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Sweden's 2017 Climate Act is part of a climate policy framework aiming for net zero domestic greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. The framework was based on a proposal from the All Party Committee on Environmental Objectives (the Committee), in which members from all participating parliamentary parties agreed unanimously. This was despite a contested climate debate running in parallel, notwithstanding strong criticism from business confederations and trade unions. Aiming to draw lessons of value for climate policy-making, this study explores the main factors that influenced the work and outcomes of the Committee, based on a series of in-depth interviews and document review. The research design is linked to policy process theories. The interviews mainly concern underlying motives, the role of knowledge, the influence of impact assessments, and international influence. It is shown that a continuous and comprehensive learning process in the Committee was instrumental for achieving consensus, including addressing concerns among some members regarding policy costs and constitutionality. The Committee was also influenced by policy developments elsewhere, referred to as policy diffusion, notably from the U.K. Climate Change Act and the UNFCCC COP 21 policy process. Over time, a cross-party consensus among Committee members emerged and led to the invention of an original policy proposal. The consensus was instrumental for generating support for the proposal in an otherwise conflictual political landscape. As a result, a governmental bill based on the proposal was eventually enacted into law, renewing Sweden's climate policy with a climate change act coupled to ambitious climate objectives. Key policy insights Joint learning on factually complex and normatively contested climate issues requires time and comprehensive processes but can lead to policy inventions and ambitious outcomes. Policy diffusion between countries may be important for raising ambitions and shaping innovative, new elements of national climate policy. Framework climate change acts and specific climate laws can be mutually supportive, i.e. frameworks foster more ambitious sectoral laws and the more precise sectoral laws, the easier it is to agree on stricter overall ambitions. Adoption of more stringent climate policies may require precise dismantling of arguments working against action, in particular on policy costs.

The often referred to risk-hazard divide is commonly exaggerated. With some exceptions, few in the risk camp argue against hazard classification as basis for labelling of e.g. carcinogenic substances (which has been the case for decades) and few in the hazard camp criticise the use of risk assessments, once they are established. Agencies and politicians commonly look at both sides of the coin in practise. However, improved chemicals management would benefit from further bridging the risk-hazard divide. Professor Lofstedt does a good job in arguing from a risk perspective, but he leaves out much of the other side of the coin, so in the following, I will discuss his perspectives and try to complement his recommendations.

New methodologies and concepts for developing compact and energy efficient automotive exhaust systems have been studied. This originates in the growing concern for global warming, to which road transportation is a major contributor. The focus has been on commercial vehicles—most often powered by diesel engines—for which the emission legislation has been dramatically increased over the last decade. The emissions of particulates and nitrogen oxides have been successfully reduced by the introduction of filters and catalytic converters, but the fuel consumption, which basically determines the emissions of carbon dioxides, has not been improved accordingly. The potential reduction of fuel consumption by optimising the exhaust after-treatment system (assuming fixed after-treatment components) of a typical heavy-duty commercial vehicle is ~4%, which would have a significant impact on both the environment and the overall economy of the vehicle. First, methodologies to efficiently model complex flow duct networks such as exhaust systems are investigated. The well-established linear multiport approach is extended to include flow-acoustic interaction effects. This introduces an effective way of quantifying amplification and attenuation of incident sound, and, perhaps more importantly, the possibility of predicting nonlinear phenomena such as self-sustained oscillations—whistling—using linear models. The methodology is demonstrated on T-junctions, which is a configuration well known to be prone to self-sustained oscillations for grazing flow past the side branch orifice. It is shown, and validated experimentally, that the existence and frequency of self-sustained oscillations can be predicted using linear theory. Further, the aeroacoustics of T-junctions are studied. A test rig for the full determination of the scattering matrix defining the linear three-port representing the T-junction is developed, allowing for any combination of grazing-bias flow. It is shown that the constructive flow-acoustic coupling not only varies ...

This study zooms in on public governance in the Baltic Sea region of three generations of notorious hazardous substances, namely, PCBs, PBDEs and PFOS/PFOA. Following regulation, PCB concentrations in the Baltic Sea have decreased substantially although they are still above pre-industrial levels. PBDE levels have also decreased in some places, but they too are well above targeted levels, whereas the situation for PFOS and in particular for PFOA has hardly improved at all. In the case of PCBs, while comprehensive measures took long to implement, initial preventive measures were taken early based on the precautionary principle. This contrasts with the cases of PBDEs, PFOS and PFOA, where the burden of proof on policy-makers has been high and hence caused severe delays in policymaking. There has, however, generally been a positive interplay in all three cases between the EU, which has legislated, and HELCOM, which has taken the role of concept and agenda setting. While environment-oriented policies, such as the Ecosystem Approach to Management under MSFD and BSAP, have grown in importance over time, polluter-oriented chemical legislation has been more important when it comes to final decision-making. Nevertheless, the general response has been reactive rather than proactive, and there is no indication that society responds faster today than in the past, at least not given the fact that awareness, experience and knowledge are greater today than a few decades back. Based on that insight, the article discusses various options for improving governance.

Biodiversity offsetting is an increasingly applied tool aiming to compensate for environmental damage caused by exploitation projects. Critics, however, raise concerns over the purported effectiveness of offsetting and question the ethical underpinnings and implications of offsetting. These ethical dimensions have largely been overlooked in research, which may lead to offsetting systems that fail to respect the values intended to be safeguarded. To address these dimensions, 5 ethical objections in the scientific literature were identified: offsetting violates nature's intrinsic value; losses of nature cannot be compensated for by human interventions; too little is known to make adequate trades; offsetting impedes virtuous dispositions toward nature; and offsetting has negative justice implications. We examined these objections and arguments against them based on the ethical concepts of intrinsic and instrumental values, anthropocentrism, nonanthropocentrism, and deontological, consequentialist, and virtue‐ethical paradigms. Both nonanthropocentric and anthropocentric concerns were expressed in deontological, consequential, and virtue‐ethical framings. Objections mostly had a deontological or virtue‐ethical basis, whereas counterarguments were based on consequential reasoning, but common ground in practice is often conceivable. Based on our findings, we formulated 10 recommendations for policy makers and 5 questions for practitioners to consider. We propose, for example, that policy makers clarify aims, legislate on no‐go areas, and govern the use of multipliers. We suggest that practitioners consider, for instance, how to improve case‐specific knowledge and promote learning and stakeholder engagement. We hope these recommendations and questions will encourage further discussion of the ethics of biodiversity offsets and ultimately strengthen the respect for biodiversity and human‐welfare values at stake in offsetting projects.

This study investigates if and how present institutional structures and interactions between scientific assessment and environmental management are sufficient for implementing the ecosystem approach to management (EAM) in the case of Baltic Sea eutrophication. Concerning governance structures, a number of institutions and policies focus on issues relating to eutrophication. In many cases, the policies are mutually supportive rather than contradictory, as seen, for example, in the case of the mutually supportive BSAP and MSFD. The opposite is true, however, when it comes to the linkages with some other policy areas, in particular regarding agricultural policy, where the EU CAP subsidises intensive agriculture with at best minor consideration of environmental objectives, thereby undermining EAM. Enhanced policy coherence and stricter policies on concrete measures to combat eutrophication seem well needed in order to reach stated environmental objectives. When it comes to assessment-management interactions, the science- policy interface has worked well in periods, but the more specific that policies have become, for example, in the BSAP case, the more question marks have been raised about science by affected stakeholders. At present, outright controversies exist, and EAM is far from realised in eutrophication policy in the Baltic Sea region. Besides coping with remaining uncertainties by improving the knowledge on problems and solutions– not least in terms of the socio-economic impacts of eutrophication – it may therefore be valuable to develop venues for improved stakeholder participation.

Complex socio-environmental risks challenge society. In response to scientific uncertainty and socio-political controversies, environmental governance, precaution, and the ecosystem approach to management are held forward as complements to governmental risk-based sector-restricted regulation. We analyze this development for hazardous substances in the Baltic Sea. Based on interviews and policy analysis, we study informal governance and, in particular, four central EU and international policies, and investigate how present governance relates to risks and objectives at hand. While showing emergence of broader governance approaches, we conclude that central objectives will not likely be met. Furthermore, we question the quest for broad environmental governance and emphasize the value of command and control regulation, if it implements precaution. These findings contribute to the theorizing on environmental (risk) governance. Finally, we provide some ideas that could help development and implementation of risk policies for hazardous chemicals in the Baltic Sea as well as other complex risks.