The role of product labelling schemes in shaping more sustainable production and consumption systems

To facilitate more sustainable consumption different actors have introduced various labelling schemes providing information about a product’s environmental, social or other attributes. Based on case studies of existing labelling schemes this paper analyses how sustainability related product labels try to shape the production and consumption system by enabling political consumerism and facilitating a more sustainable modification of the supply chain. Labelling schemes are thereby understood as representing a new form of governance, which to be effective, needs the legitimisation from all actors that are essential for these processes. On the one hand this offers opportunities from empowering non-governmental actors and being dissolved from national boundaries; on the other hand it sets clear limitations for the instrument

Scientists as policy actors: a study of the language of biofuel research

Theory suggests that the influence of science on policy will be greater when scientific discourse is aligned with the language and meaning of wider social concerns. Seeking to assess whether scientists may be guided by such propositions in a controversial environmental policy arena, we examine the language and content of public-facing, UK scientific research grant abstracts on biofuels for the period 2007-11, comparing these to stakeholder position statements and newspaper articles of the same period. We find that UK scientists have indeed broadly reflected societal concerns about biofuels during this period. However we also find that both science and society have paid less attention to procedural issues. We comment on the implications of the findings for the role of science in environmental policy development

Governance and legitimacy aspects of the UK biofuel carbon and sustainability reporting system

Biofuel policy has become highly contentious in Europe. In this paper we discuss the governance and legitimacy aspects of the carbon and sustainability system of the UK Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), both before and after implementation of the Renewable Energy Directive. RTFO certification is of a meta-type, being built upon existing certification and labelling schemes, each of which are more or less contested by NGOs. Despite the RTFO being based on these non-state initiatives, so far the concerns of environment and development NGOs and others have not been given serious expression in regulatory terms. Indeed, biofuel policy development in the UK has arguably been unduly non-responsive to critical opinion, given the limited scientific base on biofuel impacts and the reliance of RTFO sustainability certification on non-state actors and schemes. Drawing on documentary evidence, interviews and three sets of literatures - co-production of regulation; post-normal science; and legitimacy of non-state certification and labelling processes - we suggest that until concerned voices are given a stronger expression in UK and EC biofuel policy development, the policy cannot yet be said to have achieved a wide social mandate.Biofuels Governance Legitimacy

Regulatory co-production and legitimacy: carbon and sustainability reporting under UK biofuel certification regulations

Biofuel policy has become highly contentious in Europe, driven by the Biofuels Directive (2003/30/EC), which requires that “biofuels or other renewable fuels” constitute 5.75% of the energy content of petrol and diesel sold for transport in member states by 2010. Here we examine the environmental and social sustainability components of the expression of this directive in UK law via the 2008 UK Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO). We find that commercial and energy security priorities have dominated the design of carbon and sustainability performance management under the RTFO. As an environmental management tool, the RTFO is exceptionally weak, being a reporting standard rather than a performance or design standard. While it will in some ways be strengthened by the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), significant concerns remain in relation to the sourcing of biomass for energy under the RED. RTFO certification is of a meta-type, being built upon existing certification and labelling schemes (e.g. the Roundtable on Responsible Soy, Forest Stewardship Council, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and others), all of which are more or less contested by NGOs. Yet despite claiming legitimacy from these non- state initiatives, the serious concerns of environment and development NGOs have been largely ignored in regulatory terms. We draw on documentary evidence, interviews and the science in policy literature, notably ideas on regulatory co-production and post-normal science, as well as concepts of regulatory and market legitimacy, to suggest that until critical voices are given a stronger expression in UK and EC biofuel policy, biofuel policy cannot be said to have achieved a social mandate or a durable legitimacy