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.

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)

Affiliated members

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