Environmental sustainability: A case of policy implementation failure?

© 2017 by the author. For a generation, governments around the world have been committed to sustainable development as a policy goal. This has been supported by an array of new policies ranging from international agreements, to national strategies, environmental laws at many levels of government, regional programs, and local plans. Despite these efforts, decades of scientific monitoring indicate that the world is no closer to environmental sustainability and in many respects the situation is getting worse. This paper argues that a significant contributing factor to this situation is policy implementation failure. A systematic review of the literature reveals that the failure to achieve the intended outcomes of environmental policies is due to economic, political and communication factors. Conflict between the objectives of environmental policies and those focused on economic development, a lack of incentives to implement environmental policies, and a failure to communicate objectives to key stakeholders are all key factors that contribute to the inability to attain environmental sustainability

Post-disaster social recovery: disaster governance lessons learnt from Tropical Cyclone Yasi

Post-disaster social recovery remains the least understood of the disaster phases despite increased risks of extreme events leading to disasters due to climate change. This paper contributes to advance this knowledge by focusing on the disaster recovery process of the Australian coastal town of Cardwell which was affected by category 4/5 Tropical Cyclone Yasi in 2011. Drawing on empirical data collected through semi-structured interviews with Cardwell residents post-Yasi, it examines issues related to social recovery in the first year of the disaster and 2 years later. Key findings discuss the role played by community members, volunteers and state actors in Cardwell’s post-disaster social recovery, especially with respect to how current disaster risk management trends based on self-reliance and shared responsibility unfolded in the recovery phase. Lessons learnt concerning disaster recovery governance are then extracted to inform policy implementation for disaster risk management to support social recovery and enhance disaster resilience in the light of climate change

Local action with a global vision: The transformative potential of food social enterprises in Australia

There is an urgent need to make food systems more sustainable and resilient. Such a transformation goes beyond technological innovation and requires economic and social change. Research interest in the transformative potential of community level action has increased. Food social enterprises often operate at the community level and consist of not-for-profit organisations that aim to make a positive contribution to social justice and environmental sustainability. The question addressed in this paper is whether these social enterprises are limited to isolated improvements or have the capacity to transform food systems more widely. This paper uses a multi-dimensional framework (involving the social setting, operational models, governance, and institutional context) to analyse the transformative potential of eight food social enterprises in the Australian cities of Brisbane and Melbourne. The analysis indicates that these enterprises create social networks, pursue agendas aligned with a global vision of transformation, and include a diversity of stakeholders. Their operational models are consistent with the goals of environmental sustainability and social justice. Their governance involves equality, transparency, and flexibility. In the institutional context, support from public policy is limited and there is a need to improve their engagement with governmental actors. While food social enterprises are well placed in the quest to make food systems more consistent with ecological dynamics and social justice, they need to engage in greater advocacy for institutional change in order to maximise their transformative potential

You Can Kiss my Yasi - Recovering in time compression

The State of Australian Cities (SOAC) national conferences have been held biennially since 2003 to support interdisciplinary policy-related urban research. This paper was presented at SOAC 6, held in Sydney from 26-29 November 2013. SOAC 6was the largest conference to date, with over 180 papers published in collected proceedings. All papers presented at the SOAC 2013 have been subject to a double blind refereeing process and have been reviewed by at least two referees. In particular, the review process assessed each paper in terms of its policy relevance and the contribution to the conceptual or empirical understanding of Australian cities

Unpacking components of sustainable and resilient urban food systems

Urban food systems are connected with several pressing issues, including urban population growth, resource scarcity, and climate change. To cope within these issues, urban food systems need to become more sustainable in their practices, as well as resilient in the face of extreme weather events. While scholars have started to investigate this topic, no comprehensive analysis has yet addressed what entails sustainable and resilient urban food systems. Through a systematic review of the literature, this paper aims to improve our understanding of the key components of sustainable and resilient urban food systems. This study reviewed 53 publications and identified components related to the health, social, economy, environment, and governance domains. Only 5 of the works included in the review discussed sustainability and resilience to the impacts of climate change in urban food systems simultaneously, so there is an opportunity for original research and analysis. The most frequently identified components of urban food systems relate to: access to healthy food; connectivity between urban and rural areas; having a strong local food economy and food production; reducing food waste; and, having active participation of all actors in decision making. There is some level of consensus on linking sustainability and resilience, but diversity in food sources and the development of social capabilities need to be emphasised for climate change adaptation