Earth System Governance Journal

Overshoot: How the World Surrendered to Climate Breakdown, Andreas Malm, Wim Carton, Verso, New York (2024), p. 401, $29.95 hardback

📚 New book review

🌍 Coralie Boulard & Valeria Zambianchi review Overshoot by Andreas Malm and @wimcarton.bsky.social, unpacking the idea that #climate targets can be temporarily exceeded on the promise of future carbon removals.
🔗 Read the review here:
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SDGs and living wages: Can global goals steer private sector sustainability? Global goals are theorized to catalyze non-state actors' existing strategies and practices to promote sustainable development. This research examines …

🎯 Do global goals reshape corporate practice?
Elizabeth A. Bennett finds the #SDGs accelerated the #LivingWage movement, shifting priorities and mobilizing resources. Yet worker gains remain limited, with progress also shaped by due diligence and ESG norms.
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📊 Working on an exciting new dataset? We want to hear from you!

📣 The ESG Journal is launching a new manuscript type – “Dataset Insights” – dedicated to showcasing datasets. Submit yours.

🔗 More information here: www.sciencedirect.com/journal/eart...

Unpacking adaptation lock-ins: Explaining the persistence of the adaptation gap Climate change adaptation is increasingly outpaced by accelerating climate risks, resulting in a persistent and widening adaptation gap. Many current …

🌡️ Why does #climate #adaptation keep lagging behind accelerating risks?

🔒 Nicolas Jager et al. argue that adaptation lock-ins create self-reinforcing dynamics that trap institutions in incremental, maladaptive pathways widening the adaptation gap.

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From 'Predict and Provide' towards 'Reduce Demand': institutionalising Wellbeing Economy discourse in Welsh transport policy This study analyses institutional change in the Welsh transport sector, focusing on how the wellbeing economy discourse is being institutionalised in …

🚉 Can a #wellbeing economy reshape #transport governance?

Querine Kommandeur analyses how #Wales institutionalises wellbeing discourse. While discourse and procedures shift, power and resources lag, revealing uneven change.

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Navigating just transitions: Trade union strategies and climate delay in North Sea energy politics This article investigates conditions under which just transition (JT) – a union concept reconciling worker protection with environmental imperatives –…

⚖️ Can #JustTransition delay #climate action?

Steven J. Harry & @tomasmaltby.bsky.social show how union inclusion (Norway) and exclusion (UK) both produce climate delay in North Sea #energy politics through different mechanisms.

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Explaining Ethiopia’s engagement in multilateral climate transparency arrangements: Why engage and with what implications for domestic climate action? Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), countries report on their climate actions through engaging in ever more elab…

🌍 How do #LeastDevelopedCountries engage with #UNFCCC transparency arrangements?
Rahwa Kidane et al. examine factors that enable/hinder engagement in #Ethiopia and show it doesn’t directly shape domestic decisions, but may normalize mitigation-focused action.
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Framing analysis of Japan and China's response to Fukushima water discharge: Technical rationality vs local experience This study examines how China and Japan competed to frame the Fukushima water discharge while constructing domestic and international legitimacy. Usin…

🌊 How do states compete to legitimize environmental risk?
Chenxi Sun et al. show how #Japan framed #Fukushima water discharge as “scientific safety,” while #China countered with an “environmental justice” frame stressing risk and responsibility.
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Corporate earth system accountability: Governance strategies to reduce microplastic pollution from consumer products Microplastics released as consumers use products are a significant, yet largely unregulated, source of global pollution. Enhancing corporate earth sys…

🛞 Who should be accountable for #microplastics from everyday product use?
Peter Dauvergne argues that tire wear—one of the largest sources—cannot be addressed by consumer responsibility. He calls for international standards and extended producer responsibility
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📢 New paper where @henrikselin.bsky.social & @noelleselin.bsky.social question the conceptual and political usefulness of applying the planetary boundary framework to chemical pollution, warning it may hinder inclusive and effective governance.

🎯🌍 Is goal-setting an effective strategy for global sustainability governance?

This new special issue takes stock of a decade of #SDGs implementation, asking what goal-setting has actually delivered for global sustainability—and where its limits lie:
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Did the first global Stocktake successfully assess progress towards the Paris goals ‘in light of equity’? The Global Stocktake (GST) is designed to be at the heart of the Paris Agreement's ratcheting mechanism towards achieving the Paris goals. It has a ma…

⚖️ #Equity and the #GlobalStocktake (GST)

Sonja Klinsky et al. assess whether the first Global Stocktake (2023) was conducted “in the light of equity.” Despite procedural innovations, equity was only weakly integrated, with lessons for future GST cycles.

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National and voluntary sustainability standards: Convergence or divergence? Insights from Indonesian agri-food export sectors Voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) are market-based mechanisms promoting sustainability in agri-food value chains. VSS can create challenges rel…

🌿 How do voluntary vs national #SustainabilityStandards differ?
Muhamad Amin Rifai et al. examine Indonesia’s palm oil and tea sectors. VSS are stricter, but NSS increasingly converge; markets drive VSS adoption while regulatory compliance drives NSS.
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Beyond the formal spotlight−Unravelling side events in multilateral environmental negotiations: a review Multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), a key element of global environmental governance, and their associated agreement-making processes have b…

🧭 How do side events shape global environmental negotiations?

Chloé Taillandier et al. review 31 studies to show that side events at MEA #COPs fulfil 26 distinct functions—from agenda-setting to long-term impacts—yet remain understudied beyond the #UNFCCC.

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How to enhance continuity of strategic sustainable development work in municipalities and regions – findings from Sweden and Finland Despite numerous initiatives, methodologies and approaches, municipalities and regions continue to face challenges in sustaining long-term efforts tow…

🌱 Why do local sustainability efforts stall over time?
Lisa Wälitalo et al. identify 8 conditions for continuity—from active leadership & communication to inclusiveness & capacity-building—based on long-term action research in Sweden & Finland.
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New paper on NGO influence on biodiversity protection in international organizations! We show how NGOs have influence through horizontal venue-shopping in international organizations with a variety of data from global venues 🌱 With Matilda Petersson @esg-journal.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.es...

Special drawing rights and ecological vulnerability: Monetary hierarchy and the translation of values Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) have regained prominence as international institutions search for ways to respond to recurring financial crises, rising …

🌍 Can Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) advance ecological goals?

@nicolaslaurence.bsky.social shows that ecological concerns in SDR debates are reframed as issues of liquidity and debt, making them visible but limiting their transformative power.

Article: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Ecosystem (dis)services matter for conservation policies: Insights from Nepal Ecosystem services have gained increasing policy relevance for their dual role in promoting biodiversity conservation and supporting human well-being.…

🌱 How do conservation laws treat ecosystem (dis)services?
Daya Subedi et al. review 111 laws in Nepal and find ecosystem services are increasingly included, but disservices rarely noted. Policies lean toward commercial conservation, sidelining local communities.
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Conceptualizing transformative change for global environmental governance The notion of transformative change has attracted increasing attention from research and policy communities as societies struggle with the nature and …

📢 New paper out by @anoukfransen.bsky.social, @harrietbulkeley.bsky.social & Jeffrey Blackwatters on the contested concept of "transformative change" for global #environmental governance.
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Congratulations to the editors on this special achievement Dhanasree Jayaram, Cristina Inoue, Louis Kotzé, Ana Flavia Barros Platiau, Verônica Korber Gonçalves, Annisa Triyanti, Timothy A. Balag'kutu.

Thank you also to the contributors and the core team of the ESG Journal @esg-journal.bsky.social

Ecosystems republics Despite global efforts towards sustainability and conservation, as per the latest Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosys…

🌱 What if states were reorganized into "ecosystem republics", governed by and for nature?

Nupur Chowdhury proposes a Gandhian model of decentralized governance grounded in swaraj and ahimsa to protect ecological integrity.

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Fund more, fly less: A hybrid meeting cycle for more effective and equitable climate governance The annual United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's Conference of Parties (COP) has long served as a keystone of global climate diploma…

🌍 Are annual UN climate COPs unsustainable?

💸 Thang Nam Do argues their carbon and financial cost limits low-income groups' participation and proposes biennial in-person COPs alternating with virtual sessions to free resources for inclusion & frontline action.

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Unpacking and repacking bundles of rights: Modular property rights regime for natural resource governance under complexity Effective governance of natural resources has become increasingly vital in the face of accelerating socio-ecological transformations. In recent decade…

🌏 How can property rights adapt to complex socio-ecological systems?

Kaiwen Zhang et al. propose a layer recomposition framework that repackages rights by resource systems and ecosystem services, enabling modular, adaptive, and localized governance.

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Solar middle ground: NGOs as regulatory intermediaries in renewable energy governance Renewable energy, solar in particular, has become central to global decarbonization efforts. Yet its deployment often exposes tensions between central…

☀️ How do NGOs shape the solar transition on the ground?

Avri Eitan & Shira Bukchin-Peles show how NGOs in Israel’s solar sector act as regulatory intermediaries, bridging regulators, developers & communities to smooth governance frictions.

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Multi-level salmon governance and adaptation to institutional change in Indigenous fishing communities in Kamchatka, Russia

🐟 How do Indigenous and state systems coexist in governing salmon?

Tatiana Degai et al. co-develop an analysis with Indigenous fishers & scholars on how Kamchatka’s communities navigate top-down Russian governance while sustaining traditional salmon practices.

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Sustainability transitions in corporations: The influence of the sustainable development goals on corporate financial performance Scholarly, there is growing interest in corporations transitioning towards adopting SDGs. However, there is still a gap in understanding how the SDGs …

📊 How do the #SDGs shape corporate behavior?

Xue Ruo Ng et al. show how Malaysian firms’ voluntary disclosure of SDG 13 efforts links to stronger financial performance: narrowing info gaps, boosting investor confidence, & driving sustainability efforts.

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Beyond depoliticization and divisive antagonism: Rethinking fear, anger, and anxiety in environmental politics Negative eco-emotions such as fear, anger, and anxiety are becoming increasingly widespread as the consequences of the ongoing climate crisis are gett…

🍃 Fear, anger & anxiety are often seen as harmful in climate politics. Kristin Hällmark argues they can instead foster democratic engagement: fear re-politicizes debate, anger builds identities, and anxiety roots belonging in ecological interconnectedness.

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Advising decision-makers: a new typology of scientific bodies in global environmental governance

🔬 Scientific advice in global environmental governance: how do bodies differ?

Bridging epistemic communities & STS literatures, Veronique Fournier develops a new 4-type typology based on interaction & diversity, categorizing 14 MEA advisory bodies.

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Of time, whales, and other assets This Perspective offers some reflections on how multiple times are entangled in the current moment of living on a planet pushed beyond its limits and …

🐋 What does it mean to turn whales into assets?

📑 Valbona Muzaka reflects on the “whale bond,” a strange product of "speculative delirium". She highlights the fallacy of seeking escape by turning life and ecosystem services into asset forms.

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What space for justice? The just energy transition partnership with South Africa Energy transformations not only reveal multi-dimensional claims for just distribution, recognition, and procedures, but also how justice claims depend…

⚖️ What notions of justice shape #SouthAfrica’s #EnergyTransition?

Konrad Gürtler analyses debates on the #JETP. Interviews show claims to address past injustices, focus on international talks, and rising subnational concerns over infrastructure and ownership
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