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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

  • 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