Environmental Governance and Policy

Sustainable development paradigm face resistance from capitalist power structures
Need scientists as policymakers to reduce uncertainty – but scientists might have their own agenda – self interest

• Issue Attention Cycle:

• Advocacy Coalition Framework

• Little progress in terms of the consumption of resources – as energy producers are powerful

• Predict transport policy sector will grow – sustainable policy target supply and demand – few governments have the same paradigm

• Fear tax on basic needs provoke public hostility – like yellow Gillet France

• Bridge sustainable development and governance
• Huge differences in forms of governance: approach, opinion and human value

• Governance means multi-actors, travel between periods of times and locations
• Co-ordinate power of networks and markets, decentralized approach
• Never be a grand theory of governance

• Private companies directed in ways which are accountable to their stakeholders
• Better to interact with stakeholders during the process to reflect
• Need newer forms of governance to SD

• Long-term decline of state steering power – do little to change the dynamic of a capitalist economic system
• Governance is messy due to sustainability and concern for future civilisation

• Hybrid governance required rather than market and state taking the lead
• Share knowledge and technology – positive participation
• Incorporate lower level policy makers
o Colonised countries depend on existing structures

Bias view – indication of power – push own agenda and not benefit all – cynicism
• Distribution of benefits not a hierarchy

• Market involvement inefficiency of the state, no longer important actor – but will make profit

• Climate impacts not felt for years so no urgency, even though responsibility lies with developed countries

• NGOs influence the design and implementation of mechanism – monitor progress and use their scientific knowledge

• Bureaucratic societies resilient to change – discourage behaviour change as it would be a long process

• Several ranges of scale, not a linear process to change from one to another

• Fundamental source is human population growth and consumption – manage this behaviour towards sustainable actions

• Fix rules lose of resilience need flexible management – require consistent monitoring of systems
• Need to accept natural variation and constraints for long-term sustainable access

• Mechanism depends on the environmental problem
• Mix of EI and C&C, to exceed policy-makers’ original expectations

• Governance can compete, merge, complement and replacement government
• Need to go beyond theory and test instead to see what works – like china
• Govern in a globalized and networked way – change order of rule, trial new methods, new era

• Government losing ability to steer society, too extremes of single state or self-organising – resistance
• Governance designed and implemented by non-state actors which may work alongside the state

• UK have fused VAs, eco-taxes and tradeable permits together

• Regulation: still widely used, provides a function for other instruments to perform, address specific targets

• VAs can be complex to negotiate across borders, experience implantation problems

• Governance driven from privatisation, - may generate a new form of government
• Change relationship between government, and non-governmental actors as they interact to steer society using different policy instruments – softer tools
• Lines of governance, governments and regulation blurred

• Decisions are evidence based to promote confidence
• Transparency complements governance, tackle, corruption, accountability, MBIs

• Private sector getting off lightly
• Power imbalance and conflicts over norms make transparency incomplete and limited, even with open participation, will it overcome this?

• Global governance does not solve problems, just copes with them, will it transform existing norms?

• Information Disclosure: Better than nothing, but doesn’t have high impact

• Industry pollution information will spur better industrial performance
• Industry driven by pre-empting regulations, to counter aggressive policies

• Citizens' ideologies: compel industries to perform well. More policy liberalism caused an increase in the percentage of risk reducers

• Leon in Mexico national campaign to improve water quality – VA had little impact
• VAs undermined by gaps in legal, needed to make regulation effective
• Lack capacity to implement regulations as enforcement required for standards

• VA created an appearance of progress – political cover to deflect public pressure
• Need a range of structures to ensure commitments aren’t dodged
• Threat to implement C&C if VA results in no compliance

• Created an equation for VEP effectiveness
• VEP not affect polluting industries in the same way as regulation
• VEP better for small environmental improvements that are relatively cheap

• Linear links (clearly defined analysis) between agenda setting, decision-making and implementation

• Policy-making is diverse and complicated, as policies compete and overlap

• Rooted ideologies and history affect policy process and participation
o This could however result in conflict over decisions, laws and implementation
e.g. Promote tech to boost food production vs low input conservation agriculture

• Things can change is established policies fragment, and other arguments are incorporated
• Conflict of knowledge – whose position is established
• Policy is determined by knowledge and power

• Rise and fall depends on the success of actors, and creation of networks to create policy space
• Need to understand origins of the policy to understand what and how policy changes for good intervention

• Prescriptive: analyse how to make a policy so public demands are put into government action
o Unrealistic difficult to describe a meaningful model to policy-makers straightforwardly
• Continuously cycle through stages, policy making is not a single event

• Agenda Setting:

• Policy Formulation:

• Legitimisation:

• Implementation:

• Evaluation:

• Multi-actors using the resource can affect the outcome
• Works across disciplinary lines, linking broader contextual variable to situation variables to understand how social and ecological factors effect human behaviour

• Some variables are more important that others, depends on research type
• Need to develop methods to study evolution over time

• New actors to make sense of current socio-political transformations

• Increasing fragmentation and segmentation of governance system across levels
o Governance has to co-exist between levels – vertically between national to local and horizontally between different rule making systems by different groups of actors

• New definition of governance implies some degree of self-regulation

• May bring in private actors as a solution – but who holds them to account? Legitimacy might be questioned depending on donors, member and what environmental good they seek
• Transnational actors like the IPCC can seek to balance view and interests

• Multiple actors coordinate action to make governance arrangements for a specific issue area

• 20th century state regulatory role in the provisions of GEG, through this re-emergence of economic private governance and restructured state function
• Rise of private forms of governance linked with the downfall of state led governance – state failed to govern common pool resources – inadequate

• Corporate regulation reflects a need to respond to public pressure
• Private governance meant a shift in ideology and authority – are global markets able to correct their wrongs

• Activists groups shape global, press private actors into action, which alters the identity as non-state actors
• Private environmental governance strengthens liberal paradigm and promotes global self-regulation
• Not a straightforward shift to firms, but complex, interdependence between private and public actors (mix)

• To solve problems need co-management across scales – no longer a hierarchy overcome mismatch

• Knowledge is a scale between traditional and modern

o Ignorance: analysing complex human behaviour can be ignored because it is too tricky to fathom

Asymmetry of information in Tobago has meant the development of cross-level mechanism through regional and national networks of organisation

Require coordination and complementary expertise to cross knowledge over the boundaries
• When scalar and linkage problems are addressed with sustainable solutions = successful management

• Rethink dynamics by involving NGOs and movements to pursue goals

• Believes frameworks are too binary
• NGOs enforce scalar relationships they are trying to reconfigure. Need a flexible approach, to engage with broaden scales, to not focus one single conceptions of scales.

• Concern whether NGO governance means more or less democracy
• Capitalist ideologies are deeply interwoven – need to encompass this struggle

• Scale assists addressing sustainability issues and a globalizing world through interdisciplinary approach
• Problems with scales of public goods arise when scales don’t match boundaries of government authorities

o Understand complex processes, governance systems, norms that evaluate and judge governance
o Insight into politics framing scales and improve design and arrangements of governance

• Co-existence of approaches – both tradition and innovation are correct and can merge to allow variety

• Activism comes from perceived risks and linked to emerging political conflicts over society and globalisation

• Social movements evolve and have a historical context – the nature of human society

• Easier to mobilise present grievances in contrast to temporal, as they might not be easily solved

• Community framing of the problem continually shifted with new knowledge – reflected on culture, as they had the threat of a large business taking that from them

• Environmental discourse in the background of extra concerns eg health risk and their version of development – environment centre stage for other issues – greater complexity

• Official environmentalism:

• Populist environmentalism

• Conflict arises from control and defence of a place from outsiders, => locals formed an alliance/new social network to resist – maybe this will transcend to global network of resistance

• A policy incorporating citizen preference will be implemented smoother = less cost, and diffuse opposition
• Gain legitimacy and empower, social capital by being involved

• Collaborative decision works best when the group is small and homogeneous, but this doesn’t = representation – might be selfish

• Lack of representation and authority are key to why it may backfire and left dissatisfied

• Papillion Creek, USA, unsuccessful, one representative out of 15 showed up to the meetings. Project failed to define the problem, thus lack of public interest, meaning complacency occurred – the environment was not an issue people felt strongly about

• Azerbaijan: juggling resource wealth (huge revenues) with instability, used EITI to promote distrubtion of revenues within the country – to guarantee benefits for the community

c• Citizens scrutinize contracts between gov and industry to maximise contribution to sustainable development

• Lack of long term participation has meant reliance on charitable support

• Land used as leverage in negotiations – IIED’s tools to help local groups that are facing threat to their land access, Mali used to empower communities

• New communication technologies combined with traditional media – empower citizen journalism
o Green-hotlines in Nigeria text message about ecological and human rights abuses
o GPS assist indigenous groups to map out tribal land rights

• Participation in science is seen as resistance against percieved scientization of politics, to produce own knowledge – new relationship between science and citizens

• Triangular science-politics interface: experts, policy-makers and citizens – all 3 are actors

• Exploitation of scientific uncertainty inhibits sustainable managements and science loses its credibility

• Civic science participation, representation and democratization
o It emerges from big planetary science and the legitimacy crisis for modern science
o Restores public trust and response to the complexity of global environmental problems

• Find balance between tradition and participation, and between technical and deliberative approaches

• Risk underlines modern environmental regulation
• Risk is deeply woven in cultural values and beliefs concerning agency, causation and uncertainty, it is only accessible to experts and constructed out of history and experience

• Controversies about risk resulted from how knowledge constructs the complexities of the environment
• Risks interprets the relationship between others and the planet, not a description of nature
• To often it is assumed that environmental risks will resonate in the same way with everyone

• At the earliest stages need to intertwine science with politics in the decision-making process
• In light of experience, need the ability to go back to initial problem frames – require flexibility

• Risk shouldn’t be the basis of central authority with claims from superior expertise – regulation needs to be more open-ended to dissect multiple perspectives
• Understanding risk need to acknowledge to own provisional status

• Political reluctance to go above and beyond
• Environment, society and economics is a nested model

• Sustainable Development

• Credible studies behind not crossing these boundaries: climate change, ocean acidification, change in land use

• Many knowledge gaps in regards to risk, enable societies to become resource efficient, sustainable and wealthy

• Scientific basis of the risk that humans can do to destabilize the planetary boundaries
• Human activity is affecting Earth systems – zone of uncertainty highlights increasing risk
• Explore cross-scalar interactions and regional heterogeneity of boundary processes

• Develop science to understand these thresholds – need time for society to respond
• If earth’s resilience is not maintained could result in a loss of genetic diversity – need to prepare
• Increase frequency of heat waves and heavy rainfall

• Doesn’t identify social implications, changes in economy, or methods to prevent exceeding the planetary boundaries

• Problem wealthy countries are exploiting natural resources, not considering their limits
• Policy has too much emphasis on GDP, economics shouldn’t have a monetary value, instead it should determine the nation’s distribution of benefits/wealth and consider the negative externalities

• Variety of regional and local thresholds of diversity and land/water use

• Economics might change who we become – can be a good and bad thing
• Studying economics changes behaviour: helpfulness, honesty, and loyalty become less important traits
o Assume everyone is selfish
• This is not the case as humans are capable of cooperating – other things are able to motivate humans, not just money

• There is a lot of uncertainty in the real world do to human action
• We are part of nature’s cycle not a separate entity