Earth System GovernancePub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-09-01DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2025.100286
Chris Arsenault , Raphael Deberdt , Philippe Le Billon
{"title":"Onshoring low-carbon supply chains: Can subsidies meet the challenge?","authors":"Chris Arsenault , Raphael Deberdt , Philippe Le Billon","doi":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100286","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100286","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Framing Chinese dominance in low-carbon supply chains as a strategic threat, Western governments have responded by deploying a range of subsidies to secure end-to-end supply chains, from critical minerals to batteries and EV production. This article addresses Canadian subsidies' approach to onshoring green manufacturing, with a focus on EV supply chains in Ontario. Based on 20 interviews with government officials and industry leaders and a literature review, we find several challenges to subsidizing supply chain integration – (1) opposition to new mining and infrastructure projects, in particular from some Indigenous communities, (2) policy makers lacking understanding of the complexity of low-carbon products’ supply chains, and (3) slowing global EV demand and regional trade barriers at a time of uncertainty for the sector under the second Trump administration. These challenges are responsible for the suspension or cancellation of projects which have received subsidies, undermining the broader onshoring strategy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33685,"journal":{"name":"Earth System Governance","volume":"26 ","pages":"Article 100286"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144921413","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Earth System GovernancePub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-09-07DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2025.100290
Gaspard Lemaire
{"title":"The climate atrocity paradigm","authors":"Gaspard Lemaire","doi":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100290","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100290","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Unsustainable greenhouse gas emissions threaten countless lives worldwide, yet conventional terminology such as “global warming” or “climate disruption” fail to capture the human suffering involved, whereas terms like “climate crisis” misleadingly suggest a temporary condition. In response to these gaps, this paper proposes reframing climate violence as a “climate atrocity”. Although climate harm does not fit neatly within traditional atrocity categories such as genocide or crime against humanity, the concept of mass atrocity—large-scale and systematic violence inflicted knowingly on civilian populations—aligns with the outcome of current greenhouse gas emissions trajectories. The evolving nature of the atrocity notion, already expanded to include ethnic cleansing and potentially ecocide, creates space for recognizing climate harm as a new form of atrocity that stands apart as a “total atrocity” due to its unprecedented magnitude. This framework clarifies institutional responsibility and opens news pathways for climate governance, climate law and public advocacy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33685,"journal":{"name":"Earth System Governance","volume":"26 ","pages":"Article 100290"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145007726","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Earth System GovernancePub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-11-02DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2025.100300
Thang Nam Do
{"title":"Fund more, fly less: A hybrid meeting cycle for more effective and equitable climate governance","authors":"Thang Nam Do","doi":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100300","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100300","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The annual United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's Conference of Parties (COP) has long served as a keystone of global climate diplomacy. However, concerns are growing that its current format may be increasingly resource- and carbon-intensive, and could limit the meaningful participation of low-income groups. This Perspective proposes a hybrid reform to the COP cycle: biennial in-person summits alternating with virtual thematic sessions in intervening years. This reform would redirect financial and institutional resources toward more inclusive participation and frontline climate action, particularly in the Global South. It offers a timely opportunity to realign global climate diplomacy with efficiency and impact.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33685,"journal":{"name":"Earth System Governance","volume":"26 ","pages":"Article 100300"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145465927","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Earth System GovernancePub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-10-29DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2025.100297
Kaiwen Zhang , Hongwei Hu , Yuanyuan Li , Rong Tan , Lu Yu
{"title":"Unpacking and repacking bundles of rights: Modular property rights regime for natural resource governance under complexity","authors":"Kaiwen Zhang , Hongwei Hu , Yuanyuan Li , Rong Tan , Lu Yu","doi":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100297","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100297","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Effective governance of natural resources has become increasingly vital in the face of accelerating socio-ecological transformations. In recent decades, natural resource governance has undergone profound changes due to increasing resource scales, the involvement of diverse stakeholders, and the need to manage multiple resources in the context of urbanization, marketization, and climate change. Classic property rights frameworks, such as bundles of property rights and Ostrom's “resource system and resource unit” model, are often unable to manage the uncertainty, interdependence, and scale in transitioning socio-ecological systems. This paper introduces a layer recomposition framework that unpacks property rights by resource systems and ecosystem services, thus enabling these rights to be repackaged into modular regimes tailored to specific contexts. The framework facilitates the integration of multiple ecosystem services and supports the adaptive reorganization of governance structures. Furthermore, this framework emphasizes the importance of continuously localized property rules that are responsive to both socioeconomic conditions and ecological complexity. This study advances classical property rights theory by broadening the content of bundles of rights and introducing the concept of repacking to enable flexible, context-sensitive arrangements. Using a case study of local property rights reform in China, this research demonstrates the framework's capacity to govern complex resource systems and provide practical, localized solutions, thus offering a robust tool for rethinking natural resource governance in an era of rapid change and global interdependence. This study contributes to the evolution of property rights theory while offering actionable insights for policymakers and practitioners navigating the governance challenges of rapidly transforming socio-ecological systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33685,"journal":{"name":"Earth System Governance","volume":"26 ","pages":"Article 100297"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145415994","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Earth System GovernancePub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-11-26DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2025.100303
Daya Raj Subedi , Qijing Liu , Dinesh Raj Bhuju , Prajal Pradhan
{"title":"Ecosystem (dis)services matter for conservation policies: Insights from Nepal","authors":"Daya Raj Subedi , Qijing Liu , Dinesh Raj Bhuju , Prajal Pradhan","doi":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100303","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100303","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Ecosystem services have gained increasing policy relevance for their dual role in promoting biodiversity conservation and supporting human well-being. However, the integration of ecosystem services into conservation policies remains poorly understood. We examined how ecosystem services and disservices are incorporated into protected area policies in Nepal. A review of 111 laws and policies, supplemented by 19 expert interviews, was conducted. Our findings indicate gradual progress in integrating ecosystem services, both explicitly and implicitly, into conservation policies, with supporting and cultural services most frequently emphasized. In contrast, ecosystem disservices received minimal explicit recognition. Additionally, conservation policies increasingly align with corporate interests, often prioritizing commercial conservation initiatives over local community needs. Our Nepal case provides broader lessons for conservation policy and practice. Mainly, we highlight that ecosystem (dis)service integration is more robust when anchored in legally binding instruments, guided by pluralistic valuation approaches, and structured to protect indigenous and local communities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33685,"journal":{"name":"Earth System Governance","volume":"26 ","pages":"Article 100303"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145623563","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Earth System GovernancePub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-10-04DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2025.100294
Kristin Hällmark
{"title":"Beyond depoliticization and divisive antagonism: Rethinking fear, anger, and anxiety in environmental politics","authors":"Kristin Hällmark","doi":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100294","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100294","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Negative eco-emotions such as fear, anger, and anxiety are becoming increasingly widespread as the consequences of the ongoing climate crisis are getting progressively worse. Previous literature has warned that these emotions are best avoided in the public sphere, as they risk contributing to either depoliticization or divisive antagonism. In this article, I defend the political and democratic potential of eco-fear, eco-anger, and eco-anxiety. Using Chantal Mouffe's framework of agonistic politics as a lens, I examine how these emotions can be formulated to facilitate the formation of collective political identities and transform potentially destructive antagonism into democratic agonism. By bringing forward how these negative eco-emotions can enable politicization while avoiding destructive antagonism, this article contributes to the growing literature on eco-emotions and the literature on agonistic theory. Through a review of the existing literature on eco-emotions, I contend that fear can help to re-politicize environmental discourses when directed towards specific eco-political threats, such as technologies or political inaction. Anger, I argue, can strengthen collective identities through renewed agency and counter-hegemonic thinking, with “Lordean anger” mitigating some of its moralizing tendencies. Finally, I suggest that anxiety is most productive when tied to a sense of place and belonging, grounding political identities in our ecological interconnectedness.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33685,"journal":{"name":"Earth System Governance","volume":"26 ","pages":"Article 100294"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145219778","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Earth System GovernancePub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-10-28DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2025.100298
Avri Eitan , Shira Bukchin-Peles
{"title":"Solar middle ground: NGOs as regulatory intermediaries in renewable energy governance","authors":"Avri Eitan , Shira Bukchin-Peles","doi":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100298","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100298","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Renewable energy, solar in particular, has become central to global decarbonization efforts. Yet its deployment often exposes tensions between centralized planning frameworks and localized realities, raising questions about how decision-making and legitimacy are negotiated in practice. This study examines the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as regulatory intermediaries in Israel's solar energy sector. Drawing on a qualitative case study, it analyzes how NGOs navigate institutional complexity and mediate across three key arenas: among regulators, between regulators and developers, and between regulators and communities. NGOs translate procedures, resolve institutional frictions, and amplify community voices, helping bridge fragmented governance domains. The study contributes to renewable energy governance literature by showing how NGOs coordinate implementation beyond official mechanisms, and to regulatory intermediation theory by highlighting how influence is exercised not through formal authority, but through credibility, procedural fluency, and embedded engagement across state, market, and society.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33685,"journal":{"name":"Earth System Governance","volume":"26 ","pages":"Article 100298"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145415993","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Earth System GovernancePub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-09-25DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2025.100292
Véronique Fournier
{"title":"Advising decision-makers: a new typology of scientific bodies in global environmental governance","authors":"Véronique Fournier","doi":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100292","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100292","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":33685,"journal":{"name":"Earth System Governance","volume":"26 ","pages":"Article 100292"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145158335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Earth System GovernancePub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-09-12DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2025.100288
Hyeyoon Park , Jakob Skovgaard
{"title":"Whose risk counts? Climate risk frames in global green finance governance complex","authors":"Hyeyoon Park , Jakob Skovgaard","doi":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100288","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100288","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In recent decades, global green finance governance institutions (GGFGIs) have developed diverse frames for understanding climate-related risks. Understanding these risk frames is crucial because they lead to distinctive “de-risking” policies, empowering different types of actors. This paper examines how GGFGIs produce different climate risk frames, and what the prevailing climate risk frame is and whose risk it addresses. We investigate these questions by analyzing the current global green finance governance complex applying a constructivist approach emphasizing contestation over normative issues and a Critical Political Economy perspective. Our mapping based on 74 GGFGIs shows exercise that a risk framing focusing on climate impact on business actors became prevalent over other types of climate risks imposed on people and nature. Our finding shows the dominant influence of the Task Force on the Climate-Related Financial Disclosure created by G20's Financial Stability Board. This development reflects broader trends of climate capitalism.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33685,"journal":{"name":"Earth System Governance","volume":"26 ","pages":"Article 100288"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145045148","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Earth System GovernancePub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-09-02DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2025.100287
Yilin Huang , Eva Lieberherr , Khammeun Nandee , Chaloun Bounithiphonh , Jasmin Krähenbühl , Phonevilay Sichanthongthip , Fritz Kleinschroth
{"title":"Aerial imagery to support participatory landscape decision-making","authors":"Yilin Huang , Eva Lieberherr , Khammeun Nandee , Chaloun Bounithiphonh , Jasmin Krähenbühl , Phonevilay Sichanthongthip , Fritz Kleinschroth","doi":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100287","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.esg.2025.100287","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Effective land-use management is crucial for addressing sustainability challenges. Participatory landscape planning can facilitate this by integrating diverse stakeholders and local knowledge. Our study explores the use of drone-captured aerial imagery to enhance shared understanding and knowledge co-production in 27 village councils in Laos. We show that this imagery supports participatory planning by making spatial information more interpretable. Using Participatory Action Research (PAR), we evaluate the effectiveness of aerial imagery, comparing nadir and oblique drone images with satellite images to assess their interpretability by local stakeholders. We found that nadir images provided highest identification rates of natural and built features, while oblique imagery was preferred for self-localization and contextual understanding. The study demonstrates that such images help stakeholders understand the landscape from new perspectives, essential for informed land-management decisions. Our findings highlight the need to integrate technological tools with local knowledge to ensure inclusive environmental governance grounded in community experience.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33685,"journal":{"name":"Earth System Governance","volume":"26 ","pages":"Article 100287"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144925917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}