Can new modes of governance, such as public-private partnerships, stakeholder consultations and networks, promote effective environmental policy performance as well as increased deliberative and participatory quality? This book argues that in academic inquiry and policy practice there has been a deliberative turn, manifested in a revitalized interest in deliberative democracy coupled with calls for novel forms of public-private governance. By linking theory and practice, the contributors critically examine the legitimacy and effectiveness of new modes of governance, using a range of case studies on climate, forestry, water and food safety policies from local to global levels. >Environmental Politics and Deliberative Democracy will appeal to scholars, both advanced undergraduate and postgraduate, as well as researchers of environmental politics, international relations, environmental studies and political science. It will also interest practitioners involved in the actual design and implementation of new governance modes in areas of sustainable development, food safety, forestry and climate change.

This innovative book is one of the first to conduct a systematic comprehensive analysis of the ideals and practices of the evolving green state. It draws on elements of political theory, feminist theory, post-structuralism, governance and institutional theory to conceptualise the green state and advances thinking on how to understand its emergence in the context of climate and sustainability transitions. Focusing on the state as an actor in environmental, climate and sustainability politics, the book explores different principles guiding the emergence of the green state and examines the performance of states and institutional responses to the sustainable and climate transitions in the European and Nordic context in particular. The book's unique focus on the Nordic countries underlines the important to learn from Nordics, which are perceived to be in the forefront of climate and sustainability governance as well as historically strong welfare states. With chapter contributions from leading international scholars in political science, sociology, economics, energy and environmental systems and climate policy studies, this book will be of great value to postgraduate students and researchers working on sustainability transitions, environmental politics and governance, and those with an area studies focus on the Nordic countries.

This innovative book is one of the first to conduct a systematic comprehensive analysis of the ideals and practices of the evolving green state. It draws on elements of political theory, feminist theory, post-structuralism, governance and institutional theory to conceptualise the green state and advances thinking on how to understand its emergence in the context of climate and sustainability transitions. Focusing on the state as an actor in environmental, climate and sustainability politics, the book explores different principles guiding the emergence of the green state and examines the performance of states and institutional responses to the sustainable and climate transitions in the European and Nordic context in particular. The book's unique focus on the Nordic countries underlines the important to learn from Nordics, which are perceived to be in the forefront of climate and sustainability governance as well as historically strong welfare states. With chapter contributions from leading international scholars in political science, sociology, economics, energy and environmental systems and climate policy studies, this book will be of great value to postgraduate students and researchers working on sustainability transitions, environmental politics and governance, and those with an area studies focus on the Nordic countries.

Combating climate change and transitioning to fossil-free energy are two central and interdependent challenges facing humanity today. Governing the nexus of these challenges is complex, and includes multiple intergovernmental and transnational institutions. This book analyses the governance interactions between such institutions, and explores their consequences for legitimacy and effectiveness. Using a novel analytical framework, the contributors examine three policy fields: renewable energy, fossil fuel subsidy reform, and carbon pricing. These fields are compared in terms of their institutional memberships, governance functions and overarching norms. Bringing together prominent researchers from political science and international relations, the book offers an essential resource for future research and provides policy recommendations for effective and legitimate governance of the climate-energy nexus. Rooted in the most recent research, it is an invaluable reference for researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders in climate change and energy politics. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

A breathtaking review which covers the major approaches and actors in the governance of climate change this carefully edited book includes essays from dozens of scholars who are shaping our understanding of responses to the real and existential risks of a warming world. The book is especially strong in its discussion of how critical social theory can help us understand the politics of climate change, in its histories of climate policy, and in the multiple perspectives it provides on the international climate regime across sectors, institutions, countries and scales. I was impressed by the diversity of authors, including the number of women contributors, and by the efforts to connect research to political action.' - Diana Liverman, University of Arizona, US'Backstrand and Loevbrand have crafted a remarkable volume, gathering over fifty cutting-edge scholars engaging every aspect of climate governance-what it has been, what it is, and what it could and should be. This is truly a one-stop shop for grasping the diversity of research on climate governance. It will engage students exploring the field, scholars seeking to understand the state of the art, and practitioners looking to make sense of the challenges of responding to this most crucial of global issues.' - Matthew Hoffman, University of Toronto, Canada 'As the ambit of climate governance has expanded out from the UN to encompass myriad actors at multiple levels, so too has the challenge of understanding the whole. This comprehensive and expertly edited Handbook provides the alpha and omega of climate governance scholarship. I confidently predict that it will become the standard reference for years to come.' - Andy Jordan, University of East Anglia, UK The 2009 United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen is often represented as a turning point in global climate politics, when the diplomatic efforts to negotiate a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol failed and was replaced by a fragmented and decentralized climate governance order. In the post-Copenhagen landscape the top-down universal approach to climate governance has gradually given way to a more complex, hybrid and dispersed political landscape involving multiple actors, arenas and sites. Drawing upon contributions from more than 50 internationally renowned scholars, the Handbook assesses the state and direction of climate governance at multilateral, EU, national and local levels. The volume mobilizes multiple scholarly traditions ranging from grand theorizing to close empirical studies of micro-political practices, and spans the ideational and the material, the historical and the contemporary, the normative and the critical. The resulting collection of chapters represents the state of the art and most recent thinking in the rich and expanding scholarship on climate politics and governance. Contributors: C.E. Adler, P. Aldunce, D. Alegria, A. Anderson, S. Andresen, C. Asberg, K. Backstrand, I. Bailey, G. Bang, S. Beck, M. Betsill, H. Betts, F. Biermann, R. Borquez, M. Bostroem, H. Bulkeley, D. Ciplet, J. de Koning, L. Dilling, R.S. Dimitrov, K. Dingwerth, C. Dupont, R. Eckersley, F. Fischer, D.R. Fisher, T. Forsyth, V. Galaz, A.M. Galli, J.F. Green, R. Grundmann, A. Gupta, J. Gupta, A. Hansson, P.G. Harris, S. Hayes, K. Hochstetler, M. Hulme, K. Indvik, V. Jankovic, S. Jasanoff, C. Karlsson, M. Khan, M. Klintman, A. Kronsell, M. Lederer, B.-O. Linner, R.D. Lipschutz, E. Loevbrand, H. Lovell, M. Mason, S. Matti, J. McGee, A. Neimanis, P. Newell, S. Oberthur, A. Oels, C. Okereke, E.A. Page, C.F. Parker, A. Persson, S. Rayner, T. Rayner, P. Revell, J.T. Roberts, H. Schroeder, B. Siebenhuner, M.M. Skutsch, P. Stalley, H. Stevenson, J. Stripple, E. Turnhout, H. van Asselt, E. Viola, J. Vogler, J. Wettestad, V. Wibeck, F. Zelli

Legitimacy is central for the capacity of global governance institutions to address problems such as climate change, trade protectionism, and human rights abuses. However, despite legitimacy's importance for global governance, its workings remain poorly understood. That is the core concern of this volume: to develop an agenda for systematic and comparative research on legitimacy in global governance. In complementary fashion, the chapters address different aspects of the overarching question: whether, why, how, and with what consequences global governance institutions gain, sustain, and lose legitimacy? The volume makes four specific contributions. First, it argues for a sociological approach to legitimacy, centered on perceptions of legitimate global governance among affected audiences. Second, it moves beyond the traditional focus on states as the principal audience for legitimacy in global governance and considers a full spectrum of actors from governments to citizens. Third, it advocates a comparative approach to the study of legitimacy in global governance, and suggests strategies for comparison across institutions, issue areas, countries, societal groups, and time. Fourth, the volume offers the most comprehensive treatment so far of the sociological legitimacy of global governance, covering three broad analytical themes: (1) sources of legitimacy, (2) processes of legitimation and delegitimation, and (3) consequences of legitimacy.

Concepts and their role in the evolution of modern environmental policy, with case studies of eleven influential concepts ranging from "environment" to "sustainable consumption." Concepts are thought categories through which we apprehend the world; they enable, but also constrain, reasoning and debate and serve as building blocks for more elaborate arguments. This book traces the links between conceptual innovation in the environmental sphere and the evolution of environmental policy and discourse. It offers both a broad framework for examining the emergence, evolution, and effects of policy concepts and a detailed analysis of eleven influential environmental concepts. In recent decades, conceptual evolution has been particularly notable in environmental governance, as new problems have emerged and as environmental issues have increasingly intersected with other areas. "Biodiversity," for example, was unheard of until the late 1980s; "negative carbon emissions" only came into being over the last few years. After a review of concepts and their use in environmental argument, chapters chart the trajectories of a range of environmental concepts: environment, sustainable development, biodiversity, environmental assessment, critical loads, adaptive management, green economy, environmental risk, environmental security, environmental justice, and sustainable consumption. The book provides a valuable resource for scholars and policy makers and also offers a novel introduction to the environmental policy field through the evolution of its conceptual categories. Contributors Richard N. L. Andrews, Karin Backstrand, Karen Baehler, Daniel J. Fiorino, Yrjoe Haila, Michael E. Kraft, Oluf Langhelle, Judith A. Layzer, James Meadowcroft, Alexis Schulman, Johannes Stripple, Philip J. Vergragt