Graeme Auld

Rethinking capacities of regulatory market-assurance intermediaries: the case of seafood sustainability audits Credible assurances about the invisible qualities of goods and services – such as sustainability features – are key to market governance. The theory of regulatory intermediaries offers a lens for a...

Now out in the latest issue of New Political Economy. #RegGov #fisheries #audits #intermediaries

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Would be great see a similar study in Canada.

FYI @sjcfishy.bsky.social

Great new study. Interesting possible connections here to work on regulatory intermediaries.

James C. Scott and the Art of Resistance The late political scientist enjoined readers to look for opposition to authoritarian states not in revolutionary vanguards but in acts of quiet disobedience.

Enjoyed reading this review of the late James Scott's 'In Praise of Floods' Like the idea of a flood as a river 'breathing deeply'

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

A Clean Energy Boom Was Just Starting. Now, a Republican Bill Aims to End It.

More on the storyline of whether the IRA tax incentives will survive, and what this will mean for business investment in clean energy.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/c...

Nova Scotia waters down plans to attract workers, showing limits of its ambitions to ease trade barriers The province initially made waves when it introduced legislation to remove red tape that hindered interprovincial trade

Change of direction for Nova Scotia law tackling internal barriers to trade. Time limits on licensing process rather than outright mutual recognition, but still questions of what constitutes equivalence in professional training.

www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...

Tier II CRC appointment in Health Care Governance, School of Public Policy and Administration (Health Care Governance; Health Policy; Health Services Research; Health Administration) - Office of the D... About the Position The Faculty of Public and Global Affairs at Carleton University invites applications from qualified candidates for a SSHRC Tier II Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Health Care Governa...

We are hiring. Come join an amazing group of scholars in the beautiful city of Ottawa. See below for details of Tier II CRC position in Health Care Governance.

carleton.ca/deputyprovos...

Licensing to operate: Understanding variations in regulatory outcomes in the Australian mining sector Literature on natural resources has argued that to proceed with the development of a mine, mining companies need a “licence to operate” – the approval…

New article in Resources Policy. #Openaccess

'Licensing to operate: Understanding variations in regulatory outcomes in the Australian mining sector'

Wrote this one with Lisa Mills & Jennifer Stewart. Thanks to #SSHRC for funding support.

See abstract 👇

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Ontario is killing its Endangered Species Act | The Narwhal The Doug Ford government’s Bill 5 could affect redside dace and other endangered species on the path of Highway 413

Ontario is following US approach to lessening species protections via narrowing scope.

thenarwhal.ca/ontario-enda...

Downtown L.A. Has Seen Its Share of Violence. Then Someone Went After Its Trees. The authorities said a man used a chain saw to destroy more than a dozen trees in downtown Los Angeles, an attack that saddened and rattled residents and city leaders.

A sad story on many levels.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/u...

The Battle for the Bros Young men have gone MAGA. Can the left win them back?

This was a helpful read.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

MPPA Capstone - School of Public Policy & Administration The MPPA capstone project course is the high point of the program. As a full cohort, students get the chance to solidify their ties to other students and

Curious how this work? You can watch a video we produced on the capstone course in the first year it ran.

carleton.ca/sppa/mppa-ca...

Pleased to be teaching the #MPPA capstone course again this year. Students are in for a full week focused on internal barriers to trade in Canada. So grateful to all the expert speakers who will be joining the class for two days of talks.

Interesting justifications. Seems to claim that removing rule will only provide benefits b/c it is deregulatory. I would image there are economic interests in the status quo. Would US tourism not stand to lose from this rule change?

public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-06746.pdf

Trump Administration Aims to Redefine ‘Harm’ for Endangered Species Trump officials have proposed changing a decades-old interpretation of a key word in the Endangered Species Act, which would make it much easier to log, build or drill for oil.

Removing 'harm' from the ESA means no more consideration of habitat degradation / loss as vector for endangerment.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/c...

NOAA Staffing Cuts Threaten Years of Salmon Harvests In Washington, where salmon is a multibillion dollar industry, government staff terminations and budget freezes may put salmon production at risk.

NOAA cuts effects for salmon fisheries.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/c...

It was a pleasure to attend and participate in this meeting of the UNFSS Academic Advisory Council. Lots to discuss given the rise of geoeconomics.

FYI @greenprofgreen.bsky.social @jenniferhadden.bsky.social @jeffcolgan.bsky.social @jenirisallan.bsky.social @matthoffmann.bsky.social @mattomildenberger.bsky.social @matpaterson.bsky.social @peternewell.bsky.social @stacydvandeveer.bsky.social

Green Transitions: Rethinking Political Economy in the Context of Climate Change Basak Kus, Gregory Jackson Pages: 287-302 First Published: 07 April 2025 From a cultural to a distributive issue: Public climate action as a new field for comparative political economy Hanna Schwander, Jonas Fischer Pages: 303-328 First Published: 20 August 2024 Tackling toxins: Case studies of industrial pollutants and implications for climate policy Tim Bartley, Malcolm Fairbrother Pages: 329-348 First Published: 10 September 2024 Financialization and an emerging “green investor state”: Examining China's use of state-backed funds for green transition Kasper Ingeman Beck, Mathias Larsen Pages: 349-369 First Published: 21 August 2024 Historical Foundations of Green Developmental Policies: Divergent Trajectories in United States and France Ritwick Ghosh, Stephanie Barral, Fanny Guillet Pages: 370-382 First Published: 08 October 2024 Picking Losers: Climate Change and Managed Decline in the European Union Timur Ergen, Luuk Schmitz Pages: 383-398 First Published: 06 March 2025 Climate Politics in Latin America: The Cases of Chile and Mexico Isik D. Özel Pages: 399-421 First Published: 05 March 2025 Digitalization and the green transition: Different challenges, same policy responses? Marius R. Busemeyer, Sophia Stutzmann, Tobias Tober Pages: 422-447 First Published: 03 September 2024 Decarbonization under geoeconomic distress? Energy shocks, carbon lock-ins, and Germany's pathway toward net zero Milan Babić, Daniel Mertens Pages: 448-468 First Published: 19 September 2024 Fossil Capital in the Caribbean: The Toxic Role of “Regulatory Havens” in Climate Change Jose Atiles, David Whyte Pages: 469-481 First Published: 12 February 2025 The Development of Carbon Markets in Upper-Middle-Income Countries Pieter E. Stek, Renato Lima-de-Oliveira, Thessa Vasudhevan Pages: 482-495 First Published: 05 March 2025 The Rise of Investor-Driven Climate Governance: From Myth to Insti…

Volume 19, issue 2 is now out. 📖

See the table of contents 👇
Issue includes a special issue on 'Greening the Economy: Toward a New Political Economy'

Other articles on #lobbying #implementation #intermediaries #procurement

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/17485991...

In 15 Years, 80,000 Homes in the New York Area May Be Lost to Flooding The metro region’s housing shortage is acute. But by 2040, dozens of neighborhoods and suburbs are likely to have lost thousands of homes to floods, a new report found.

A reminder that climate change cannot be ignored when trying to address other pressing policy issues, like housing.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/n...

We Did It!?

This is an inspiring initiative from UofT colleagues.

wedidit2050.ca

ABSTRACT Given the ongoing climate crisis, the frequency and severity of natural disasters are increasing. These events result in enormous reconstruction costs, pose a high burden on state budgets, and potentially drive homeowners into private insolvency. One policy instrument for collectively covering such costs is a compulsory insurance scheme for natural hazards. As the impact of natural disasters is uneven, introducing mandatory insurance regulation has a range of social and financial implications. While some European countries have introduced compulsory schemes, others have adopted different policy responses. Taking this variation as the main puzzle, I consider what factors can explain the introduction of compulsory insurance for natural hazards. Building on public risk and quiet politics literature, I identify several factors and test these against three empirical cases: Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. This analysis finds that focusing events are necessary for policy change, but the position and power of interest groups, as well as exogenous shocks within the EU context, were also crucial to explaining the introduction, rejection, and even termination of compulsory insurance schemes for natural hazards.

#Earlyview #Openaccess

'Taking Eco-Social Risks Seriously: Explaining the Introduction of Compulsory Insurance for Natural Hazards'
by @anneparth.bsky.social

#risk #naturalhazards #insurance #quietpolitics

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

The Republicans Pushing Trump to Save Biden’s Clean Energy Tax Credits Despite President Trump’s rollback of climate policy, some Republicans and business leaders say clean energy can help his “energy dominance” agenda.

Will this support be enough?

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/c...

ABSTRACT Though often framed as a technocratic tool, impact assessment is a core element of the political agenda-setting process. In this article, we show that decisions about what is subject to legislative debate are made during impact assessment; specifically, during the drafting of the assessment report. Using a social process tracing methodology, we analyze the removal from the agenda of provisions for stronger alcohol advertising rules during the revision of the EU's Audiovisual Media Services Directive. We identify and test three possible explanations for this non-decision, drawing on material not previously in the public domain, and exploring how procedural politicking in the context of the EU's Better Regulation agenda shapes the drafting process. Concluding that the non-decision on alcohol advertising regulation was most likely prompted by combined political pressure from within and outwith the Commission, we argue for greater attention to impact assessment as a tool for mobilizing bias and agenda-setting.

#Earlyview #Openaccess

'Impact Assessment as Agenda-Setting: Procedural Politicking and the Mobilization of Bias in the European Union's Audiovisual Media Services Directive'
By @eleanorbrooks.bsky.social & @kat-lauber.bsky.social

#RegGov #BetterRegulation

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Looking forward to reading these papers, particularly the first article 'Technology and International Environmental Cooperation' (by @frabitz.bsky.social) Reminds me of earlier work on role of tech in functioning of private regulation (www.cambridge.org/core/journal...)

A great cover!

A pleasure to share this post about my excellent colleague's work. 👇

Abstract Despite progress in the management of assessed fish populations, many countries lag behind international commitments to restore overexploited stocks to healthy abundances. Here we use a mixed-methods positive deviance approach, also known as ‘bright spot’ analysis, to understand what drives the successful governance of exploited species by learning from positive outliers, or ‘deviants’. We use Canada as a case study, identifying factors driving the abundance of 230 commercially exploited fish and invertebrate populations, of which only 28% were classified at healthy abundance in 2022. We first applied a generalized linear model to test how diverse socio-ecological fishery attributes relate to stock health. We found healthier stocks are positively and significantly correlated with certain management regions, more selective gears, eco-certification, and high fishery value. Counterintuitively, healthier stocks were also associated with high inherent fishing vulnerability and the absence of reference points. We then used fishery expert surveys and interviews to investigate the social and institutional characteristics of stocks healthier than expected, given their circumstances. We found that fisheries targeting these positive outliers have lower conflict among users, balanced stakeholder involvement in data collection and decision-making, and improved accounting of mortality sources. Lessons from these positive deviants can be applied to improve underperforming management systems that are struggling to reverse overexploitation in Canada and elsewhere. More generally, we suggest that a positive deviance approach, already used in public health, could be a promising tool to learn about successful fisheries management interventions, and the diverse actors responsible for ensuring these interventions are successful.

A post about an older paper. This one is an assessment of why some Canadian fish stocks do better, the same, or worse than expected, & what else might explain this divergent performance. #fisheries #openaccess

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Governing AI through ethical standards: learning from the experiences of other private governance initiatives A range of private actors are positioning varied public and private policy venues as appropriate for defining standards governing the ethical implications of artificial intelligence (AI). Three ide...

An older piece. But increasingly relevant given the more uncertain and increasingly fragmented future for AI governance & regulations.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

ABSTRACT Decarbonization forces societies to cope with the restructuring and outright unwinding of assets, firms, workers, industries, and regions. We argue that this problem has created legitimacy for industrial policies managing the reallocation of resources. We illustrate this dynamic by documenting incremental state-building in the European Union, an administration institutionally tilted toward regulatory statehood and the making of the Single Market in energy since the 1990s. European greening policies, we argue, have incrementally lessened the primacy of regulatory tools and have introduced a plethora of instruments to accelerate green restructuring and carbon unwinding. Best understood as a process of multi-sited institutional layering, the European Union increasingly appears to complement financial and regulatory instruments to effect green energy transitions with the management of decline in targeted regions and sectors, based on targeted funds and targeted transition planning.

#Earlyview #Openaccess

'Picking Losers: Climate Change and Managed Decline in the European Union'
by @trgn.bsky.social & @luukschmitz.bsky.social
#Climatechange #industrialpolicy #RegGov #EU

Abstract below 👇

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....