Open Access
Article
26 June 2025Law and Governance of Carbon Border Adjustments
Measured against the legally binding international climate targets, climate policy must be massively accelerated on a worldwide scale. In the absence of effective global policy instruments, a central role can be played by combinations of regional quantity governance systems, such as the EU Emissions Trading System, and additional border adjustments, such as the newly established EU Carbon Border Adjustments (CBAM). This is to avoid mere emissions shifting to other states, to encourage these states also to pursue ambitious climate protection, and to avoid competitive disadvantages for domestic industries. This paper analyzes the ecological effectiveness of the CBAM—measured against the Paris climate targets—and its compatibility with world trade law. It combines a qualitative governance analysis with methods of legal interpretation. It is demonstrated that the CBAM does not raise any concerns under WTO law and can be classified as an ecologically effective measure supporting ambitious climate protection. However, the faster and more consistent introduction of the CBAM would be ecologically more effective.
Open Access
Article
21 July 2025The Intergovernmental Networks of Ecological Protection Policies Issuing Entities in the Source Region of the Yangtze River: A Case Study of Qinghai Province
Ecological conservation and governance play key roles in constructing an ecological civilization society, while intergovernmental cooperation provides new perspectives for cross-regional ecological governance. We employed a social network analysis (SNA) method to examine 110 published ecological policies from 2000 to 2024 in the Source Region of the Yangtze River (SRYR). The study has three key findings. Firstly, intergovernmental collaborative policies on ecological protection showed an upward trend, with intra-provincial collaborations within Qinghai Province being the most frequent. Secondly, four collaboration models were demonstrated, namely: national ministries, national and provincial, cross-provincial and intra–provincial collaborations. National agencies and Qinghai provincial agencies collaboratively set objectives, which Qinghai operationalizes with incentive-constraint measures. Then, the targeted guidelines were launched by national and provincial authorities. Afterward, cross–provincial agreements and mechanisms facilitate joint actions. Thirdly, we revealed the hierarchical structures, including a national network, two central-local sub-networks, three-tier inter-provincial partnerships, and four regional sub-clusters. Core actors include national ministries that coordinate cross-departmental efforts. The Qinghai provincial government serves as a central-local hub. It maintains strong transboundary ties with Aba and Ganzi Prefectures of Sichuan Province. Provincial departments such as ecology and environment, forestry and grasslands, and finance lead intra-provincial collaborations. These findings offer new insights for integrating multi-level governance in ecological protection and ecological civilization construction.
Open Access
Article
07 August 2025Examining Interactions among Challenges of Green Financing in India
This study examines the challenges of green financing in India using Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) to identify hierarchical relationships among key factors. The research identifies regulatory deficiencies as the foundational barrier, cascading into secondary challenges such as data gaps, low investor awareness, high costs, and limited access to financial products. These issues, compounded by greenwashing, hinder transparency and the accurate measurement of environmental returns. The structural modeling approach provides a novel contribution by revealing how these interconnected challenges stem from weak regulatory frameworks—an insight not previously mapped in Indian green finance literature. The study underscores the importance of strong legal systems, standardized metrics, technological advancement, and policy harmonization to build investor trust and improve accessibility. For scalable and effective solutions, future research should explore the integration of emerging technologies and conduct cross-regional comparative analysis.
Open Access
Article
07 August 2025Daoism, Confucianism, and the Rights of Nature: Transformative Relations in Ecological Governance
Confronting a global ecological crisis, this paper argues that conventional anthropocentric governance models, rooted in instrumental rationality, are inadequate. Drawing on Edoardo Ongaro’s concept of an integrative approach to an ontological and political philosophical understanding of public governance and administration, it proposes a relational framework for ecological governance by integrating the Rights of Nature (RoN) movement with classical Chinese philosophical traditions. The study emphasizes the complementary foundations offered by Daoism, specifically its concepts of ziran (natural spontaneity) and wuwei (non-coercive action) which support decentralized governance aligned with ecological self-organization, and Confucianism, particularly tian ren he yi (unity of heaven and humanity), which embeds ecological stewardship within moral self-cultivation (ren) and social duty (li). Comparative case studies highlight cultural complexities in implementing such relational governance. This paper outlines a tripartite pathway for building transformative capacities within this relational framework and discusses policy implications.
Open Access
Review
13 August 2025Allowing Space for Nature: Rewilding to Heal the Earth
The term “rewilding” often elicits strong emotions, especially as presented in the media. Thus, anger is provoked that farmers will be forced to waste precious cropland, letting it return to the wild, or from fear that dangerous animals will be released into the urban environment. With equal fervour, others, taking an approving view, comprise the growing movement of guerrilla rewilders, secretly breeding butterflies, birds and beavers, and illegally releasing them (e.g., “beaver bombing”) across the countryside. In truth, rewilding is a complex and widely encompassing proposition, which can be considered as a strategy within the natural climate solutions (NCS) [nature based solutions (NBS)] approach, aimed to restore and enhance wetlands, grasslands, forests, agricultural lands, seascapes etc. While exact definitions may vary, a key feature is that (after some initial support) it minimises the level of human intervention/management in a given region, instead encouraging natural processes to take the lead and self-manage, in the restoration, shaping and enhancement of natural ecosystems and of critical ecosystem functions. The resilience of such ecosystems should also be considered, especially in regard to how the impacts of a changing climate may prevail upon them. Rewilding is informed by science, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and other local (indigenous) knowledge. It is a long-term process with dynamic changes occurring over time, and rather than focussing on reaching a fixed endpoint, provides a continuous journey of letting nature’s processes unfold. This can lead to increased biodiversity, amelioration of and resistance to climate change, and the provision of ecosystem services, benefitting both nature and people, including economic opportunities for local and indigenous communities, along with improved overall health and well-being. Despite its manifold and clear benefits, rewilding (along with other NCS) is not a pancea for all our troubles, many of which are rooted in the systemic issue of human ecological overshoot, and it is this that must be addressed to begin fixing the current global polycrisis.
