Environmental policy, innovation and transformation: affirmative or disruptive?

Abstract

The paper firstly summarizes the approach and findings to evaluate the effectiveness of environmental policies around the globe as it was undertaken in the Sixth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-6;2019). The data gathered in GEO-6 reveals (1) a high level of institutional innovation, increasingly from the global south, (2) a lack of environmental policy integration (3) spatial and temporal dynamics and (4) the importance of the policy design. Current environmental policies are, however, not sufficient to effectively preserve natural resources and limit emissions to a sustainable level. This has led to a general recognition of the need for a transformative change that goes beyond mere improvements of efficiency. The second part of the paper analyses how environmental policies could contribute in shaping such transformations to sustainability. Transformative policies can be built on social innovations and experimentation with institutional innovation. This is compatible with incremental and sectoral policy making. However, given the complexity and stability of social systems, the outcomes of such policies are uncertain. This is why we argue for strengthening conventional, strategic environmental policies and complementing rather than replacing them with transformative policies.

How Impactful Are Public Policies on Environmental Sustainability? Debating the Portuguese Case of PO SEUR 2014–2020

“…Indeed, the presented analysis contrasts with most policy evaluations on environmental sustainability which tend to be supported by dominant economic evaluation techniques [24] based on the analysis of the sustainability mainstream conceptual triad of economy-society-environment [52,53] often following a theory-based evaluation approach searching for causal chains [54]. Crucially, much contemporary research acknowledges that sound sustainable development policies require organizational and institutional involvement [55], the analysis of environmental-related sectoral data [56], and innovation aspects related to environmental policies [54,57,58]. Currently, much attention is also placed on public regulations, NGOs' motivations and interactions between constellations of actors, [59], and international processes [60] related to environmental sustainability.…”

The Covid-19 crisis: a critical juncture for EU climate policy development?

“…The development or implementation of existing policy plans and pathways could be hastened, new decisions on (future) policy pathways could be made or resource allocation could be increased. Depending on the speed or extent of strengthening, positive change could lead to transformative EU climate policy, implying a significant break from the previous policy development path towards swift changes across sectors to mitigate and adapt to climate change (leading to societal transformation) (Jacob and Ekins 2020;Saurugger and Terpan 2016;Stark 2018).…”

Change from Within: Exploring Transformative Literacy in Public Administrations to Foster Sustainability Transitions

“…Transformations defy planning. They involve complex systems, i.e., systems whose future states are unpredictable and that are highly autonomous [18]. The direction of transformations is also hardly predictable, but determined by a competition of alternative configurations: How centralized or decentralized the energy supply should be, whether mobility should be organized on the basis of battery-electric vehicles, with hydrogen or predominantly with public transport, whether agriculture should be regionalized or made more sustainable through high-tech innovations, is disputed in each case [19].…”

“…Nevertheless, transformation processes can be influenced in a formative way (see [16][17][18]22,23]) if key actors are able to understand the current systems, and envision and contribute to the emergence of alternatives. Transformations involve complex and largely autonomous systems-a first starting point for their shaping is therefore an analysis of the structures and functions of such systems: What are the elements, the associated actors, their frameworks and structures within which they act?…”