Sustainability transitions have been studied as complex multi-level processes, but we still know relatively little about how they can be effectively governed, especially in transnational domains. Governance of transitions is often constrained by the equivocality of sustainability goals, the...

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely changed the world economy and jeopardized the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals on a large scale. Progress in meeting the goals of the 2030 Agenda has been significantly disrupted and stalled, undermining previous efforts of governments and...

In this paper, we investigate the role of key industry and other stakeholders and their embeddedness in particular national contexts in driving the proliferation and co-evolution of sustainability standards, based on the case of the global coffee industry. We find that institutional conditions...

Since 1980 the amount of palm oil sold on the market has increased more than ten-fold. A critical public discussion regarding the cultivation of palm oil – and above all in the developing countries of South-East Asia – has developed (in the western countries). Above all local Asian companies...

The transition towards a more resource efficient and circular economy has broad linkages with international trade through the emergence of global value chains as well as trade in second-hand goods, end-of-life products, secondary materials and waste. Despite of the potential linkages between...

Climate change brings about devastating consequences for the entire globe and is irreversible, so the green economy focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Countries will only transition to the green economy smoothly if they use green and climate...

From its initial focus on minimizing waste generation, the circular economy has evolved into a broad-based approach to make resource use more sustainable. A big part of the appeal of a circular economy is the opportunities it creates not only for resource savings and better human health and...

This study employs macrodata for 23 African countries to examine whether good governance interacts with economic globalisation (EG) to foster inclusive green growth (IGG). First, the study finds that EG hampers IGG in Africa. Second, although unconditionally good governance promotes IGG, only...

Climate change is a serious concern worldwide. Policy research on climate change in the past decades has largely focused on applied modelling exercises. However, the implications of specific policy strategies such as the clean development mechanism (CDM) for global and regional economic and...

Social scientists have long argued that developed countries are more and more responsible for climate change because they externalise pollution to less developed countries. This paper offers a way to quantify climate responsibility by calculating carbon footprints and carbon balances between...