Humanity currently faces an existential crisis: anthropogenic climate change. In order to guarantee our survival on a stable planet, immediate mitigation and adaption strategies must be implemented. However, institutions are failing to live up to the task and a concrete action plan is currently non-existent, as climate governance struggles with fragmentation, commitment, and challenges posed by neoliberalism. Since the top-down approach is insufficient, extra-institutional actors are arising as leaders for the environmental agenda.  This study narrows down on Greta Thunberg and assesses her capacity in leading the climate movement. The applicability of frame theory (Benford and Snow, 2000) will be tested to understand the mobilisation potential of Greta’s discourse. The main focus of this examination is to analyse how Greta has used diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational collective action frames in order to place the limelight on the seriousness of climate change and correspondingly how this has led to civil society mobilisation. Through a discourse analysis of her speeches, it was discovered that the framing perspective plays a role in meaning construction for the movement.

The concept of “Environmental authoritarian” becomes the focus of discussion in the academic field of environmental politics since it has limited observations. In the recent years, the severe air pollute issue is considered as a threat by both citizens and authorities in China. Along with the more stricter environmental protection laws being issued, even the measures of the factory closings and coal ban seems to become acceptable as the population  have suffered in the heavy smog for years. Does this led to the rise of “environmental authoritarian” in China?  Taking this as a heuristic point, I observe the positions of various stakeholders in the environmental governance as well as present the findings from research on the implementation and enforcement of air pollution controls measures in Jing-Jin-Ji region. I offer a critical examination of “environmental authoritarian”, especially the levels of public participation at the policy process. After to do the research, the key funding is that the concept of “Environmental authoritarian” is too simplified, it cannot cover the complex and detailed environmental governance at local empirical cases.

Loss of biodiversity and interest in the promises of the bioeconomy creates pressure on forests and implications for their governance. In Sweden, forest policy for the protection of biodiversity is known as “freedom with responsibility”, which puts an onus on the many private forest owners in the country to reverse the critical loss of biodiversity. In this thesis, I explore Swedish forest governance through the narratives of private forest owners and highlight possible tensions between the design and implementation of policy for biodiversity. I use concepts from feminist political ecology and environmental justice to form a lens to highlight the experience of forest owners. I combine semi-structured interviews with transect walks to explore the views of private forest owners from Central and Southern Sweden. In doing so, I seek to highlight the partial knowledges and the personal narrative of persons involved in Swedish forestry. I find that current forest governance does not attend to the multilayered and complex emotions and attachments that forest owners have for their forests, which leads to a discrepancy between the design and implementation of policy for biodiversity protection. In accordance with previous research, this thesis highlights how the deregulated Swedish forest policy instead strengthens the narrative of forestry for production. With increasing pressure from both inside and outside Swedish forestry for more close-to-nature forestry management and alignment of multiple values, a remaining question is whether Swedish forest policy will attend to the pressure or continue following the narrative of the bioeconomy.

This article provides reflections on the role of ecological expertise as a tool of environmental governance. It examines the importance of State Ecological Expertise (SEE) in maintaining the ecological balance and its influence on the decision-making process for various activities. The article examines the principles and considerations underlying SEE, its impact on sustainable development and the potential implications of its assessments. By examining the relationship between ecological expertise and environmental conservation, the article aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the instrumental role of SEE in environmental governance and sustainable resource management. In this article we reflect on the concept, importance and functioning of the State Ecological Expertise (SEE) as an independent legal institution. SEE plays an important role in monitoring the preservation of the ecological balance of the environment and in providing preliminary state control to prevent potential negative impacts on the environment. We discuss the factors considered in SEE assessments, the activities subject to mandatory SEE and the implications of the opinions issued as a result of SEE. We also examine the procedural aspects of SEE, including the requirements for the composition of the documentation submitted for the State Environmental Impact Assessment. Through this reflection, we aim to improve the understanding of the role and importance of SEE in the system of expert activity of public authorities to prevent negative impacts on the environment. This abstract is based on the concept, meaning and functioning of State Ecological Expertise (SEE) as described in the provided search results.

This thesis seeks to promote a clearer understanding of relationships between trade liberalization and environmental quality in a free trade zone along an international border, between countries unevenly matched in development and infrastructure. Specifically, it examines whether theories of environmental degradation provide appropriate models for explaining the impact of NAFTA on the environment in the Paso del Norte. The relationship between trade liberalization and environmental quality is examined through an analysis of environmental indicators in the decade preceding and following NAFTA. Finally, the role of environmental governance is addressed, especially the intricacies involved in multi-jurisdictional governance of the environment. The research indicates that trade liberalization is not necessarily environmentally harmful. The data suggest that NAFTA had little to no direct negative impact on the region's environmental condition, but they also do not provide evidence that NAFTA improved the environment. One factor that could have helped to limit its effects may be local, interstate, and international initiatives that improved the health of the ecosystem along the border before NAFTA was even conceived. Another factor is the environmental governance in place before and after NAFTA. Thus, it may be beneficial for trade liberalization agreements to address environmental concerns as integral parts of the negotiations, and to set requirements for meeting infrastructure demands, as the agreements are implemented. Furthermore, it is important that international environmental institutions established to monitor environmental cooperation be more closely associated with the trade cooperation organizations and be given the authority needed to complete their directives more effectively. / Master of Arts

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Gerad D. Middendorf / In the almost 40 years since the passage of the Clean Water Act and 25 years of regulating nonpoint source pollution, and despite countless state and local community projects focused on water quality issues, clean water goals have not been met. To comprehend this failure and understand how water resources are governed and how water quality goals are pursued, I explore how watershed-level governance structures emerged and function in their specific local environment, within the state hierarchy of water governance, and as implementation of state and national policy. To this end, the structure, process, and outcomes of two newly organized and local watershed-level governance structures in Kansas were examined. An actor-oriented political ecology approach informed by environmental governance and watershed management literature was used to guide the study. Attaining water quality goals necessitates recognizing the connections between the political economy of agriculture, the cultural factors acting upon agricultural producers, and the natural, biophysical environment. Thusly, a comparative case study strategy was employed for the overall research design. Documents and interview transcripts were analyzed employing a grounded theory approach for differences and similarities; they were also sorted into topical categories and coded for common themes. The research questions focused on the agency and capacity of local watershed structures to determine the relations regarding water resource use in their watershed. Central questions addressed structure responsiveness to local versus state or national concerns; the underlying interests reflected by community member participation; and the effectiveness of local water-governance in protecting water resources. Governance models that began with holistic, alternative, participatory strategies are evolving into targeted, problem-solution strategies, and what began as watershed management is becoming problem shed management.

Gas exploration and production at sea and on land is a recent phenomenon in South Africa. The reason for the sudden interest in gas exploration and production on land is that it may prove to be a solution to the need for cleaner forms of energy and provides the possibility for South Africa to move away from coal-based energy. In order to achieve this transition while keeping economic development intact, South Africa is in need of a “greener” option. Gas is considered the most environmentally friendly fossil fuel and therefore provides South Africa with this much needed “greener” option. The uncertainty about the nature and extent of the environmental impacts regarding gas exploration and production suggests that an efficient and effective energy and environmental law and policy framework is still needed to regulate onshore and offshore gas exploration and production during all phases of its life cycle. It furthermore requires of the authorities that they establish and enhance environmental protection and sustainability during all gas exploration and production operations in order to ensure that the environmental impacts that may occur during such operations are addressed in a holistic and integrated manner. This study focuses on conventional gas. South Africa’s energy and environmental law and policy framework that regulates gas exploration does not cover the entire life cycle of onshore and offshore gas activities. It is of paramount importance that the current fragmentation in the country’s existing energy and environmental regulatory framework be addressed and that a sufficient environmental governance regime, as envisaged in this study, is established. This will enable the administering agents to actively promote and maintain the welfare of the people, the ecosystems, the essential ecological processes and the biodiversity of South Africa, while promoting the utilisation of living natural resources on a sustainable basis to the benefit of all South Africans, present and future, as pledged in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. / LLM (Environmental Law and Governance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Gas exploration and production at sea and on land is a recent phenomenon in South Africa. The reason for the sudden interest in gas exploration and production on land is that it may prove to be a solution to the need for cleaner forms of energy and provides the possibility for South Africa to move away from coal-based energy. In order to achieve this transition while keeping economic development intact, South Africa is in need of a “greener” option. Gas is considered the most environmentally friendly fossil fuel and therefore provides South Africa with this much needed “greener” option. The uncertainty about the nature and extent of the environmental impacts regarding gas exploration and production suggests that an efficient and effective energy and environmental law and policy framework is still needed to regulate onshore and offshore gas exploration and production during all phases of its life cycle. It furthermore requires of the authorities that they establish and enhance environmental protection and sustainability during all gas exploration and production operations in order to ensure that the environmental impacts that may occur during such operations are addressed in a holistic and integrated manner. This study focuses on conventional gas. South Africa’s energy and environmental law and policy framework that regulates gas exploration does not cover the entire life cycle of onshore and offshore gas activities. It is of paramount importance that the current fragmentation in the country’s existing energy and environmental regulatory framework be addressed and that a sufficient environmental governance regime, as envisaged in this study, is established. This will enable the administering agents to actively promote and maintain the welfare of the people, the ecosystems, the essential ecological processes and the biodiversity of South Africa, while promoting the utilisation of living natural resources on a sustainable basis to the benefit of all South Africans, present and future, as pledged in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. / LLM (Environmental Law and Governance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

A policy mechanism known as REDD+ (‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, and enhancing forest carbon stocks and conservation’) is designed to contribute to climate change mitigation efforts and simultaneously support developing countries’ national development agendas. This is effected by providing REDD+ host countries with financial incentives to produce measurable reductions in carbon emissions beyond what would have occurred without REDD+. Indonesia is a key target of the REDD+ mechanism for several reasons, eg: (i) its forests support 10% of the world's remaining tropical rain forests and represent the fourth largest forest carbon stock globally, (ii) 80% of its GHG emissions result from deforestation and forest degradation, and (iii) it has the potential to reduce up to 120 million tons of CO2 per year. Consequently, to date Indonesia has received donor’s commitments of nearly US$2 billion for REDD+ development. Given this profile, Indonesia’s success in implementing REDD+ can contribute significantly to the efficacy of REDD+ globally. However, achieving this potential is undermined by a set of long-standing problems inherent within Indonesia’s forest institutions, including issues of corruption, coordination, uncertainty in the forests’ legal system, capacity to manage forests at multiple levels of government, and the use of forest concessions to consolidate political power. This thesis asks the primary research question: <b>“How do REDD+ institutions effect governance reform within Indonesia’s existing national and sub-national forest institutions?”</b> 'Institutionalism', in particular the concept of 'institutional interplay' is the main conceptual framework deployed and grounded in the context of the vertical interplay between the internationally-formulated REDD+ mechanism and Indonesia's forest institutions. Guided by the themes that emerged from the data collected, this research explored and expanded certain analytical approaches within the perspectives of institutionalism and governance, namely ‘historical institutionalism’, ‘clientelism’, 'critical juncture', ‘policy networks’ and ‘social learning’. This thesis adopted the ‘four paper route’ and employed mixed methods of data collection (ie interview, shadowing, and policy document review). It found that during the process of institutional interplay as REDD+ institutions deployed the principles of good governance, advanced a robust system of measurement, reporting and verification of reductions in carbon emission, attracted large funding, and involved a broad range and multi-scale of actors, the REDD+ mechanism produced 'collateral benefits'. The tangible form of these benefits was the production of new policy instruments, eg the 'national REDD+ strategy' (paper 2), 'one map initiative' (paper 3), and ‘village agreement’ (paper 4) through which a significant body of evidence showed the capability of REDD+ to effect governance reform within and beyond Indonesia's forestry sector. Paper 1, revealed how policy actors perceived REDD+ and as such provides the basis of these three papers. The positive results of institutional interplay that occurred were determined not only by the characteristic of REDD+ institutions themselves but also by the existence of domestic reformists and the national reform agenda.

O meio ambiente se apresenta como um dos desafios da governança global no que se refere às abordagens de Relações Internacionais e Ciência Política. Isso se deve ao fato de que os recursos naturais não se submetem à soberania direta do Estado e/ou das organizações internacionais formais como fonte de autoridade devido à transnacionalidade que o tema enseja. Neste sentido, os diferentes atores das relações internacionais, estatais e não estatais, precisam construir arenas de atuação, criar regulamentações onde os Estados (eventualmente) não estão presentes, e criar instrumentos de enforcement e compliance. No entanto, a centralidade das questões ambientais é colocada em xeque por teorias racionalistas de relações internacionais baseadas na autoridade do Estado e de sua capacidade de enforcement top-down. O meio ambiente é um assunto melhor considerado por arenas transnacionais em um contexto multinível e policêntrico. Neste sentido, a análise em nível local e a capacidade de organização de grupos sociais na constituição dos arranjos institucionais através da ação coletiva para solucionar a possível \"tragédia dos comuns\" tem atraído estudiosos que procuram demonstrar a sua efetividade e, consequentemente, a sua contribuição para a resolução das contendas ambientais globais. Desta forma, o objetivo deste trabalho é demonstrar como a relação entre a governança dos recursos de uso comum em âmbito local vincula-se aos instrumentos de governança global definidos por governos e organizações internacionais formais para o uso da biodiversidade. Inicialmente, realiza-se revisão bibliográfica da literatura de Relações Internacionais e Ciência Política para articular as questões ambientais entre o local e o global para, posteriormente, revelar como a governança ambiental multinível e policêntrica é estabelecida para o caso do uso da biodiversidade em comunidades locais na Amazônia brasileira, como apresentado no trabalho empírico. / The environment is presented as one of the challenges of global governance with regard to the approaches of International Relations and Political Science. This is due to the fact that natural resources are not subjected to the direct sovereignty of the State and/or formal international organizations as a source of authority because of the transnationality that the subject entails. In this sense, the different actors of International Relations, State and non-State, need to build action arenas, create regulations where States (eventually) are not present, and create instruments of enforcement and compliance. However, the centrality of environmental issues is kept in check by rationalist theories of International Relations based on States\' authority and ability to top-down enforcement. The environment is a subject better considered in transnational arenas in a multilevel and polycentric context. In this sense, the analysis at the local level and the organizational ability of social groups in the constitution of institutional arrangements through collective action to address the possible \"tragedy of the commons\" has attracted scholars seeking to demonstrate its effectiveness and, consequently, their contribution for the resolution of global environmental issues. Thus, the aim of this study is to demonstrate how the relationship between the governance of the common-pool resources at the local level is linked to the global governance instruments set by governments and formal international organizations for the use of biodiversity. Initially, a literature review of International Relations and Political Science literature is carried out to articulate environmental issues between the local and the global to reveal how the multilevel and polycentric environmental governance is established in the case of the use of biodiversity in local communities in the Brazilian Amazon, as shown in the empirical work.