Suchergebnisse

Investigation of the conditions under which formal stakeholder consultations of the Directorate General Energy of the European Commission can help integrate climate change policy in energy policy in the European Union suggests that stakeholder consultations that aim at producing soft law and binding recommendations are rather insular, have low diversity of participants, and do not integrate climate change issues. Forums that aim at providing a discussion platform have higher diversity and integrate climate change issues to a certain extent. Stakeholder consultations can facilitate climate policy integration in European Union energy policy, as they take place early in the policy process. However, integration requires political commitment, and a concrete structure and format of the consultations that would facilitate integration.

Investigation of the conditions under which formal stakeholder consultations of the Directorate General Energy of the European Commission can help integrate climate change policy in energy policy in the European Union suggests that stakeholder consultations that aim at producing soft law and binding recommendations are rather insular, have low diversity of participants, and do not integrate climate change issues. Forums that aim at providing a discussion platform have higher diversity and integrate climate change issues to a certain extent. Stakeholder consultations can facilitate climate policy integration in European Union energy policy, as they take place early in the policy process. However, integration requires political commitment, and a concrete structure and format of the consultations that would facilitate integration.

Global environmental assessments are widely considered to play a prominent role in environmental governance. However, they are also criticised for a lack of effectiveness in informing policy and decision-making. In response, GEAs have adopted a number of strategies to bolster their effectiveness, including by orienting themselves towards solutions (solution-orientation), increasing the diversity of included experts (participation), and producing more targeted assessments (contextualisation). In this article, we analyse these strategies as attempts to be effective for multiple audiences while also identifying the limitations of these strategies. Based on this analysis, we propose to conceive of GEAs as processes that are able to empower diverse actors – ranging from diplomats in international negotiations to civil society activists, or indigenous and local knowledge holders – to act towards socio-environmental objectives. Seen in this light, the effectiveness of GEAs can be improved by reflecting on which actors can benefit from assessments and how assessments can contribute to their empowerment. This strategy goes beyond current proposals that aim to strengthen the authority of assessments by boosting the scientific quality and credibility of the reports. Indeed, it complements them with an explicitly political perspective. Using examples of empowerment in different phases of GEA production and use, we argue that this reconceptualisation of effectiveness requires assessments to reflect a diversity of problem and solution frames, thereby creating entry points for the empowerment of a broad range of actors. We conclude by providing three illustrative ideas to improve effectiveness for the design and execution of assessments.

Linking knowledge with action for effective societal responses to persistent problems of unsustainability requires transformed, more open knowledge systems. Drawing on a broad range of academic and practitioner experience, we outline a vision for the coordination and organization of knowledge systems that are better suited to the complex challenges of sustainability than the ones currently in place. This transformation includes inter alia: societal agenda setting, collective problem framing, a plurality of perspectives, integrative research processes, new norms for handling dissent and controversy, better treatment of uncertainty and of diversity of values, extended peer review, broader and more transparent metrics for evaluation, effective dialog processes, and stakeholder participation. We set out institutional and individual roadmaps for achieving this vision, calling for well-designed, properly resourced, longitudinal, international learning programs.