Global Environmental Change最新文献

{"title":"Driving ecologically unequal exchange: A global analysis of multinational corporations’ role in environmental conflicts","authors":"Marcel Llavero-Pasquina","doi":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Multinational corporations are being confronted by activists and scholars over their involvement in environmental conflicts and human rights violations. In response, many multinational corporations engage in human rights and ESG voluntary initiatives to mitigate their impacts and publicly bolster their contribution to society. These actions relate to disputed economic development theories which assert that foreign direct investment allows multinational companies to contribute to economic growth, human rights, and environmental well-being in so-called developing countries. To test these arguments, this article presents the largest statistical analysis on the role of multinational corporations in environmental conflicts based on data from the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice including more than 3,300 environmental conflicts and 5,500 companies. The results show how multinational corporations, overwhelmingly domiciled in the Global North, are involved in environmental conflicts in the Global South. Environmental conflicts with the presence of foreign companies disproportionately involve commodities with biophysical properties ideally suited to facilitate ecologically unequal exchange and show more socioeconomic impacts and worse outcomes than cases without foreign companies. These results cast doubt on the validity of corporate sustainability assessments based entirely on company self-reported data, and call for scholars and practitioners to centre the lived realities of those resisting corporate extractivism to evaluate the socio-ecological performance of firms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":328,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Change","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 103006"},"PeriodicalIF":8.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144071417","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Strategic implication of sustainability practices and corporate performance under competitive landscape; An empirical investigation","authors":"Umakanta Gartia,&nbsp;Rajesh Bhue,&nbsp;Ajaya Kumar Panda","doi":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103010","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103010","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Business success is now significantly shaped by combining competitive tactics and sustainability. The existing literature focuses on the effect of sustainability practices on corporate financial outcomes, yet under different levels of product market competition (PMC) are largely unexplored. Thus, the present study aims to analyze the link between ‘sustainable practices’ and ‘firm financial performance’ (FFP), considering the moderating role of PMC. We analyzed a sample of 569 Indian listed firms from 2010 to 2022, using the Feasible Least Squares (FGLS) technique. The study reveals that sustainability practices enhance firm’s internal and external earnings. Further, the moderating role of PMC acts as a disciplinary mechanism. Under high PMC level, sustainability practices increase firm’s internal earnings, while with low PMC, sustainability practices do not carry significant influence. The present study also observed that only environmental practices negatively impacting firm’s internal earnings in non-competitive environments. Furthermore, PMC does not influence the link between sustainability practices and external earnings. This finding validates and provides a robust result by addressing the endogeneity concerns through ‘two-stage least squares’ (2SLS) method and different post-diagnostic tests. The findings complement the deterrence hypothesis and stakeholder theory of corporate disclosure by integrating PMC with sustainability practices and FFP. The firm should strategically align the adoption of sustainability practices with competitive forces to enhance FFP, strengthen market assurance, and maintain long-run value creation. The study underscores the significance of sustainability practices as a strategic tool in competitive markets. It offers theoretical and practical implications for corporate decision-makers, investors, policymakers and academics by formulating effective strategies and policies that develop resilience under competitive environments while balancing short-time gains and long-run performance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":328,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Change","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 103010"},"PeriodicalIF":8.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144069568","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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 history of a + 3 °C future: Global and regional drivers of greenhouse gas emissions (1820–2050)","authors":"Juan Infante-Amate ,&nbsp;Emiliano Travieso ,&nbsp;Eduardo Aguilera","doi":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103009","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103009","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Identifying the socio-economic drivers behind greenhouse gas emissions is crucial to design mitigation policies. Existing studies predominantly analyze short-term CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels, neglecting long-term trends and other GHGs. We examine the drivers of all greenhouse gas emissions between 1820–2050 globally and regionally. The Industrial Revolution triggered sustained emission growth worldwide—initially through fossil fuel use in industrialized economies but also as a result of agricultural expansion and deforestation. Globally, technological innovation and energy mix changes prevented 31 (17–42) Gt CO₂e emissions over two centuries. Yet these gains were dwarfed by 81 (64–97) Gt CO₂e resulting from economic expansion, with regional drivers diverging sharply: population growth dominated in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa, while rising affluence was the main driver of emissions elsewhere. Meeting climate targets now requires the carbon intensity of GDP to decline<!--> <!-->3 times faster<!--> <!-->than the global best 30-year historical rate (–2.25 % per year), which has not improved over the past five decades. Failing such an unprecedented technological change or a substantial contraction of the global economy, by 2050 global mean surface temperatures will rise more than 3 °C above pre-industrial levels.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":328,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Change","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 103009"},"PeriodicalIF":8.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143946690","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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 Politics of Sustainable Finance for Forests: Interests, beliefs and advocacy coalitions shaping forest sustainability criteria in the making of the EU Taxonomy","authors":"A. Begemann ,&nbsp;C. Dolriis ,&nbsp;A. Onatunji ,&nbsp;C. Chimisso ,&nbsp;G. Winkel","doi":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The EU’s sustainable finance regulation classifying sustainable economic activities — known as “taxonomy” in short — has made headlines due to controversies about what can be considered a sustainable investment, and what not. This study investigates the evolution of advocacy coalitions and their strategies in the development of the taxonomy’s forestry criteria. It is built on an interpretive process tracing, involving 46 expert interviews conducted in 2019, 2021 and 2022, and an extensive document analysis. Our findings illustrate a complex process that is connected to a diversity of sectoral policies. This cross-sectoral nature of the policy process enables the emergence of cross-sectoral alliances, highlighting strikingly different policy beliefs and economic as well as bureaucratic/political interests connected to these. Owing to a rich set of strategies employed, and deals made at different policy levels, as well as an overall lack of transparency, the proclaimed “science-based” decision-making is de facto turned into a highly contested political minefield. Science – insofar involved – has contributed to the legitimisation of divergent beliefs rather than mediate among them. We conclude by arguing that the taxonomy’s potential to globally influence the regulation of sustainable finance as a “gold standard” is questionable because of the ambiguity resulting from the political struggle.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":328,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Change","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 103001"},"PeriodicalIF":8.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143941958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Just social-ecological tipping scales: A mid-range social theory of change in coal and carbon intensive regions","authors":"Jenny Lieu ,&nbsp;Diana Mangalagiu ,&nbsp;Amanda Martínez-Reyes ,&nbsp;Mauro Sarrica","doi":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103000","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103000","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Energy transitions are often studied using socio-technical transitions, just transitions and more recently, social-ecological tipping points (SETPs). While they can be important starting points for conceptualising large-scale systemic change, when applied within a regional context, they often fail to appropriately explain change. SETP concept is receiving increasing attention, but its heuristic value still requires further empirical validation. While many energy transitions are still in a pre-tipping point phase, the lack of empirically validated tipping points raises a question of applicability if these frameworks are unable to capture change at the regional scale. In this paper, we introduce a new inductive framework, Just Social-Ecological Tipping Scales (JSETS), based on cross-case analysis in coal and carbon-intensive regions (CCIRs). The framework helps understanding systemic change in regional contexts by identifying transition states. We then analyse traits in these transition states by assessing enablers and barriers of triggering factors and actors over temporal and spatial scales as well as justice dimensions. This analysis helps us to identify cumulate changes leading to four tipping scales, which can move a region from one transition state to another. By identifying both transition states and tipping scales, we can anticipate the potential traits needed for a CCIR to move towards a just transformation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":328,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Change","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 103000"},"PeriodicalIF":8.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143928667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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 has the Brazilian Cerrado been left behind by voluntary environmental policies?","authors":"Joyce Brandão ,&nbsp;Fatima Cristina Cardoso ,&nbsp;Rachael Garrett","doi":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The expansion of soy production has been a deforestation driver in Brazil in both the Amazon and the highly biodiverse Cerrado savannah ecosystem. To tackle this problem the soy industry implemented a sector-wide zero-deforestation policy in 2006 in the Amazon called the Soy Moratorium. The Soy Moratorium sharply reduced the soy-driven deforestation in the Amazon. However, to date, despite substantial soy deforestation, the neighbouring Cerrado remains unprotected. Here we ask why no comparable zero-deforestation agreement was implemented in the Cerrado. To answer this question, we integrated theory on policy adoption and selection from the voluntary environmental policy literature with theory on policy process and feasibility from public policy, political economy, and organizational theory. This expanded framework enabled us to better understand how historical, political and geographical contextual factors shaped the differing policy adoption outcomes in the Amazon and Cerrado. We then conducted 26 in-depth interviews, including with key private sector decision-makers on policy adoption to understand the relative importance of different potential factors. We found that the differences in public awareness, national politics and narratives, changes in trade relationships, leadership and sunk investments influenced why an agreement emerged in the Amazon and not the Cerrado. Despite these circumstances, a new political window for Cerrado conservation policies has recently emerged with Brazil’s political shifts to a left-centre coalition and efforts to extend new due-diligence deforestation regulations to other wooded lands, including the Cerrado.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":328,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Change","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 103005"},"PeriodicalIF":8.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143931537","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Transformations to sustainability: Processes, practices, and pathways","authors":"Fabio de Castro ,&nbsp;Marjo de Theije ,&nbsp;Akriti Jain ,&nbsp;W.Neil Adger","doi":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Transformations of economies, norms and social relations are required to achieve the sustainability of earth systems as part of wider sustainability. This Special Issue examines how sustainability transformations are shaped by processes, practices, and pathways as sets of collective action. The contributions showcase interdisciplinary research, empirical studies, and community engagement with may arguing that such holistic approaches are essential to achieving sustainable transformations. Here we highlight both critical barriers, such as economic constraints, political resistance, and justice conflicts, and mechanisms that enable systemic change, such as scaling up, institutionalizing sustainability innovations, strengthening multi-level governance, and participatory decision-making. Future research requires on understanding the stages and scales of transformation, identifying power dynamics and governance structures that enable systemic change, and the importance of integrating co-produced knowledge into policymaking.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":328,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Change","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 103007"},"PeriodicalIF":8.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143928666","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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 political uncertainty and mineral policy: Pathways to Global South’s environmental sustainability","authors":"Yugang He","doi":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article explores the relationship between political uncertainty and carbon emissions across 34 Global South countries from 2000 to 2023, uncovering key links between policy stability and environmental sustainability. By employing the year- and country-fixed effects model alongside generalized least squares with panel corrected standard errors, this analysis highlights the impact of political instability on environmental outcomes. Robustness checks—conducted via the generalized method of moments and a dynamic linear panel model—further confirm the consistency and reliability of the results. The findings reveal that political uncertainty significantly elevates carbon emissions and follows a nonlinear pattern: moderate political uncertainty tends to stimulate economic activity, resulting in higher emissions, while extreme uncertainty curtails economic activity, thereby reducing emissions. Moreover, a positive interaction between political uncertainty and mineral policy signals increased resource extraction in politically unstable settings. Conversely, interactions with technological innovation and energy transition display significant negative effects, suggesting that technological advancement and renewable energy adoption effectively counteract emissions growth under high political uncertainty. This study provides new insights into the distinct political and economic dynamics influencing environmental challenges in Global South countries, emphasizing the crucial role of technological innovation and energy transition in mitigating the environmental impacts of political instability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":328,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Change","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 103002"},"PeriodicalIF":8.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143886332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Transitioning to net Zero: Assessing the impacts on asset impairment, write-downs and the going concern of oil and gas companies operating in the UK","authors":"Hafez Abdo ,&nbsp;Duncan Angwin ,&nbsp;Hakim Ben Othman ,&nbsp;Freeman Brobbey Owusu","doi":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In June 2019, the UK government legislated a net zero target by 2050. This will directly impact the UK oil and gas industry. This study reports perceptions of key oil and gas professionals regarding the impact of transitioning to net zero on impairment, values, write-downs, and going concern in the UK oil and gas industry, as well as required net-zero-related disclosures. Data were collected through 22 interviews, two written responses to our interview questions, and disclosures made by oil and gas companies in their annual reports. We use conservatism and stakeholder theory to inform our results. Our findings confirm there will be serious impacts of the transition to net zero on impairments, asset write-downs, and on the value and going concern of several oil and gas companies. However, these impacts will not fall equally across the industry, and it is likely therefore that stakeholders will be affected differently. Our results contribute, first, to the debate on the impacts of the transition to net zero on key accounting measures of oil and gas companies; second, we identify risks associated with the transition to net zero for these companies and their stakeholders, and we classify the at-risk oil and gas companies operating in the UK; third, we present a collection of disclosure items deemed necessary by our interviewees. Our specified disclosure items may complement those of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the Transition Plan Taskforce (TPT).</div></div>","PeriodicalId":328,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Change","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 103004"},"PeriodicalIF":8.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143881729","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Beyond ‘Not in my electoral Year’: Why do some elected officials oppose renewable energy projects?","authors":"Hugo Delcayre,&nbsp;Sébastien Bourdin","doi":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.102998","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.102998","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study aimed to examine the reasons behind the wait-and-see and resistant attitudes of local elected officials regarding energy transition projects. Although there is consensus on the importance of renewable energy in combating climate change, its implementation at the local level often encounters opposition from several actors, including elected officials. This study identified the internal, external, and personal factors that influence this opposition by conducting semi-structured interviews with the French officials and stakeholders involved in the energy transition and by analysing the local and regional press. Our findings indicate that political strategies, regulatory complexities, and personal beliefs play significant roles in shaping officials’ decisions regarding energy transition projects. Furthermore, by proposing a typology of elected officials according to their modes of opposition, we offer insights to promote effective and sustainable local energy transitions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":328,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Change","volume":"92 ","pages":"Article 102998"},"PeriodicalIF":8.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143874502","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}