eDNA, affect the design of a monitoring strategy assessing biodiversity enhancement. We show that the process of inscription constitutes a form of de facto governance, whereby the design of an eDNA monitoring strategy in the present shapes how biodiversity is governed in the future. We conclude that inscription is an open-ended process that allows for reflexivity on the socio-material dimensions of monitoring technologies such as eDNA, providing an opportunity to (re) imagine ways that biodiversity can be inscribed, opening up how it is conceptualised, measured and enhanced.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"177 ","pages":"Article 104335"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146171782","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":"From generation to treatment: A comprehensive and critical review of landfill leachate","authors":"Mariana Islongo Canabarro ,&nbsp;Ana C. Ferreira Piazzi Fuhr ,&nbsp;Emanuel G. Bertizzolo ,&nbsp;Elvis Carissimi ,&nbsp;Jandira Leichtweis","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104308","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104308","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Landfill leachate (LL) is a dark effluent generated from the decomposition of municipal solid waste. Its composition is highly diverse and heterogeneous and is usually strongly influenced by the age and stage of operation of the LL. Globally, the annual generation of municipal solid waste exceeds 2 billion tons, and in 2020, the global direct cost of waste management was estimated at US$252 billion. Although several reviews on the subject exist, few address the relationship between LL’s physicochemical characteristics, its toxicity and a critical comparison of emerging treatment technologies. From 2019–2024, research on LL experienced a notable 31.4 % increase in scientific publications, reflecting the growing global attention to this environmental challenge. This study fills this gap by compiling and critically analyzing recent data, offering a consolidated and updated overview that supports the development of more effective solutions. A crucial finding is that due to the significant variability in LL composition, no single treatment method is sufficiently efficient to ensure the final quality and safety of the treated effluent. The author’s thorough assessment is presented at the end of each section, providing practical and scientific insights for researchers and environmental managers. The uniqueness of this review lies in the critical integration of data on LL characteristics, toxicity, and various treatment methods, inspiring the development of innovative and sustainable technologies, while also establishing connections between the findings and public policy frameworks. Furthermore, the relevance of this review is reinforced by its direct connection to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the main future challenges are discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"176 ","pages":"Article 104308"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145923621","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 genealogy of mining sustainability","authors":"Juan Diego Pérez-Cebada","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104306","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104306","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Mining sustainability, a concept that emerged in the late 1990s, represents a radical break from traditional mining practices. Paradoxically, it also brought with it the recovery of the mining legacy debate. Driven by a serious economic crisis, and burdened by a tarnished reputation as a “dirty business”, large mining companies sought a dramatic change in image and discourse. At the same time, over the past two decades, industries and governments have aligned with themselves with sustainability initiatives and extensively examined mining legacies, particularly with regard to environmental liabilities. This article contributes to this debate from an emerging field, the exploration of historical mining pollution conflicts through the lens of political ecology and environmental justice. Recent research has shown a proliferation of such conflicts in the main mining basins. Dialectical struggles among the concerned social agents have offered valuable insights into the narratives adopted by mining companies. European, American and Canadian cases have revealed that mining companies responded to pollution challenges with a language of lasting influence that combined economic-political and technological-scientific arguments. Two phases of this process can be identified. A critical juncture emerged in the late nineteenth century, with globalization and the rise of large corporations prompting the construction of a coherent narrative based on past experience. This environmental memory resurfaced in the 1960s-1970s, significantly influencing the mining sustainability concept and practices. Initially, science and policy held a secondary position. However, they would later achieve a new status from the late nineteenth century onwards, making a fundamental contribution to the consolidation of this discourse. From an environmental justice perspective, this article concludes with a reflection on the role of policy and science in this corporate discourse.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"176 ","pages":"Article 104306"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145903999","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":"Constructing a routine accountability mechanism: Reflections on the air pollution control effect of public attention-triggered environmental accountability","authors":"Jindan Liu ,&nbsp;Peiming He ,&nbsp;Xiaogang Wu ,&nbsp;Junxiao Fei ,&nbsp;Litai Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104324","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104324","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As China's industrialization progresses and public environmental awareness grows, air pollution has become a widely concerned topic among the public. To address the public opinion crisis, timely and effective environmental accountability has emerged as the primary solution. This study collects news reports of environmental accountability caused by “air quality deterioration” crises since the public gained access to real-time air quality index (AQI) data online. Using a regression discontinuity design (RDD) method, the study examines the effectiveness of public attention-triggered environmental accountability in improving air quality. The study found that environmental accountability can effectively reverse public opinion crises, significantly improve air quality and that this improvement effect lasts for approximately 90 days. Further analysis revealed that the impact of public attention-triggered environmental accountability on air pollution is influenced by public sentiment. For pollutants such as PM_2.5 and PM₁₀, which are perceptible to the public, and in severely polluted regions, the more severe the public's negative sentiment, the more pronounced the governance effects of environmental accountability. Additionally, public attention leading to environmental accountability at different hierarchies produces significant differences. Due to the local management characteristics of environmental governance, provincial governments, with their information advantages, can hold accountable more promptly and accurately compared to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, resulting in better governance. Furthermore, public attention leading to environmental accountability yields more significant governance in cities with higher population densities and more transparent environmental information. Interestingly, public attention-triggered environmental accountability also has a “warning effect” on surrounding regions, prompting them to actively improve air pollution and avoid penalties. The findings of this study provide valuable references for improving air pollution and enhancing China's and global environmental governance performance through the improvement of public supervision channels and the establishment of effective accountability mechanisms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"176 ","pages":"Article 104324"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146073812","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 habitability lens to boost effective local climate adaptation","authors":"A.K. Magnan ,&nbsp;V.K.E. Duvat ,&nbsp;J. Bell ,&nbsp;S.D. Donner ,&nbsp;J.D. Ford ,&nbsp;P.D. Nunn ,&nbsp;C. Perry ,&nbsp;T. Spencer ,&nbsp;C.C.C. Wabnitz ,&nbsp;I. White ,&nbsp;J. Butler ,&nbsp;A. McCarthy ,&nbsp;A. Webb","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104323","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104323","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Climate adaptation is what we (will) make of it, that is, either a burden or an opportunity for a brighter and equitable future. Achieving effective adaptation requires shifting from a risk-centric perspective focusing on the threats, to a more inclusive and engaging approach that envisions sustainable futures. This Perspective draws on our decades of research experience to argue that the “habitability” lens can catalyse this shift, and proposes a research framework.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"176 ","pages":"Article 104323"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146024237","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":"Evaluation of global research on agricultural nitrogen pollution between 1990 and 2023: Challenges for more efficacy and equity","authors":"J. Serra ,&nbsp;J. Marinheiro ,&nbsp;C.S.C. Marques-dos-Santos ,&nbsp;M. Graversgaard ,&nbsp;M. Quemada ,&nbsp;L. Lassaletta ,&nbsp;G.H. Ros ,&nbsp;F. Giannini-Kurina ,&nbsp;W. de Vries ,&nbsp;E. Aguilera ,&nbsp;H.J.M. van Grinsven ,&nbsp;K. Hayashi ,&nbsp;J. Mogollon ,&nbsp;A. Sanz-Cobeña ,&nbsp;T. Dalgaard ,&nbsp;K. Butterbach-Bahl","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104312","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104312","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Excessive and inefficient nitrogen (N) use in agriculture poses pervasive environmental threats for Water quality, Air quality, Greenhouse gas emissions, Ecosystems and biodiversity, and Soil (WAGES). However, it is unclear whether the global distribution of research corresponds to the severity of these threats. Here we provide a global assessment linking research outputs across WAGES with cropland N surplus, a proxy for the severity of N threats. We show that N surplus correlates well with the number of publications addressing WAGES threats, although marked regional disparities exist. Higher income countries distribute research more evenly across threats associated with high fertiliser inputs, while lower income countries prioritise soil research, particularly soil fertility. Publications from lower income countries account for only 8 % of the total and focus largely on food security rather than on N pollution. Since these countries are responsible for half of global N losses, they represent important “low hanging fruits” where targeted research can simultaneously improve food security and reduce N pollution. Our study highlights the need to strengthen research capacity, support locally led priorities, and better align research investments with the severity of N threats to advance toward more equitable and effective N management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"176 ","pages":"Article 104312"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145974364","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":"Harness gender empowerment to achieve climate justice, sustainability, and equity","authors":"Benjamin K. Sovacool ,&nbsp;Jin In","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104314","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104314","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this Perspective, we argue that ending discrimination against girls and women is vital for climate action and inclusive sustainable development. Grave gender inequality persists across almost every society in the world, embedded in socio-cultural norms, practices, and policies that discriminate against females. These intersect with other demographic attributes such as age, ethnicity, and economic status and interweave deeply with patterns of unsustainability and environmental issues such as fishing, climate change, agriculture and forestry, energy access, and water and sanitation. Women and girls are 14 times more likely to die in a climate change-related disaster than men or boys, and females represent 80 % of people displaced by extreme weather events. Women and girls contribute to more than half of the agricultural labor force in low to middle income countries, but struggle with poverty given they are not the owners of land which they harvest and cultivate, with 90 % of them prohibited from access to resources and services. In fact, less than 1 percent of women and girls live in countries with high women's empowerment—although it is an indispensable and a catalytic mechanism of achieving sustainability outcomes. We call on energy and climate planners, practitioners, policymakers and scholars to better value and prioritize gender empowerment, particularly girls, compensate them for contributions, count them in their data collection, be accountable to them when implementing reforms, and encourage greater roles for them positions of political and civic leadership.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"176 ","pages":"Article 104314"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145974367","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":"Indigenous well-being indicators and social impact assessment: Redefining restoration success for Klamath River dam removal","authors":"Sibyl Diver ,&nbsp;John R. Oberholzer Dent ,&nbsp;Daniel Sarna-Wojcicki ,&nbsp;Nathaniel Ramos ,&nbsp;Ron Reed","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104276","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104276","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study considers how applying a well-being framework and assessment codesign with Karuk Tribal partners create new possibilities for including Indigenous knowledge systems in social and environmental assessment. Responding to the lack of inclusion of Indigenous peoples in policy-making, we developed well-being indicators with Tribal partners as one approach to bringing Indigenous knowledge systems into social assessment. Working with the Karuk Tribe in the Klamath Basin (California, Oregon, US), our Tribal-academic research team conducted a baseline social impact assessment for Tribal community well-being for a large-scale dam removal project. Data collection occurred in the six months leading up to decommissioning and after two decades of Tribally-led advocacy, science, and policy initiatives supporting Klamath River dam removal. Co-developed with the Karuk Tribe, well-being indicators reflect the longstanding, culturally specific relationships held between Karuk people and the Klamath watershed that are predicted to change with dam removal. These indicators focus on access to cultural resources, holistic health, education, livelihoods, and self-governance. Following assessment codesign, Tribal and academic researchers applied a two-eyed seeing approach to conduct focus groups and a survey reaching a diverse cross-section of the Karuk community, including Tribal youth. Baseline assessment findings provide more culturally-grounded, holistic and inclusive measures for evaluating the social impacts of Klamath dam removal, where Tribal community well-being is understood as an indicator of restoration success.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"176 ","pages":"Article 104276"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146024238","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":"Why carbon offsets may fail in complex systems: A causal inference perspective","authors":"Pushpendra Rana ,&nbsp;Forrest Fleischman ,&nbsp;Amit Sharma","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104325","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104325","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Social-ecological system dynamics present a fundamental challenge to the attribution of changes in carbon stocks to actions taken by carbon offset sellers. We illustrate this challenge by demonstrating theoretical limitations to causal attribution in two cases from Brazil and India. We show that carbon outcomes in these nature-based carbon offset projects emerge from non-linear and independent dynamics that are the result of the inherent complexity of social-ecological systems, where large numbers of variables jointly influence causal processes. This creates high levels of uncertainty about the causes of outcomes, and thus makes it very difficult to attribute changes in carbon storage to specific causes, such as offset-funded programs. Furthermore, the predominant solution to this problem suggested in the literature, improved causal inference methods, fails to address the challenge because these methods are designed to estimate average effects across many cases, not to measure causality in specific cases. Even well-designed and resourced projects, such as our two cases, must demonstrate their own measurable impact to serve as offsets, and our analysis suggests that current methods are unable to overcome the joint challenges of causal complexity and methods that estimate average, not individual effects. The need for offsets to demonstrate individual causality makes them quite different from analogous conservation tools such as Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), highlighting why project-based offsetting consistently struggles to meet the expectations of credibility. To achieve effective climate change mitigation, policymakers need to focus on policies that do not depend on inherently uncertain causal attribution.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"176 ","pages":"Article 104325"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146073810","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":"Whose knowledge counts for transformative change? – Operationalizing epistemic justice for transdisciplinary knowledge co-production","authors":"Stefanie Burkhart ,&nbsp;Flurina Schneider","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104322","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104322","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Recent calls for transformative change recognize the need to integrate plural ways of knowing. This also entails the need to address existing and emerging issues of justice as part of transformation processes. Besides distributional, procedural and recognition justice, the concept of epistemic justice has gained momentum to identify whose knowledge counts when problems and solutions are determined. Since transdisciplinarity offers ways to integrate diverse ways of knowing, it is considered a participatory and transformative mode of knowledge production. Synthesizing how epistemic justice has been conceptualized and operationalized in transdisciplinarity and conservation contexts so far, this paper introduces a framework for understanding and addressing epistemic justice in transdisciplinary co-production processes. The framework offers entry points for systematically reflecting on how to approach epistemic justice along different dimensions of transdisciplinary co-production processes. This reflection is required to avoid (re-)producing (existing) injustices and address justice in current knowledge production systems as a deep lever of transformations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"176 ","pages":"Article 104322"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146023781","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}