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Environmental Politics Research Group (EPRG)

One of Europe’s leading research groups on environmental politics

Human interaction with its natural environment raises important questions for contemporary political analysis, for instance about public policy and governance, democracy, power, and international relations.

Plant clinging to a wall. Photo.

The Environmental Politics Research Group (EPRG) has ever since it was formed in the late 1990's promoted research and education on issues related to the politics of environmental change. Today the EPRG comprises around 24 senior researchers and PhD students whose research focuses on chief challenges of global and domestic environmental politics.

These challenges include timely debates on the democratic legitimacy, accountability and institutional complexity of environmental governance arrangements.

While having a strong basis in theoretical debates in political science, the EPRG is frequently employed in various multi-disciplinary research networks, teaching and communicative efforts throughout and beyond Lund University.

Nils Droste
E-mail: nils [dot] droste [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se

Thomas Hickmann  
E-mail: thomas [dot] hickmann [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (thomas[dot]hickmann[at]svet[dot]lu[dot]se)

  • Zelli, F., Nasiritousi, N., Skovgaard, J., Bäckstrand, K., Widerberg, O. (eds.). 2020: Governing the Climate-Energy Nexus: Challenges to Coherence, Effectiveness, and Legitimacy. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108676397
  • Svensson, O., Khan, J., Hildingsson, R. (2020). Studying industrial decarbonisation: Developing an interdisciplinary understanding of the conditions for transformation in energy-intensive natural resource-based industry. Sustainability 12(5): 2129. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12052129
  • Khan, J., Hildingsson, R., Garting, L. (2020). Sustainable Welfare in Swedish Cities: Challenges of Eco-Social Integration in Urban Sustainability Governance. Sustainability 12(1): 383. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12010383
  • Delabre, I., Boyd, E., Brockhaus, M., Carton, W., Krause, T., Newell, P., Wong, G., Zelli, F. (2020): Unearthing the myths of global sustainable forest governance, in: Global Sustainability 3(e16). https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2020.11
  • Nielsen, T.D., Hasselbalch, J., Holmberg, K. and Stripple, J., 2019. Politics and the plastic crisis: A review throughout the plastic life cycle. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, p.e360. https://doi.org/10.1002/wene.360
  • Droste, N., Farley, J., Ring, I., May, P.H., Ricketts, T.H. (2019). Designing a global mechanism for intergovernmental biodiversity financing. Conservation Letters 12(6), e12670. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12670
  • Krause, T., Nielsen, T.D., Guía-Díaz, L., Lehsten, V., Zelli, F. (2019): What future for primates? Conservation struggles in the forests of Cross River State, Nigeria. Sustainability Science 14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-019-00667-y
  • Kadykalo, A.N., Ainscough, J., López Rodriguez, M.D., Droste, N., Ryu, H., Ávila Flores, G., Le Clec’h, S., C. Muñoz, M., Nilsson, L., Rana, S., Sarkar, P., Sevecke, K.J., Harmáčková, Z. (2019). Disentangling “Ecosystem Services” and “Nature’s Contributions to People”. Ecosystems and People, 15(1), 269-287. https://doi.org/10.1080/26395916.2019.1669713
  • Skovgaard, J., Ferrari, S.S. and Knaggård, Å., 2019. Mapping and clustering the adoption of carbon pricing policies: what polities price carbon and why?. Climate Policy, 19(9), pp.1173-1185. https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2019.1641460
  • Zelli, F., Nielsen, T.D., Dubber, W. 2019: Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Identifying Discursive Convergence and Dominance in Complex REDD+ Governance. Ecology & Society 24(1), 10. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10632-240110
  • Hildingsson, R., Kronsell, A., Khan, J., 2019. The green state and industrial decarbonisation. Environmental Politics, 28(5), pp.909-928. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2018.1488484
  • Kronsell, A., Khan,  J., R. Hildingsson (2019). Actor relations in climate policymaking: Governing decarbonisation in a corporatist green state. Environmental Policy and Governance 29(6): 399–408. https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.1867
  • Knaggård, Å., Slunge, D., Ekbom, A., Göthberg, M., & Sahlin, U. (2019). Researchers’ approaches to stakeholders: Interaction or transfer of knowledge?. Environmental science & policy, 97, 25-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2019.03.008
  • D’Amato, D., Droste, N., Winkler, K.J., Toppinen, A. (2019). Thinking Green, Circular or Bio: eliciting researchers’ perspectives on a sustainable economy with Q method. Journal of Cleaner Production 230: 460–476. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.05.099

  • FutureWalks: Developing new communicative tools to grasp and sense a climate changed world
    EPRG Researchers: Johannes Stripple (coordinator)
    Funder. Formas (1.9m SEK)
    Period: 2020-2021
  • The Rough Guide to Zero-Carbon Skåne: Making visions of post-fossil transitions meaningful through narrative prototyping
    EPRG Researchers: Johannes Stripple (coordinator)
    Funder: Formas (4.3m SEK)
    Period: 2020-2021
  • FOREST VISIONS: envisioning forest management practices for a fossil free society in the face of goal conflicts and uncertainties
    EPRG Researchers: Johannes Stripple (PI)
    Funder: Formas (political science share 3m SEK)
    Period: 2020-2021
  • 'The Nature of Peace' - The dynamics between post-conflict peacebuilding and environmental protection
    EPRG Researchers: Fariborz Zelli
    Funder: Formas
    Partnerships: Chalmers University
    Period: 2019-2022
  • Sustainable Distribution of Responsibility for Climate Change Adaptation
    EPRG Researchers: Åsa Knaggård
    Funder: Formas (4,9m SEK)
    Partnerships: Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE)
    Period: 2019-2021
  • The takeoff of staying on the ground: Changing political and personal narratives of aviation, climate, and the good life in Sweden
    EPRG Researchers: Johannes Stripple
    Funder: Formas
    Period: 2019-21
  • Climate Imaginaries: Narrating socio-cultural transitions to a post-fossil society
    EPRG Researchers: Johannes Stripple, Roger Hildingsson
    Funder: Formas (9m SEK in total)
    Partnerships: Durham University, University of Warwick and Utrecht University
    Period: 2018-2021
  • A price on carbon emissions: What makes states adopt carbon pricing policies?
    EPRG Researchers: Jakob Skovgaard, Åsa Knaggård, Roger Hildingsson
    Funder: Formas
    Period: 2018-2020
  • Narrating Climate Futures
    EPRG Researchers: Johannes Stripple (coordinator)
    Funder: Vice Chancellor of LU initative
    Period: 2017- 2021
  • The New Urban Challenge: Models of Sustainable Welfare in Swedish Metropolitan Cities
    EPRG Researchers: Roger Hildingsson
    Funder: Formas
    Period: 2017-2022
  • REINVENT - Realising innovations in transitions to decarbonisation,
    EPRG Researchers: Johannes Stripple (WP lead)
    Funder: EU Horizon 2020
    Partnerships: Durham University, Wuppertal Institute, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency and Utrecht University
    Period: 2017 - 2020
  • New Nordic Ways to Green Growth (NOWAGG)
    EPRG Researchers: Annica Kronsell, Roger Hildingsson
    Funder: NordForsk, Nordic Innovation, Nordic Energy Research (NER)
    Partnerships: Aarhus University, Luleå University, University of Eastern Finland
    Period: 2017-2020
  • LegGov - Legitimacy in Global Governance
    EPRG Researchers: Fariborz Zelli
    Funder: Riksbankens Jubileumsfond
    Partnerships: University of Gothenburg and Stockholm University
    Period: 2016-2022
  • STEPS - Sustainable Plastics and Transition Pathways
    EPRG Researchers: Johannes Stripple, Tobias Nielsen, Jacob Hasselbalch
    Funder: Mistra - Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research (45m SEK) External funders (23,4m SEK) (68,4m in total)
    Partnerships: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Swerea
    Period: 2016-2024

Courses or programmes at the department related to the group’s research

15 September 2023 12:00 to 13:30 | Research group meeting

EPRG - Informal exchange and semester planning | Svetnet (lu.se)


13 October 2023 12:00 to 13:30 | Research group meeting

EPRG - Internal discussions and presentations | Svetnet (lu.se)


21 November 2023 12:00 to 13:00 | Research group meeting

CPRG / EPRG - Maryna Povitkina, University of Gothenburg | Svetnet (lu.se)


27 November 2023 12:00 to 17:00 | Research group meeting

Green Politics Research Group meetup in Copenhagen | Svetnet (lu.se)


8 December 2023 10:00 to 15:00 | Research group meeting

EPRG / BECC / Pufendorff - Workshop on de-polarizing land use conflicts | Svetnet (lu.se)

DateRoomActivity

Wednesday, 24 January

13:15 – 14:30

Eden 367Guest speaker Aysem Mert, University of Stockholm (as part of the Higher Research Seminar)

Friday, 2 February

12:00 – 14:00

Eden 367

Internal presentations and discussions (PhD projects, draft grant proposals, papers, etc.)

Presenters: Katja Garson: Challenges of representation: more-than-human forest heritage at the museum, Jesper Svensson: What do we (not) know about the governance of biodiversity finance?

Friday, 8 March

12:00 – 14:00

Eden 367

Who is who in the EPRG?

Informal presentations of people and projects (more info will follow later)

Friday, 5 April

12:00 – 13:30

Eden 367

Internal planning session

Updating EPRG website with a focus on providing PhDs and postdocs a platform

Friday, 3 May

13:00 – 17:00

Eden 367Workshop together with the REGROUP at the University of Copenhagen to exchange ideas about research and teaching (contact person: Michele Betsill)

Thursday, 23 May

12:00 – 13:30

Eden 367

Guest speaker Emily Boyd on climate justice and loss and damage

(jointly organized with the Politics and Development Studies Research Group)