Routledge Research in Environmental Policy and Politics – serie

Partnerships for Sustainability in Contemporary Global Governance investigates the goals, ideals, and realities of sustainability partnerships and offers a theoretical framework to help disentangle the multiple and interrelated pathways that shape their effectiveness.Partnerships are ubiquitous in research and policy discussions about sustainability and are important governance instruments for the provision of public goods. While partnerships promise a great deal, there is little clarity as to what they deliver. If partnerships are to break free from this paradox, more nuance and rigor are required for understanding and assessing their actual effects. This volume applies its original framework to diverse empirical cases in a way that could be extended to broader data sets and case studies of partnerships. The dual contribution of this volume, theoretical and empirical, holds promise for a more thorough and innovative understanding of the pathways to partnership effectiveness and the conditions that can shape their performance. The broad range of crosscutting analyses suggest important practical implications for the design of new partnerships and the updating of existing initiatives.This interdisciplinary book will be of great interest to researchers, students, and practitioners within international relations, political science, sociology, environmental studies and global studies, as well as the growing number of scholars in public policy, global health and organizational and business studies who are keen to gain a deeper understanding of the pathways and mechanisms that influence the outcomes and effectiveness of cross-sector collaboration and transnational governance more broadly.The Open Access version of this book, available at www .taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Partnerships for Sustainability in Contemporary Global Governance investigates the goals, ideals, and realities of sustainability partnerships and offers a theoretical framework to help disentangle the multiple and interrelated pathways that shape their effectiveness.Partnerships are ubiquitous in research and policy discussions about sustainability and are important governance instruments for the provision of public goods. While partnerships promise a great deal, there is little clarity as to what they deliver. If partnerships are to break free from this paradox, more nuance and rigor are required for understanding and assessing their actual effects. This volume applies its original framework to diverse empirical cases in a way that could be extended to broader data sets and case studies of partnerships. The dual contribution of this volume, theoretical and empirical, holds promise for a more thorough and innovative understanding of the pathways to partnership effectiveness and the conditions that can shape their performance. The broad range of crosscutting analyses suggest important practical implications for the design of new partnerships and the updating of existing initiatives.This interdisciplinary book will be of great interest to researchers, students, and practitioners within international relations, political science, sociology, environmental studies and global studies, as well as the growing number of scholars in public policy, global health and organizational and business studies who are keen to gain a deeper understanding of the pathways and mechanisms that influence the outcomes and effectiveness of cross-sector collaboration and transnational governance more broadly.The Open Access version of this book, available at www .taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Renewable and carbon-neutral energy have been promoted as the future of energy production in the United States. Non-traditional energy sources show promise as alternatives to fossil fuels and may provide a sustainable source of energy in increasingly uncertain energy markets. However, these new sources of energy face their own set of political, administrative, and legal challenges. Green vs. Green explores how mixed land ownership and existing law and regulation present serious challenges to the development of alternative energy sources in the United States. Analytically examining and comparing five green energy sectors; wind, solar, geothermal, biofuel and hydro power, Ryan M. Yonk, Randy T. Simmons, and Brian C. Steed argue that discussing alternative energy without understanding these pitfalls creates unrealistic expectations regarding the ability to substitute "green" energy for traditional sources. The micro-goals of protecting individual areas, species, small-scale ecosystems, and other local environmental aims often limits ability to achieve macro-goals like preventing global climate change or transitioning to large-scale green energy production. Statutes and regulations designed to protect environmental and cultural integrity from degradation directly conflict with other stated environmental ends. Although there is substantial interest in adding clean energy to the grid, it appears that localized environmental interests interfere with broader environmental policy goals and the application of existing environmental laws and regulations may push us closer to gridlock.Green vs. Green provides a fascinating look into how existing environmental law created or will create substantial regulatory hurdles for future energy generations.

The blowout of the Deepwater Horizon and subsequent underground oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 is considered by many to be the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. Interest groups, public officials, and media organizations have spent considerable time documenting the economic and ecological impacts of this spill as well as the causes of the spill, ostensibly to prevent future disasters of this magnitude. However, rather than an unbiased search for answers, such investigations involve strategic efforts by a variety of political actors to define the spill and its causes in ways that lead to their preferred policy solutions. Framing Environmental Disaster evaluates the causal stories that environmental groups tell about the spill and develops theoretical propositions about the role of such stories in the policy process. Which actors do groups hold responsible, and how do groups use blame attributions to advance their policy agendas? Constructing a creative methodological approach which includes content analysis drawn from blog posts, emails, press releases, and testimony before Congress and insights and quotations drawn from interviews with environmental group representatives, Melissa K. Merry argues that interest groups construct causal explanations long before investigations of policy problems are complete and use focusing events to cast blame for a wide range of harms not directly tied to the events themselves. In doing so, groups seek to take full advantage of “windows of opportunity” resulting from crises.An indispensable resource for scholars of public policy and environmental politics and policy, this book sheds new light on the implications of the gulf disaster for energy politics and policies while advancing scholarly understandings of the role of framing and causal attribution in the policy process.

Though industrialized countries are usually the ones indicted when environmental pollution is discussed, over the few last years the rate of emissions in developing countries has increased by a startling amount. The fallout from this increase is evidenced by the struggle of cities like Beijing to improve their air quality. Yet there also exist developing countries such as Thailand that have managed to limit their emissions to more tolerable levels, raising the question: why are some developing countries more willing or able to take care of their environment than others?In this volume, Gabriele Spilker proposes two factors for the differences in developing countries’ environmental performance: integration into the international system and domestic political institutions. Focusing on developing countries generally but also closely examining important global powers such as China and India, Spilker employs a rigorous quantitative analysis to demonstrate the importance of considering various aspects of the international system, in order to draw more comprehensive conclusions about how globalization affects environmental performance. She asserts that democratic political institutions can shield developing countries from the negative consequences of either trade or foreign direct investment. But at the same time, developing countries, by avoiding demanding commitments, are more likely to use environmental treaties as a cover than as a real plan of action.Adding a new dimension to the existing body of research on environmental quality and commitment, Spilker convincingly demonstrates how international and domestic political factors interact to shape developing countries’ ability and willingness to care for their natural environment.

When we think about environmental policy and regulation in the U.S., our attention invariably falls on the federal level and, more specifically, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Although such a focus is understandable, it neglects the actors most responsible for the implementation and maintenance of the nation's environmental laws - the states. Recognition of the importance of the states still ignores an even smaller subsection of actors, inspectors. These front-line actors in state environmental agencies are the individuals responsible for writing environmental rules and ensuring compliance with those rules. They play an important role in the environmental regulatory state.With data collected from more than 1,200 inspectors across 17 states, Michelle C. Pautz and Sara R. Rinfret take a closer look at these neglected actors to better understand how environmental regulators perceive the regulated community and how they characterize their interactions with them. In doing so, they explore the role these front-line actors play, what it is like to be them, what they think of their place in the environmental regulatory system, and how they interact with the regulated community.An original, timely and unmatched volume advancing the debate on the future of environmental regulation in the U.S.

Comparative Perspectives on Environmental Policies and Issues presents tools and concepts about environmental policies in several developed and developing countries. It explores a broad survey of ecological modernization theory, ecological feminism theory, environmental justice theory, the concept of sustainability, and research on environmental policies. Data were collected through surveys, interviews, and focus groups, and are used to analyze social, economic, and environmental impact on people. The book specifically discusses how the earth’s basic life-supporting capital (soils, forests, species, fresh water and oceans) is degraded or depleted to provide for human needs, and how air pollution and acid precipitation, are causing widespread injury to humans, forests, and crops. Realistically, over-taxing of natural resources and ecological systems throughout the world has promoted economic growth and created increasing opportunities for people while also advancing social injustice. The use of the environment to accomplish social and economic transformation raises fundamental issues for the study of environmental policy and the natural ecological system. As human beings exploit the natural environment to meet present needs, they often will destroy resources needed for the future generations. Thus, environmental policies are enacted to ensure that social and economic impacts of the environment are compatible with the limits of natural systems. Offering an intuitive and crystal-clear explanation of the key concepts and principles of environmental policies and sustainable development, this volume is suitable not only for environmental science students, but also for instructors, practitioners, researchers, and academics.

Since the Limits to Growth report was published in 1972 it has been widely known that a commitment to endless growth was putting us on course for environmental disaster—so why have we failed to take decisive political action in the half-century since then? In The Meaning of Growth, Richard McNeill Douglas uses interpretive social science to uncover the cultural roots of political resistance to environmental science and policy.Through a close reading of anti-environmentalist rhetoric the book identifies its idolisation of growth as a defence of a modern (Western-European) world-view, focusing on values of freedom, power, and immortality. The significance of these findings is drawn out by applying the ‘secularisation thesis’, a theoretical account of the development of a modern understanding of reality from a theological world-view to which it is ostensibly opposed. This framework is used to offer a deep interpretation of what is at stake in environmental debate: that to accept there are limits to growth means abandoning crucial elements of a faith in a theodicy of progress that makes life meaningful in a secular age. Douglas concludes by suggesting that the precondition for political action on the environment is a change of philosophical perspective that provides for a sense of meaning in a world of limits.This book should be of interest to academics in the fields of environmental sociology and communications studies, as well as activists interested in understanding the motivations of anti-environmentalist campaigners and how to counter their influence.

Populism, Eco-populism, and the Future of Environmentalism analyzes the history and language of populism in order to fully comprehend the threat of eco-fascism – paradoxically revealing that it is possible for there to be both progressive eco-Populist and right-wing sham eco-Populist discourses.The book highlights the harrowing prospect that the crises of democracy now confronting countries such as the United States may culminate in forms of eco-fascism in a world increasingly divided over issues of economic and social inequality, immigration, and competition for dwindling resources. The author reveals that there is a language of eco-populism that accompanies Populist and sham Populist discourses of the left and right as ecological crises have assumed a more prominent role in national and global politics. These crises are exacerbated by the willingness of the fossil fuel industry to destabilize democracy in order to forestall government-imposed limits on carbon emissions and elimination of fossil fuel subsidies that threaten their profits. The book, primarily a work of political and ecological theory, draws on the history of populism as well as the history of conservation and modern environmental movements to make an innovative argument – that a radical form of right-wing sham eco-populism that emerged out of the crucible of the energy crisis and recession of the 1970s has substantially contributed to the crises we now face. The author maintains that the only plausible solution to current political and ecological crises is a progressive eco-populism that combines environmental justice and sustainability with economic and social justice, and offers resources that can help construct a democratic and inclusive movement and culture. A progressive eco-Populist vision has led to proposals for a Green New Deal and the development of the Build Back Better Act currently being considered by the U.S. Congress, but the stalemate between progressive and conservative Democrats over the bill reveals both the compromised state of U.S. representative democracy and the need for a stronger movement to hold politicians and government accountable.This book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and researchers of environmental politics, environmental history, and environmental philosophy, as well as sociology, political science, and history.

Populism, Eco-populism, and the Future of Environmentalism analyzes the history and language of populism in order to fully comprehend the threat of eco-fascism – paradoxically revealing that it is possible for there to be both progressive eco-Populist and right-wing sham eco-Populist discourses.The book highlights the harrowing prospect that the crises of democracy now confronting countries such as the United States may culminate in forms of eco-fascism in a world increasingly divided over issues of economic and social inequality, immigration, and competition for dwindling resources. The author reveals that there is a language of eco-populism that accompanies Populist and sham Populist discourses of the left and right as ecological crises have assumed a more prominent role in national and global politics. These crises are exacerbated by the willingness of the fossil fuel industry to destabilize democracy in order to forestall government-imposed limits on carbon emissions and elimination of fossil fuel subsidies that threaten their profits. The book, primarily a work of political and ecological theory, draws on the history of populism as well as the history of conservation and modern environmental movements to make an innovative argument – that a radical form of right-wing sham eco-populism that emerged out of the crucible of the energy crisis and recession of the 1970s has substantially contributed to the crises we now face. The author maintains that the only plausible solution to current political and ecological crises is a progressive eco-populism that combines environmental justice and sustainability with economic and social justice, and offers resources that can help construct a democratic and inclusive movement and culture. A progressive eco-Populist vision has led to proposals for a Green New Deal and the development of the Build Back Better Act currently being considered by the U.S. Congress, but the stalemate between progressive and conservative Democrats over the bill reveals both the compromised state of U.S. representative democracy and the need for a stronger movement to hold politicians and government accountable.This book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and researchers of environmental politics, environmental history, and environmental philosophy, as well as sociology, political science, and history.

To meet the challenge of global environmental degradation activists have tackled clear and concrete problems such as carbon emissions and climate change, the ruination of ecosystems and habitat, the precipitous loss of biodiversity, and many other unhappy consequences of irresponsible human behaviour. However, all such efforts to manually correct the course of history have been dwarfed by the magnitude and heavy forward momentum of modern industrial society. In Metanarrative and the Environment, Stephen James Purdey argues that material approaches to the environmental crisis cannot succeed without the power of a legitimating discourse – a new metanarrative – which fundamentally changes the ideational landscape of human development. Dr. Purdey begins in Part I by establishing the pragmatics of our environmental predicament – its roots and responses to it. He focuses on the concept, definition, and key features of metanarrative, introducing the hegemonic story that now rules the contemporary global mindscape. Part II takes on the moral problematic more directly, encouraging the evolution of a new metanarrative by bringing our potential for agency in the face of danger into sharper relief. Metanarrative and the Environment is multidisciplinary, with a particular emphasis on the creative humanities. It will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students alike, as well as environmental activists and academics looking for a new way forward.

To meet the challenge of global environmental degradation activists have tackled clear and concrete problems such as carbon emissions and climate change, the ruination of ecosystems and habitat, the precipitous loss of biodiversity, and many other unhappy consequences of irresponsible human behaviour. However, all such efforts to manually correct the course of history have been dwarfed by the magnitude and heavy forward momentum of modern industrial society. In Metanarrative and the Environment, Stephen James Purdey argues that material approaches to the environmental crisis cannot succeed without the power of a legitimating discourse – a new metanarrative – which fundamentally changes the ideational landscape of human development. Dr. Purdey begins in Part I by establishing the pragmatics of our environmental predicament – its roots and responses to it. He focuses on the concept, definition, and key features of metanarrative, introducing the hegemonic story that now rules the contemporary global mindscape. Part II takes on the moral problematic more directly, encouraging the evolution of a new metanarrative by bringing our potential for agency in the face of danger into sharper relief. Metanarrative and the Environment is multidisciplinary, with a particular emphasis on the creative humanities. It will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students alike, as well as environmental activists and academics looking for a new way forward.

Water policy in United States is one of the most complex topics in the field of public policy. This book, a comparative study of Texas, California, and Alabama’s drought response, provides for the first time a common framework for analysis to investigate how water scarcity and droughts have interacted with various state-level factors to produce a wide degree of variance in policy innovations. Using Toddi Steelman’s (2010) conceptual framework, the authors examine multiple variables that impact water policy innovation, while showing how one policy solution does not fit all. They expertly demonstrate divergence in water policies due to the environmental cultures, water distribution, and structures in each case, despite similar drought conditions.As water is increasingly stressed in the future, the ability to draw on lessons learned by these states will provide valuable insight to other entities that face droughts and water shortages. The Drought Dilemma is a must read for all those looking for recommendations for the construction of drought policy, as well as future approaches to understand comparative state drought policy.

Water policy in United States is one of the most complex topics in the field of public policy. This book, a comparative study of Texas, California, and Alabama’s drought response, provides for the first time a common framework for analysis to investigate how water scarcity and droughts have interacted with various state-level factors to produce a wide degree of variance in policy innovations. Using Toddi Steelman’s (2010) conceptual framework, the authors examine multiple variables that impact water policy innovation, while showing how one policy solution does not fit all. They expertly demonstrate divergence in water policies due to the environmental cultures, water distribution, and structures in each case, despite similar drought conditions.As water is increasingly stressed in the future, the ability to draw on lessons learned by these states will provide valuable insight to other entities that face droughts and water shortages. The Drought Dilemma is a must read for all those looking for recommendations for the construction of drought policy, as well as future approaches to understand comparative state drought policy.

This field guide offers practical guidance for readers to initiate and engage in resilience planning with their communities in a structured, deliberative way that emphasizes equity.The contents revolve around lessons learned from The Resilience Adaptation Feasibility Tool (RAFT) on-the-ground community initiative to advance resilience across communities in Virginia. Chapters provide background about resilience planning; a starting point for conducting holistic assessment of a community’s resilience with a focus on equity; recommendations for establishing an infrastructure for long- term commitment to resilience; and suggestions for identifying and planning activities and projects to build momentum for achieving resilience outcomes.The format offers an easy read for non-technical audiences such as community planners, community leaders, or nonprofit agency staff to quickly and efficiently get the guidance they need for community-based, equity-focused resilience planning.

Failed attempts at producing ambitious global climate commitments and instruments have made it increasingly important for nation states to deliver climate policies. This in turn requires a better understanding of national climate policymaking. In this book, Elin Lerum Boasson develops an innovative and well-grounded analytical framework for assessing national climate-policy development. Why do national climate policies emerge and change? This question is underpinned by the role played by different actors and the kind social mechanism at work. Boasson asks, to what extent and how is the emergence and change of climate policy influenced by: politicians and the national political fields; business and organizational fields; EU policy and the European environment; social and entrepreneurial mechanisms? Combining policy studies with sociological new institutionalism, and drawing on three climate policy sub-areas in Norway: renewable energy, low-energy buildings and carbon capture and storage, Boasson presents a multi-field framework that allows the reader to capture the entire policy cycle, explaining policy initiation, policy adoption and the long-term, social feedback effects resulting from implementation (or lack of implementation).

State climate and clean energy policy will play a critical role in the future of the political dialogue and economic development. Policymakers from around the world already recognize the leadership of American states in this domain.Rooted in public policy theory, and employing a mixed-methods approach that includes advanced economic analysis and qualitative research, Benjamin H. Deitchman explores the policy tools that address the politics and economics of clean energy development and deployment across all 50 states. Deitchman includes in his analysis international case studies of this policy context in Canada, Germany, and Australia to reveal different state-level policy tools, the politics behind the tools, and the economic implications of alternative approaches.The rigorous analysis of the politics of state level institutions and economic implications of subnational climate and clean energy actions offers researchers, students, and policymakers with practical information to advance their understanding of these options in the policy process.

The blowout of the Deepwater Horizon and subsequent underground oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 is considered by many to be the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. Interest groups, public officials, and media organizations have spent considerable time documenting the economic and ecological impacts of this spill as well as the causes of the spill, ostensibly to prevent future disasters of this magnitude. However, rather than an unbiased search for answers, such investigations involve strategic efforts by a variety of political actors to define the spill and its causes in ways that lead to their preferred policy solutions. Framing Environmental Disaster evaluates the causal stories that environmental groups tell about the spill and develops theoretical propositions about the role of such stories in the policy process. Which actors do groups hold responsible, and how do groups use blame attributions to advance their policy agendas? Constructing a creative methodological approach which includes content analysis drawn from blog posts, emails, press releases, and testimony before Congress and insights and quotations drawn from interviews with environmental group representatives, Melissa K. Merry argues that interest groups construct causal explanations long before investigations of policy problems are complete and use focusing events to cast blame for a wide range of harms not directly tied to the events themselves. In doing so, groups seek to take full advantage of “windows of opportunity” resulting from crises.An indispensable resource for scholars of public policy and environmental politics and policy, this book sheds new light on the implications of the gulf disaster for energy politics and policies while advancing scholarly understandings of the role of framing and causal attribution in the policy process.

State climate and clean energy policy will play a critical role in the future of the political dialogue and economic development. Policymakers from around the world already recognize the leadership of American states in this domain.Rooted in public policy theory, and employing a mixed-methods approach that includes advanced economic analysis and qualitative research, Benjamin H. Deitchman explores the policy tools that address the politics and economics of clean energy development and deployment across all 50 states. Deitchman includes in his analysis international case studies of this policy context in Canada, Germany, and Australia to reveal different state-level policy tools, the politics behind the tools, and the economic implications of alternative approaches.The rigorous analysis of the politics of state level institutions and economic implications of subnational climate and clean energy actions offers researchers, students, and policymakers with practical information to advance their understanding of these options in the policy process.

Comparative Perspectives on Environmental Policies and Issues presents tools and concepts about environmental policies in several developed and developing countries. It explores a broad survey of ecological modernization theory, ecological feminism theory, environmental justice theory, the concept of sustainability, and research on environmental policies. Data were collected through surveys, interviews, and focus groups, and are used to analyze social, economic, and environmental impact on people. The book specifically discusses how the earth’s basic life-supporting capital (soils, forests, species, fresh water and oceans) is degraded or depleted to provide for human needs, and how air pollution and acid precipitation, are causing widespread injury to humans, forests, and crops. Realistically, over-taxing of natural resources and ecological systems throughout the world has promoted economic growth and created increasing opportunities for people while also advancing social injustice. The use of the environment to accomplish social and economic transformation raises fundamental issues for the study of environmental policy and the natural ecological system. As human beings exploit the natural environment to meet present needs, they often will destroy resources needed for the future generations. Thus, environmental policies are enacted to ensure that social and economic impacts of the environment are compatible with the limits of natural systems. Offering an intuitive and crystal-clear explanation of the key concepts and principles of environmental policies and sustainable development, this volume is suitable not only for environmental science students, but also for instructors, practitioners, researchers, and academics.

Failed attempts at producing ambitious global climate commitments and instruments have made it increasingly important for nation states to deliver climate policies. This in turn requires a better understanding of national climate policymaking. In this book, Elin Lerum Boasson develops an innovative and well-grounded analytical framework for assessing national climate-policy development. Why do national climate policies emerge and change? This question is underpinned by the role played by different actors and the kind social mechanism at work. Boasson asks, to what extent and how is the emergence and change of climate policy influenced by: politicians and the national political fields; business and organizational fields; EU policy and the European environment; social and entrepreneurial mechanisms? Combining policy studies with sociological new institutionalism, and drawing on three climate policy sub-areas in Norway: renewable energy, low-energy buildings and carbon capture and storage, Boasson presents a multi-field framework that allows the reader to capture the entire policy cycle, explaining policy initiation, policy adoption and the long-term, social feedback effects resulting from implementation (or lack of implementation).

Renewable and carbon-neutral energy have been promoted as the future of energy production in the United States. Non-traditional energy sources show promise as alternatives to fossil fuels and may provide a sustainable source of energy in increasingly uncertain energy markets. However, these new sources of energy face their own set of political, administrative, and legal challenges. Green vs. Green explores how mixed land ownership and existing law and regulation present serious challenges to the development of alternative energy sources in the United States. Analytically examining and comparing five green energy sectors; wind, solar, geothermal, biofuel and hydro power, Ryan M. Yonk, Randy T. Simmons, and Brian C. Steed argue that discussing alternative energy without understanding these pitfalls creates unrealistic expectations regarding the ability to substitute "green" energy for traditional sources. The micro-goals of protecting individual areas, species, small-scale ecosystems, and other local environmental aims often limits ability to achieve macro-goals like preventing global climate change or transitioning to large-scale green energy production. Statutes and regulations designed to protect environmental and cultural integrity from degradation directly conflict with other stated environmental ends. Although there is substantial interest in adding clean energy to the grid, it appears that localized environmental interests interfere with broader environmental policy goals and the application of existing environmental laws and regulations may push us closer to gridlock.Green vs. Green provides a fascinating look into how existing environmental law created or will create substantial regulatory hurdles for future energy generations.

When we think about environmental policy and regulation in the U.S., our attention invariably falls on the federal level and, more specifically, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Although such a focus is understandable, it neglects the actors most responsible for the implementation and maintenance of the nation's environmental laws - the states. Recognition of the importance of the states still ignores an even smaller subsection of actors, inspectors. These front-line actors in state environmental agencies are the individuals responsible for writing environmental rules and ensuring compliance with those rules. They play an important role in the environmental regulatory state.With data collected from more than 1,200 inspectors across 17 states, Michelle C. Pautz and Sara R. Rinfret take a closer look at these neglected actors to better understand how environmental regulators perceive the regulated community and how they characterize their interactions with them. In doing so, they explore the role these front-line actors play, what it is like to be them, what they think of their place in the environmental regulatory system, and how they interact with the regulated community.An original, timely and unmatched volume advancing the debate on the future of environmental regulation in the U.S.