In recent months, members of the Working Group on Environmental Policy Integration have developed several exciting publications and engaged in various conferences. Here, we have gathered information about their recent efforts.
The concept of Environmental Policy Integration refers to the process of integrating environmental objectives into non-environmental policy areas, rather than leaving them to be pursued solely through purely environmental policy practices. As such, EPI is widely recognised as one of the key elements of sustainable development. In this announcement, we have gathered their latest efforts to show what they have been up to. The Working Group on Environmental Policy Integration is part of the Taskforce on Conceptual Foundations of Earth System Governance.
Special issue on EPI in Environmental Science and Policy
Based on the Panel on EPI the working group utilised the European Consortium for Political Research 2016 Conference in Prague to organise and develop a proposal for a special issue on EPI. This proposal was accepted by the journal Environmental Science and Policy under the title Environmental Policy Integration: Taking stock of policy practice in different contexts. Guest editors are Åsa Persson and Hens Runhaar; co-editors are Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen, Alex Widmer, Duncan Russel and Ger Mullally. There are 11 confirmed contributions that will be submitted to the journal for external peer review shortly. The publication of this special issue is aimed towards February 2018.
Review paper on Policy Integration
In this paper on Policy Integration (including EPI) which was recently published in the journal Policy Studies, the authors Jale Tuson and Achim Lang offer an interesting overview of literature in this field and discuss related concepts.
Review paper on climate adaptation mainstreaming
Åsa Persson, Christine Wamsler, Caroline Uittenbroek, Bettina Wilk and Hens Runhaar made an analysis of empirical research on climate adaptation mainstreaming: what strategies are employed in practice, what are reported achievements and what factors explain these achievements. Hens Runhaar presented the results on 25 April in Cork, Ireland, during a public lecture titled, “Will Our Governments Ensure Climate-Proof Societies?”. The paper is under review with the journal Regional Environmental Change and will also be presented during the 2017 Lund Conference on Earth System Governance later this year.
Follow up activities
Please let us know if you have any ideas about a next activity – organising a panel during a conference, an expert meeting, ideas for new research etc.! Or if you have new papers or projects you want to share.
Contact: H.A.C.Runhaar@uu.nl