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\"Deliberative democracy is well-suited to the challenges of governing in the Anthropocene. But deliberative democratic practices are only suited to these challenges to the extent that five prerequisites - empoweredness, embeddedness, experimentality, equivocality, and equitableness - are successfully institutionalized. Governance must be: created by those it addresses, applicable equally to all, capable of learning from (and adapting to) experience, rationally grounded, and internalized by those who adopt and experience it. This book analyzes these five major normative principles, pairing each with one of the Earth System Governance Project's analytical problems to provide an in-depth discussion of the minimal conditions for environmental governance that can be truly sustainable. It is ideal for scholars and graduate students in global environmental politics, earth system governance, and international environmental policy. This is one of a series of publications associated with the Earth System Governance Project. For more publications, see www. cambridge.org/earth-system-governance\"-- Provided by publisher.

This paper examines whether a firm's financial performance (FP) is associated with superior environmental, social and governance (ESG) scores in emerging markets of multinationals in Latin America. The study addresses the current research gap on this issue; it develops hypotheses and tests them by applying linear regressions with a data panel drawn from the Thomson Reuters Eikon™ database to analyse data on 104 multinationals from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru between 2011 and 2015. The results suggest that the relationship between the ESG score and FP is significantly statistically negative. Furthermore, in examining environmental, social and governance separately to accurately determine each variable's relationship to multilatinas' FP, the results reveal a negative relationship. Finally, the empirical analysis provides evidence for a moderating effect of financial slack and geographic international diversification on the relationship between ESG dimensions and firms' FP. This study furthers understanding of the relationship between ESG dimensions and FP for the Latin American business context.

\"Global environmental change is occurring at a rate faster than humans have ever experienced. Climate change and the loss of ecosystem services are the two main global environmental crises facing us today. As a result, there is a need for better understanding of the specific and general resilience of networked ecosystems, cities, organisations and institutions to cope with change. In this book, an international team of experts provide cutting-edge insights into building the resilience and adaptive governance of complex social-ecological systems. Through a set of case studies, it focuses on the social science dimension of ecosystem management in the context of global change, in a move to bridge existing gaps between resilience, sustainability and social science. Using empirical examples ranging from local to global levels, views from a variety of disciplines are integrated to provide an essential resource for scholars, policy-makers and students, seeking innovative approaches to governance\"-- Provided by publisher.

We study behind-the-scenes investor activism promoting environmental, social, and governance (ESG) improvements by means of a proprietary dataset of a large international, socially responsible activist fund. We examine the activist’s target selection, forms of engagement, impact on ESG performance, drivers of success, and effects on the targets’ operations and value creation. Target firms are typically large and visible, perform well, and have high liquidity (stock turnover) and low ESG performance. Engagement induces ESG rating adjustments: firms with poor ex ante ESG ratings experience a ratings increase after complying with the activist’s demands, whereas firms with high ex ante ESG ratings experience a ratings decrease following the revelation of their ESG problems. Activism that is focused on environmental and social issues is more likely to succeed if targets are ESG-sensitive (i.e., they have a strong ex ante ESG profile). Successful engagements boost targets’ sales. Risk-adjusted excess stock returns (with four-factor adjustment and relative to a matched sample of non-engaged firms) of successful engagements outperform those of unsuccessful engagements by 2.7%. Results are especially strong for firms with low ex ante ESG scores. Specifically, targeted firms in the lowest ex ante ESG quartile outperform matched peers by 7.5% in the year after the end of the engagement. Our results thus suggest that the activism regarding corporate social responsibility generally improves ESG practices and corporate sales and is profitable to the activist. Taken together, we provide direct evidence that ethical investing and strong financial performance, both from the activist’s and the targeted firm’s perspective, can go hand-in-hand together.

This paper studies the role of institutional investors in influencing corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies by analyzing the relation between institutional ownership and toxic release from facilities to which institutions are geographically proximate. We develop a local preference hypothesis based on the delegated philanthropy and transaction-costs theories. Consistent with the hypothesis, local institutional ownership is negatively related to facility toxic release. The negative relation is stronger for local socially responsible investing (SRI) funds, local public pension funds, and local dedicated institutions. We also find that the relation is more negative in communities that prefer more stringent environmental policies and in communities of greater collective cohesiveness. Local institutional ownership, particularly local ownerships by SRI funds and public pension funds, is positively related to the probability that an ESG proposal is either introduced or withdrawn. The paper sheds light on the drivers behind institutions’ ESG engagement and their effectiveness in influencing ESG. This paper was accepted by Gustavo Manso, finance.

We construct an event-based outcome measure of firm-level environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impact for public and private firms globally from 2007 to 2015 using data from RepRisk. Then we measure the societal impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagements using participation in the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) as a proxy. We demonstrate a robust and striking difference between public and private firms: whereas private firms significantly reduce their negative ESG incident levels after UNGC engagements, public firms fail to do so and are more likely to engage in decoupled CSR actions—actions with no subsequent real impact. We then conduct a series of in-depth analyses to examine possible economic mechanisms. Our results are most consistent with shareholder–stakeholder conflicts of interest being the main moderator of decoupling. The intensity of this conflict is further moderated by three factors: ownership type, proximity to final consumers on the value chain, and specific ESG incident types. Other possible mechanisms, such as selective entry into UNGC and heterogeneities in media exposure, country representation, and entry timing, do not survive our analysis. Our results suggest that existing CSR engagements and one-size-fits-all CSR policy mandates might not necessarily lead to better societal outcomes, and a multi-tiered policy targeting different ownership and industry types might be more efficient at maximizing ex post ESG benefits. This paper was accepted by Bruno Cassiman, business strategy.

Recent literature on environmental governance in China frequently ascribes blame for China's environmental problems to sub-national governments' lax environmental enforcement. Such research implicitly assumes that more central control would lead to better results but, as yet, the role of the centre in environmental governance remains underresearched. In the context of the current phase of recentralization, this article studies central and local interests, capacities and interactions across policy issues and government agencies. By “bringing the centre back” into the study of central–local relations in China, we examine both where such recentralization has in fact occurred and whether such recentralization efforts have improved environmental outcomes. We argue that centralization does not improve outcomes in every case. Further, central and local levels of governance are not as different as they might seem. Indeed, there are significant areas of overlapping interests and similar patterns of behaviour, both positive (enforcement) and negative (shirking), between central and local administrations. The results draw an empirically and theoretically rich picture of central–local relations that highlights the innate complexity of China's environmental governance patterns during the current phase of recentralization. 近来关于中国环境治理的文献经常将中国的环境问题归咎于地方政府松懈的环保执法。这类研究其实是隐晦地假设越多的中央管控就能带来越好的结果, 但是对中央政府在环境治理中所扮演的角色, 至今仍缺乏足够的研究。在现阶段重新集权化的大背景下, 本文将梳理中央与地方的利益、能力以及在政策问题和政府机构上的相互作用。通过 “将中央重新带回” 关于中国中央–地方关系的研究中, 我们将检视这种重新集权化实际上在哪些地方发生, 以及这种重新集权化的努力是否改善了环保成效。我们认为集权化并不能在每种情况下都改善环保成效。而且, 中央和地方层次的治理并不像看上去那样迥然不同。事实上, 在中央与地方行政部门间, 不管是在积极 (即主动执法) 还是消极 (即推卸责任) 的方面, 都有很多重要领域存在利益重叠, 也有相似的行为模式。我们的研究结果也在实证和理论两方面, 为中央–地方关系勾画了一幅丰富充实的画面, 突出了当前重新集权化阶段下中国环境治理模式中固有的复杂性。

In Sweden’s Norrbotten County, a “green transition” driven by market demand and new normative structures is underway, creating a regional mega-project designed to put Sweden at the forefront of emerging green industries. These industries, such as carbon-neutral steel fabrication, battery production, and data center hosting, all require large amounts of energy, land, and minerals. This paper applies the regional environmental governance framework to Arctic data to examine which stakeholders have the capacity to impose their agenda on the Arctic environment and the points of conflict and collaboration during this period of accelerated growth. The paper tests the assumption that regional governance accommodates a plurality of interests. A case study examining Norrbotten County’s industrial mega-project centered around Luleå, Sweden, identifies a dominant coalition uniting government and industry that supports norms seeking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in this region. However, the existing regional governance model does a poor job of integrating the local Indigenous Sámi preferences for land use. At the core of the difference between actors advancing the green economy and the local Sámi reindeer herders are divergent conceptions of nature and sustainability.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the impact of board composition on environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting in the Gulf countries. Despite the vast literature on the significance of ESG disclosure on firms’ performance, trust and reputation, there are relatively few studies on the influence of board structure on ESG disclosure in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Gulf countries are witnessing a fast growing capital markets and having serious efforts to attract foreign investments to divert their economies from the oil and gas reliance. This could be facilitated by illustrating firms’ good citizenship and communicating the fulfillment of their social obligation. Design/methodology/approach The study examines publically listed companies between 2008 and 2017. Thomson Reuter’s database is used to collect the ESG disclosure scores and governance information. The authors apply multiple panel data regressions and sensitivity testing to ensure the robustness of the results. Findings Examining publically listed companies for a 10-year period shows that higher board independence and female board participation facilitate the transmission of a firm’s positive image by improving social responsibility. Independent boards of directors and participation among women serve as catalysts to strike an effective balance between firms’ financial targets and social responsibilities. In contrast, boards chaired by chief executive officers are less supportive in executing a social agenda and consequently reporting their ESG activities. Practical implications The results suggest that firms that appoint a sustainability and/or governance committee tend to engage in more impactful social and environmental activities and communicate their societal engagements more effectively. Social implications The paper recommends that policymakers, executives and shareholders in the GCC countries support board participation among women, independent directors and formation of sustainability committees to facilitate engaging in effectual social activities. Originality/value Empirical evidence regarding the relationship between board composition and ESG disclosure in the Gulf countries is limited. Prior literature mainly provides results on developed countries in which the governance system is mature and well structured. This study provides useful evidence regarding the Gulf countries that lack privatization and where corporate boards tend to be dominated by families and governments.

Prior studies on the relationship between ESG information and cost of debt have found mixed results. They conclude that this relationship may be affected by some characteristics or attributes of the company. In this study, we examine whether corporate reputation mediates the relationship between ESG information and cost of debt. In other words, this study explores how ESG information influences corporate reputation, and how, in turn, corporate reputation affects the cost of debt financing. Data for corporate reputation were obtained from the Fortune “World’s Most Admired Companies” List, whereas data on ESG information were extracted from two sources: ESG performance were obtained from Sustainalytics database and ESG disclosure were obtained from Bloomberg database. Data on cost of debt and other control variables were also collected from Bloomberg database. Using structural equation models, we report a positive effect of both ESG performance and disclosure on corporate reputation. We also find that a good corporate reputation reduces the cost of debt financing and mediates the relationship between ESG performance/disclosure and cost of debt. We therefore conclude that firms that manage and disclose information on ESG issues have a better reputation, which in turn reduces their debt financing costs.