Leaving No One Behind in the Green Transition and Blue Growth

Green and Circular Economy: Old Practices, New Nuances

This paper provides anecdotes and examples on a wide range of topics related to sustainability, circular economy, local governance, and community development in Nepal, and illustrates the disconnect between global concepts like the circular economy and the ground realities of rural Nepal. It discusses the origins of the circular economy concept, its benefits, and the challenges likely to be faced while transitioning from a linear model of production and consumption to one that is cyclical. The role of local governments in adopting new practices like waste management and the potential pitfalls of introducing modern solutions without considering traditional practices and local contexts have been analyzed within the complexities surrounding the circular economy, especially in relation to practicality in implementation in rural areas. Being based on secondary literatures, and the author’s own observation-based reflection, the article also discusses how imported ideas and practices, if not aligned with local traditions and resources, can lead to unintended consequences and challenges. The critique of initiatives that prioritize superficial modernization over addressing core issues like sustainable waste management or preserving traditional farming practices has also been discussed.

The Green Revolution in Gili Balu: Policy Convergence, Blue Economy, and Community Empowerment

The Green Revolution has become a prominent policy framework for promoting sustainable development in Indonesia’s marine and fisheries sector. However, its implementation in small island regions often reveals a significant gap between policy objectives and local socio-ecological realities. This study aims to critically examine the convergence and tensions among the Green Revolution as a policy framework, the Blue Economy as a development model, and community empowerment as the ultimate goal of sustainable development in small island contexts. Using a qualitative approach, this study employs a Critical Narrative Review of 13 selected articles and policy documents, complemented by contextual reflections on Gili Balu, a small island cluster in West Sumbawa Regency, Indonesia. The analysis identifies three dominant themes: technocratic development approaches, community-based Blue Economy practices, and participatory empowerment. The findings indicate that while these concepts are theoretically complementary, their implementation is often constrained by weak local institutions, limited community authority, fragmented policy integration, and unequal access to resources. In Gili Balu, locally driven initiatives such as community-based tourism and marine resource conservation demonstrate the potential of adaptive and inclusive governance. The study concludes that sustainable transformation in small islands requires stronger integration between policy frameworks, local institutions, and community participation. The novelty of this study lies in its integrated analytical framework that connects Green Revolution, Blue Economy, and community empowerment to explain the dynamics of sustainable development in small island regions.

Protected Areas: Desperately Seeking Sustainable Development. A novel analytical framework for a multidimensional bottom-up approach

Contested development, green extractivism, and common but shifted responsibility

This piece concludes the Focused Issue on Just Transitions in the Global South intended to make up for the limited studies of dynamics of just transitions in the Global South with its unique colonial history, structural constraints, development challenges, and weak governance systems. A careful reading of the contributions from this collection reveals three interrelated themes: (a) just transition as contestation of development visions; (b) the on-set of green extractivism; and (c) a gradual movement towards shifted responsibility where developing countries are subtly shifting the burden of global clean transition to countries and communities that are least responsible for climate change and least equipped to bear the cost. The findings suggest that a broader and more nuanced understanding of just transitions is required, one that accounts for national contexts, realities, and priorities, global connectivity, and the need of the most vulnerable and affected communities. The most important question for the next decade for climate politics may not be how quickly the world transitions but whether the transition itself becomes another mechanisms through which historical injustices are reproduced.

Social Impacts of the Green Transition: Prospective Environmental (In)Justice in Europe’s Peripheries

The green transition is increasingly perceived as unjust by various stakeholders. Academic debates revolve around decarbonisation and coal phase-out legislation, the rush for critical minerals, new forms of renewable energy, regional strategies and the lack of effective coordination mechanisms, and policy gaps between economic and workforce development strategies and socio-ecological protections. Based on six case studies carried out between 2023 and 2025, this article identifies future vulnerabilities arising from the reproduction of intersectional socio-environmental inequalities in the EU’s just transition, thereby expanding the frame of socio-environmental justice (SEJ) through the lens of prospective environmental justice (PEJ). By centring analysis on the prospective production of SEJ and creation of green sacrifice zones, PEJ encourages scholarship and policy to confront the cross-sectoral and structural inequalities that green transition policies, as expressions of green capitalism, often inherit and amplify. We address a gap in comparative studies that empirically and qualitatively engage with the grassroots effects of the transition in Southern and Eastern Europe, discussing its structural conditions and evidencing place-based lived experiences. This article contributes to mapping prospective (re)vulnerabilisation in Europe’s green/just transition and the making of green sacrifice zones, wherein certain groups, identities, lands, and livelihoods are precast as dispensable in the pursuit of climate goals. Our contribution builds understanding of what it means to be made vulnerable in the technocratic shadow of the green transition in Europe’s periphery.

Bridging Policy Gaps in Transition Times: How Local Actors Navigate Low Policy Coherence for Advancing a Circular Built Environment

The construction sector is a major contributor to the climate crisis, accounting for over one‐third of global energy‐related CO 2 emissions. In response, the European Commission identified the circular economy as a means of achieving green growth and prioritized the construction sector in its Circular Economy Action Plan. Since then, national and local governments have begun developing policy regimes to promote the circular economy in the built environment (CEBE). However, implementation remains limited, and policy coherence—the alignment of objectives and instruments across government levels—is a recognized issue due to the novelty of the circular economy policy regime. This article analyzes how local actors bridge policy gaps in the existing policy regime to enable sustainability transitions through a multi‐case study of two European metropolitan regions in France and the Netherlands that advance the circular built environment. Based on a document analysis and interviews with local stakeholders ( n  = 20), the study reveals that CEBE policies frequently suffer from low coherence due to incompatible policy mixes. Two dynamics are particularly problematic: layering, where new goals and instruments are introduced without aligning with existing ones, and drift, where new objectives are pursued using outdated instruments. A lack of concrete implementation mechanisms exacerbates low coherence further. Despite these challenges, local actors develop pragmatic strategies to cope with inconsistencies—strategies that are often overlooked. We conclude with recommendations to enhance policy coherence, including incentivizing bio‐based and material reuse, adapting legal frameworks, supporting local pilots, and encouraging bottom‐up approaches.