Co-evolution of regime complexes and national policy coherence: the case of the cluster of biodiversity-related conventions and national implementation systems in Latin America and the Caribbean

Integration, implementation and coherence are major concerns in international debates on environmental and sustainable development governance. It is a common argument that governance within and across jurisdictional levels is fragmented. Mainstream debates have nonetheless overlooked the emergence of regime complexes or loosely coupled systems of institutions in areas of environmental and sustainable development governance. Scholars have recently observed that regime complexes co-evolve with governmental policy-making such that changes in one of them can stimulate adjustments in the other. An open question, however, is whether that co-evolution extends to the ambit of national implementation. This needs to be examined to determine whether, and to what extent, coherence or synergy between institutional and implementation arrangements arises spontaneously in conditions of regime complexity, and whether it can be improved within existing governance structures rather than through institutional change. This research develops an approach to examine the co-evolution of regime complexes and national implementation systems. Using an abductive research strategy, it analyses the observed (but not yet researched) gap between global integration in the cluster of biodiversity-related multilateral environmental agreements and national co-ordination of implementation activities. National implementation is explored in countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Empirical evidence is collected from interviews with public officials and practitioners, and from documentary sources. Materials are examined through thematic analysis approaches. Results reveal that institutional and implementation arrangements display similar evolution patterns, notwithstanding of which an implementation gap is evident. Cross-level interactions have been unidirectional (from the global to the national levels) with no clear evidence of positive feedback loops. Structure constrains, but does not impede, more cohesive evolutions. The analysis provides evidence for the co-evolution of regime complexes and national implementation systems, but concludes that co-evolution needs to be steered if coherent governance is to be achieved at the pace and degree required to address pressing problems. The thesis challenges proposals for institutional reform, supporting instead policy interventions within existing structures

Protecting Wild Land from Wind Farms in a Post-EU Scotland

Scotland is one of the places in Europe to have experienced significant wind farm development over recent years. Concern about impacts on wild land has resulted in legal challenges based on European Union (EU) law. This article analyses whether wild land can be protected from wind farms and the differences that the United Kingdom (UK) departure from the EU will make. It considers the concept of 'wild land' compared with 'wilderness', analyses the legal basis (if any) for wild land protection, and examines potential impacts from wind farms. It highlights the significance of EU environmental law, particularly nature conservation and environmental assessment law, and analyses recent Scottish jurisprudence that has applied this. The role of the European Commission and Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) is emphasised as a key part of EU environmental law. The article asks whether relevant global and regional environmental agreements can effectively replace the content of the substantive law and context of the Commission and CJEU. Four environmental agreements and two related compliance procedures are briefly evaluated. The conclusion is that while EU law does not directly provide protection for wild land, it is considerably stronger than the international environmental agreements that may replace it

Policy Integration

Environmental policy integration (EPI) is the incorporation of environmental concerns and objectives into non-environmental policy areas, such as energy, transport and agriculture, as opposed to pursuing such objectives through purely environmental policy practices. EPI is promoted to overcome policy incoherence and institutional fragmentation, to address the driving forces of environmental degradation and to promote innovation and synergy. But how effective are EPI strategies employed in practice? In this chapter we provide a meta-analysis of scientific, empirical research on EPI to address this question. An important finding is the discrepancy between the adoption of EPI in terms of objectives and commitments and its actual implementation, that is, translation into concrete measures. Overall, we found relatively few cases where environmental objectives were given a substantial status in non-environmental policies. The barriers we identified suggest that the actual detailed design or architecture of the strategies that are employed to promote EPI really matters