Regulatory failures, split-incentives, conflicting interests and a vicious circle of blame: the New Environmental Governance to the rescue?

Abstract

This article addresses a current trend of new environmental governance (NEG). It examines whether NEG is able to overcome a series of complex regulatory barriers and market shortfalls that stand in the way of carbon emissions reductions in the building sector. Building on an evaluation of 20 NEG arrangements from Australia and the Netherlands, it discusses the limits of the effective implementation and use of NEG in this sector. The article concludes by suggesting three strategies to improve the performance of NEG arrangements.

Linking Law andNewGovernance: Examining Gaps, Hybrids, and Integration in Water Policy

“…Much greater attention is needed to understand and explore public sector culture and how it can act as a brake on fostering innovations in implementation, particularly regarding new approaches to community engagement and collaboration (Holley and Sinclair 2011). Assistance from disciplines like behavioral economics and organization theory may help in understanding how regulatory cultures inform, enhance, or restrain particular traits and worldviews (Arup 2013;van der Heijden 2011;Soros 2008). At a descriptive level, research could ask, to what extent does agency culture act as a brake on achieving effective implementation of different governance approaches, particularly ones that rely on softer legal norms?…”

“…Debates have accordingly arisen regarding the interaction and relation of NEG's form of governance and traditional hard law (Alexander 2009;Trubek and Trubek 2007). In this context, a range of configurations between conventional law and NEG systems are being explored (Holley 2015;Wurzel, Zito, and Jordan 2013;van der Heijden 2011van der Heijden , 2012Trubek and Trubek 2007;de Búrca and Scott 2006).…”

The city politics of an urban age: urban resilience conceptualisations and policies

“…These approaches can allow local agents to act swiftly based on their in-depth understanding of the issues at smaller scales in coordination with other agents to simultaneously work towards resolving issues at larger scales. In similar vein, moving from government-led processes to more inclusive and collaborative ones that allow for citizen, civil society and private sector participation will provide another opportunity to make optimal use of tacit knowledge and challenge solutions that may otherwise seem adequate to policy-makers ( Van der Heijden, 2015).…”

Motivating Project Owners to Increase Their Commitment towards Improving the Delivery Performance of Green Building Projects

“…As the major provider, the government is responsible for these shortcomings, and industry operators, especially the project owners, often respond to them negatively. In Australia's construction industry for instance, many project owners do not respond or participate in the voluntary policies developed by the government for the purpose of enhancing broader environmentally friendly and green building practices (Van der Heijden, 2015). Still, some strategies are proposed for consideration for deployment by the government, to overcome these shortcomings.…”