Subnational climate entrepreneurship: innovative climate action in California and São Paulo

The distinct role of subnational governments such as states and provinces in addressing climate change has been increasingly acknowledged. But while most studies investigate the causes and consequences of particular governments’ actions and networking activities, this article argues that subnational governments can develop climate action as a collective entrepreneurial activity. Addressing many elements explored in this special issue, it focuses on the second question and identifies climate entrepreneurship in two subnational governments—the states of California (USA) and São Paulo (Brazil). Examining internal action, as well as interaction with local authorities, national governments and the international regime, entrepreneurial activities are identified in the invention, diffusion and evaluation of subnational climate policy in each case. The article draws from the recent scholarship on policy innovation, entrepreneurship and climate governance. It contributes to the literature by exploring entrepreneurial subnational government activity in addressing climate change and expanding the understanding of the effects of policy innovation at the subnational level

Environmental justice and conceptions of the green economy

Green economy has become one of the most fashionable terms in global environmental public policy discussions and forums. Despite this popularity, and its being selected as one of the organizing themes of the United Nations Rio+20 Conference in Brazil, June 2012, its prospects as an effective mobilization tool for global environmental sustainability scholarship and practice remains unclear. A major reason for this is that much like its precursor concepts such as environmental sustainability and sustainable development, green economy is a woolly concept which lends itself to many interpretations. Hence, rather than resolve long-standing controversies, green economy merely reinvigorates existing debates over the visions, actors and policies best suited to secure a more sustainable future for all. In this review article, we aim to fill an important gap in scholarship by suggesting various ways in which green economy may be organized and synthesized as a concept, and especially in terms of its relationship with the idea of social and environmental justice. Accordingly, we offer a systemization of possible interpretations of green economy mapped onto a synthesis of existing typologies of environmental justice. This classification provides the context for future analysis of which, and how, various notions of green economy link with various conceptions of justice

Data for: The 'Heart Kuznets Curve'? Understanding the relations between economic development and cardiac conditions

1) The mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) of men’s population (mmHg), age standardized mean (ICL 2018).2) Nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita (GDPPC) in American Dollars (US$), in constant 2000 prices (The World Bank 2018).3) Mean Years of Schooling (MYS) (Gapminder 2018

The policymaking process for creating competitive assets for the use of biomass energy: the Brazilian alcohol programme

Public policies are fundamental to spur the use of biomass and make it competitive to face traditional commercial fossil fuels. This article analyzes the policymaking process of the Brazilian National Alcohol Policy (Proalcool). Proalcool is one of the world's most ambitious efforts to produce a renewable biomass fuel as an oil substitute. In the 1970s, after the oil crisis and the sharp increase in fuel prices, the Brazilian government started intensifying its policy to substitute sugarcane alcohol for gasoline in automobile use. Through a set of governmental interventions to increase alcohol demand and supply, Brazil created some competitive assets that made Proalcool a relative success in terms of developing institutional and technological capabilities for using renewable energy in large scale. Several key actors influenced the policy directions, such as the central and state governments, military groups, the alcohol industry, sugarcane agricultural aristocracy, bureaucrats, researchers and the media. Instead of thinking of Proalcool as a government decision based only on economic rationale or interests of few decision-makers, the elaboration and implementation of this alcohol policy could be thought of as the result of a policymaking process where the different stakeholders involved in the process with their values, interests and knowledge interacted with each other according to the political, social, technological and economic situation.

Data for: The 'Heart Kuznets Curve'? Understanding the relations between economic development and cardiac conditions

1) The mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) of men’s population (mmHg), age standardized mean (ICL 2018).2) Nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita (GDPPC) in American Dollars (US$), in constant 2000 prices (The World Bank 2018).3) Mean Years of Schooling (MYS) (Gapminder 2018)THIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV