Beyond environmental moralism and policy incrementalism in the global sustainability debate: case studies and an alternative framework

Yanarella, Ernest J.; Bartilow, Horace A.

doi:10.1002/1099-1719(200008)8:3<123::aid-sd137>3.0.co;2-s

Cited by 20 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…These included the clash between economic rationalism and environmentalism, as well as the way environmental issues were constructed (as a market failure, for example) [52,58,65,79,80,86,[113][114][115]. The framing of discussion and differences in language used between groups were also found to be impediments [48,65,81,83,107,116].…”

Section: Interrelated Structural Causesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In some cases, policy goals were too vague or broad to be converted into actions [31,60,84,90,93,98,104,113]. Voisey and O'Riordan [60], for example, studied the governance arrangements for sustainable development across the UK and found that the specifications of targets contained in the White Paper and strategy were weak, resulting in very limited action.…”

Section: Implementation Trapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bromley [65] found that setting pollution targets in the USA resulted in a policy 'lock-in' that was not able to respond to a dynamic market. A lack of coherence between policies and objectives was a problem [48,87,100,104,113,120]. Heinzle and Wüstenhagen [120] demonstrated in Germany that revising eco-labelling to accommodate industry demands undermined its effectiveness in informing green consumers.…”

Section: Implementation Trapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In most cases, authors identified an overarching lack of dedicated funding, time, or other resources to achieve environmentally sustainable objectives [34,36,47,51,[53][54][55]61,69,72,90,93,98,113,119,121]. In other cases, the tasks required of institutions were found to be beyond the resources allocated to them [48,49,60,87,110,122].…”

Section: Implementation Trapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The third was community opposition to environmentally sustainable policies/actions [82,92,93]. Finally, a lack of community awareness/knowledge of sustainability issues was also identified as a result of communication failure [33][34][35]44,51,53,[58][59][60]62,63,74,75,77,87,90,111,113,115].…”

Section: Implementation Trapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Environmental Sustainability: A Case of Policy Implementation Failure?

et al. 2017

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For a generation, governments around the world have been committed to sustainable development as a policy goal. This has been supported by an array of new policies ranging from international agreements, to national strategies, environmental laws at many levels of government, regional programs, and local plans. Despite these efforts, decades of scientific monitoring indicate that the world is no closer to environmental sustainability and in many respects the situation is getting worse. This paper argues that a significant contributing factor to this situation is policy implementation failure. A systematic review of the literature reveals that the failure to achieve the intended outcomes of environmental policies is due to economic, political and communication factors. Conflict between the objectives of environmental policies and those focused on economic development, a lack of incentives to implement environmental policies, and a failure to communicate objectives to key stakeholders are all key factors that contribute to the inability to attain environmental sustainability.

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Section: Interrelated Structural Causesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Implementation Trapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Implementation Trapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Implementation Trapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Implementation Trapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Environmental Sustainability: A Case of Policy Implementation Failure?

et al. 2017

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Why is ecological sustainability so difficult to achieve? An in‐context discussion of conceptual barriers

Wolters

2022

Sustainable Development

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Despite all kinds of environmental goals and programmes, there has been a severe overshooting of the planet's ecological boundaries. The paper investigates various conceptual barriers contributing to the lack of ecological sustainability. The concepts discussed are weak sustainability, eco-efficiency, ecological modernization, and neoliberalism. This paper's empirical field comprises the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and what preceded them. It is about the report Our Common Future, the green economy, ecological modernization and the Millennium Development Goals. Even with partially positive effects, these programmes have not fulfilled their promises. The various conceptual barriers are recognizable in these programmes; they are exponents of an unshaken belief in efficient markets and conventional economic growth. This appears to be the overriding issue as economic growth in terms of GDP does not respect ecological boundaries, so that ecological sustainability comes closer to being realized. Neoliberalism-coupled with the power of the World Bank and the IMF and their long maintained "market fundamentalism"-has produced unsatisfactory outcomes in the social and ecological domains. The various crises during the last decades have caused governments to expand their roles, but every time this happened under the promise of a speedy return to normal, that is, small government and austerity. Ecological sustainability requires strong governmental roles. This paper does not provide a complete path towards ecological sustainability but discusses three possible conceptual foundations for it: steady-state economics, eco-development, and post-growth economics.

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A framework of sustainable behaviours that can be enabled through the design of neighbourhood‐scale developments

Williams

Dair

2006

Sustainable Development

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The purpose of this paper is to present, and explain, the development of a framework of sustainable behaviours that can, potentially, be enabled through the design of neighbourhood-scale developments. To be sustainable, such developments need to be technically sustainable (i.e. in terms of materials, construction methods and so on) and to support behavioural sustainability by their residents. This paper focuses on the latter. Drawn from a literature review, the paper presents eight sustainable behaviours that are argued to be enabled by specific design features of neighbourhood developments. These are the following: use less energy in the home; use less water in the home; recycle waste; maintain and encourage biodiversity and ecologically important habitats; make fewer and shorter journeys by fuel inefficient modes of transport; make essential journeys by fuel efficient modes of transport; take part in local community groups, local decision making and local formal and informal social activities and use local services, amenities and businesses. Both theory and empirical evidence underpinning the claimed relationships between the design features and the eight behaviours are presented. The framework, and accompanying explanations, are offered as tools for further research, and as references for practitioners such as urban designers, architects and planners seeking some clarity on designing for behavioural sustainability at the neighbourhood scale. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

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Beyond environmental moralism and policy incrementalism in the global sustainability debate: case studies and an alternative framework

Cited by 20 publications

References 4 publications

Environmental Sustainability: A Case of Policy Implementation Failure?

Environmental Sustainability: A Case of Policy Implementation Failure?

Why is ecological sustainability so difficult to achieve? An in‐context discussion of conceptual barriers

A framework of sustainable behaviours that can be enabled through the design of neighbourhood‐scale developments

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