Måns Nilsson

• PhD
• Managing Director at Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)

Background With the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, a systematic assessment of how the goals influence child health and vice versa has been lacking. We aimed to contribute to such an assessment by investigating the interactions between child health and the Sustainable Development Goals in Cambodia. Methods Based on the SDG Syn...

Background: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are integrated, indivisible and interdependent and interact and affect each other directly and indirectly. However, the 2030 Agenda does not attempt to identify or characterise these interactions. Evidence: The SDG Synergies approach was developed to enable the investigation of the strength and n...

The aim of this study is to show the progress in attributes and prices of battery electric vehicles (BEV) and to analyse in which market segments long range BEV can be produced at comparable cost to conventional cars. We assess 48 models available to consumers since 1997, collecting data on attributes, weight and vehicle prices. We also provide an...

Pursuing integrated research and decision-making to advance action on the sustainable development goals (SDGs) fundamentally depends on understanding interactions between the SDGs, both negative ones (“trade-offs”) and positive ones (“co-benefits”). This quest, triggered by the 2030 Agenda, has however pointed to a gap in current research and polic...

Steel production accounts for approximately 7 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. To meet the targets set by the 2015 Paris Agreement, the steel sector must go through a systemic change that involves the full value chain, from production to recycling. The largest share of emissions in this chain comes from the production of virgin steel fro...

In this study, we present and apply an interdisciplinary approach that systematically draws qualitative insights from socio-technical transition studies to develop new quantitative scenarios for integrated assessment modelling. We identify the transition narrative as an analytical bridge between socio-technical transition studies and integrated ass...

Quantitative models of transitions, such as energy systems models and integrated assessment models, do not usually represent social processes, institutions and politics. Their view of societal transitions, along with the governance required to drive them, is therefore limited. Socio-technical systems approaches, in contrast, represent the social si...

How the sustainable development goals (SDGs) interact with each other has emerged as a key question in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, as it has potentially strong implications for prioritization of actions and their effectiveness. So far, analysis of interactions has been very basic, typically starting from one SDG, counting the number of i...

The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide guide-posts to society as it attempts to respond to an array of pressing challenges. One of these challenges is energy; thus, the SDGs have become paramount for energy policy-making. Yet, while governments throughout the world have already declared the SDGs to be 'integrated and indiv...

The water-energy-food nexus has become a popular concept in environmental change research and policy debates. Proponents suggest that a nexus approach promotes policy coherence through identifying optimal policy mixes and governance arrangements across the water, energy and food sectors. Although the nexus literature identifies some barriers to ach...

The chapter focuses on the inclusion of “governance goals” in global goal-setting mechanisms, especially the Sustainable Development Goals, and is centred on a question; can better governance, in itself, be a subject for global goal setting? We focus in this chapter on three core qualities of governance, which are good governance, effective governa...

Transmission grid development is key for the decarbonization of our energy systems, but has not been much addressed within the social sciences of energy studies. This paper addresses this gap and examines institutional barriers for developing the grid towards a decarbonized Nordic power system by 2050. The analysis focuses on current grid developme...

Måns Nilsson, Dave Griggs and Martin Visbeck present a simple way of rating relationships between the targets to highlight priorities for integrated policy.

Follow-up and review arrangements will play a critical role in ensuring that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are effectively implemented, much of which will need to happen at the national level. This article examines the nature of commitments that countries have made and if follow-up and review arrangements currently planned are consistent...

This paper seeks to better understand how one plausible development in a green energy economy transition of the transport sector can be governed: a breakthrough of battery-electric vehicles (BEV). Drawing on recent results and lessons from BEV studies at local, national and regional scales, the paper presents two alternative scenarios of BEV uptake...

Snapshot views of environmental policy integration (EPI) practices fail to consider the stability of EPI over time – both as aspiration and performance. This paper reviews the evolution of EPI over more than two decades at the national level in the agriculture and energy sectors in Sweden – an EPI pioneer. We study how the extent of EPI stability c...

This report presents the conclusions of the independent expert group on the 'Follow-up to Rio+20, notably the sustainable development goals (SDGs)' that was established by the European Commission (EC) to provide advice on the role of science, technology and innovation (STI) for implementing the new global sustainable development agenda (2030 Agenda...

Energy security has become a key priority in the European Union's (EU) policy. However, climate change mitigation commitments run in parallel. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the extent to which the EU's climate change mitigation and energy security policies are coherent. The relationship is far from clear-cut, as both areas are complex and...

To properly evaluate the prospects for commercially competitive battery electric vehicles (BEV) one must have accurate information on current and predicted cost of battery packs. The literature reveals that costs are coming down, but with large uncertainties on past, current and future costs of the dominating Li-ion technology. This paper presents...

In 2014, SEI and the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) carried out a study assessing the degree of alignment between national, regional and global priorities for the SDGs and post-2015 period. This report presents the findings and highlights gaps in both the scope and implementation of current policies, which would need to be addr...

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) have the potential to become a powerful political vision that can support the urgently needed global transition to a shared and lasting prosperity. In December 2014, the United Nations (UN) Secretary General published his report on the SDGs. However, the final goals and targets that will be adopted by the UN...

Energy security has become a key priority in EU policy but climate change mitigation commitments live on in parallel. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the extent to which EU climate change mitigation policies and energy security policies are coherent – a relationship that is far from clear cut since both areas are both complex and wide rangi...

Emissions of greenhouse gases must be significantly reduced in order to limit the risk of severe climatic change. Such reductions will require a long-term transition of the energy system to one in which energy efficiency improvements, electrification, renewable energy, carbon capture and storage and nuclear energy can play important roles. Energy s...

Energisystemet kommer att behöva ställas om för att begränsa risken för allvarliga klimatförändringar. Energieffektivisering, förny-bar energi, avskiljning och lagring av koldioxid, kärnkraft och en ökad elektrifi ering av samhället har i olika sammanhang pekats ut som viktiga beståndsdelar i en sådan omställning. Men hur påverkar en sådan omställn...

Despite seemingly favourable conditions for alternative road-based transport technologies, progress on battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have been slow in Stockholm. We investigate why, applying the multilevel perspective for socio-technical transitions to a local case study of Stockholm. Using in-depth interviews with key actors we trace processes...

The United Nations’ discussions on defining a new set of post-2015 development goals focus on poverty eradication and sustainable development. Biodiversity and ecosystem services are essential for poverty eradication, which is also one of the foundations of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Based o...

While the MDGs aimed to lift people out of poverty, the SDGs aim to keep them out of poverty by ensuring that development is both socially and environmentally sustainable. To achieve this, a “nexus” approach that integrates goals across sectors, makes the SDGs more cost-effective and efficient, reduces the risk that SDG actions will undermine one a...

Discussions on how to define, design, and implement sustainable development goals (SDG) have taken center stage in the United Nations since the Rio+20 summit. Energy is one of the issues that enjoyed consensus, before and after Rio, as an important area for SDGs to address. Many proposals have been put forward on how SDGs should be formulated and w...

This chapter examines current policy drivers of battery electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid EVs, the current and anticipated impacts on carbon emissions, as well as what potential role policy can play in enhancing the innovation system and market development around such vehicles in the future. We start with a policy review of key targets in...

This paper presents a framework for analysing policy coherence in a European Union setting through the perspective of policy interaction. Building on a simple policy-analytical approach and theories of institutional interaction, the framework develops a three-step analytical approach, consisting of the inventory of policy objectives, the screening...

The notion of ‘planetary boundaries’ is rapidly diffusing into a range of policy arenas and has clearly stimulated a discussion on the need to reform international environmental governance. This article summarizes the special section “Global Environmental Governance and Planetary Boundaries”. The articles in this section highlight several dimension...

Earth system interactions, as highlighted by the planetary boundaries framework, occur within and across natural, social and economic systems and shape global environmental change. This paper addresses the multi-level governance problem of coherently addressing key interactions between four Earth sub-systems – climate change, freshwater use, land u...

This paper examines patterns of governance aimed at sustainable technological innovation in the transport sector. It makes an overall assessment of governance emerging in the fields of biofuel and hybrid-electric vehicle (HEV) technologies, and makes a classification of its characteristics. It examines the role of different actors and levels of gov...

This article examines the recent changes of three central EU climate and energy policies: the revised Emissions Trading Directive (ETS); the Renewables Directive (RES); and internal energy market (IEM) policy. An increasing transference of competence to EU level institutions, and hence “vertical integration,” has taken place, most clearly in the ca...

Earth system interactions, as highlighted by the planetary boundaries framework, occur within and across natural, social and economic systems and shape global environmental change. This paper addresses the multi-level governance problem of coherently addressing key interactions between four Earth sub-systems – climate change, freshwater use, land u...

A range of studies from Earth system scientists argue that human activities drive multiple, interacting effects that cascade through the Earth system. Recent contributions state and quantify nine, interacting 'planetary boundaries' with possible threshold effects. This article provides an overview of the global governance challenges that follow fro...

Highlights ► In order to achieve the multiple objectives of the energy system transformation, implementation of a large number of systems changes would need to begin today. ► Integrated policies in aid of these objectives can have important synergies. ► Formulating a long-term vision with respect to the energy system is important, given the critica...

This report combines a global assessment of energy scenarios up to 2050, case studies of energy access and low-carbon efforts around the world, and a review of the technological shifts, investments, policies and governance structures needed to bring energy to all. It finds that it is, indeed, possibly to meet energy needs for human and economic dev...

Energy future studies can be a useful tool for learning about how to induce and manage technical, economic and policy change related to energy supply and use. The private sector has successfully deployed them for strategic planning, examining key parameters such as markets, competition and consumer trends. However in public policy, most energy futu...

The conflict between climate change mitigation and ecosystems functions is highlighted in the implementation of two EU directives; the renewable energy directive (RES) and the water framework directive (WFD). This paper examines the Swedish implementation of the RES and WFD and possible outcomes in light of the setup and functioning of the present...

This article explores the links between agency, institutions, and innovation in navigating shifts and large-scale transformations toward global sustainability. Our central question is whether social and technical innovations can reverse the trends that are challenging critical thresholds and creating tipping points in the earth system, and if not,...

Humanity has emerged as a major force in the operation of the biosphere, with a significant imprint on the Earth System, challenging social–ecological resilience. This new situation calls for a fundamental shift in perspectives, world views, and institutions. Human development and progress must be reconnected to the capacity of the biosphere and es...

The EU takes a growing interest in governing the energy sector in its member states. Competing with national institutions, policies and organizational structures, it is however not clear whether the EU exerts a strong influence compared to other factors, and if there is such an influence, the mechanisms are not well understood. This paper examines...

This paper addresses the problem of "fit" between strategic environmental assessment (SEA) aims and procedures, and the planning context in which SEA is implemented. The paper approaches this problem from a bottom-up perspective, examining existing planning practices, routines and institutions in order to illuminate prospects and barriers for effec...

The development and diffusion of technological innovations need governing in order to contribute to societal goals related to sustainability. Yet, there are few systematic studies mapping out what types of governance are deployed and how they influence the development and diffusion of sustainable technological innovations. This paper develops a fra...

The Swedish pulp and paper industry has gone through a strategic change in its approach to electricity production and consumption over the past decade. This paper documents this reorientation, which includes increased on-site electricity production, investments and investment plans for wind power, and new partnerships concerning investments in elec...

The promotion of renewable sources of energy (RES) has, like energy policy overall, traditionally been a Member-State concern in the European Union (EU). At the national level it has a relatively long history: many Member States have supported the introduction of RES through various instruments and measures ever since the 1970s. In those early year...

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) requires monitoring in order to identify unforeseen adverse effects and to enable appropriate remedial action to be taken. Guidelines on how to monitor significant environmental impacts have been developed but experience from practice is limited. This paper presents a study of environmental monitoring in Swe...

In environmental systems analysis tools like Life Cycle Assessment, strategic environmental assessment, cost–benefit analysis and environmental management systems, results need to be presented in a comprehensible way to make alternatives easily comparable. One way of doing this is to aggregate results to a manageable set by using weighting methods....

This paper examines policy processes surrounding the rise and fall of the proposed EU-wide policy instrument designed to help achieve the EU's renewable energy targets—the trading of Guarantees of Origin (GO). It discusses its origins and examines factors in the policy processes over time leading first to its development and then to its abandonment...

Pressure is mounting for states to become better at integrating its environmental policies into sector policy, a challenge often referred to as environmental policy integration (EPI). Policy research on EPI has grown to become a distinct and substantial field of study at the national and EU levels, where political commitment and interest in the top...

Strategic Environmental Assessment aims to incorporate environmental and sustainability considerations into strategic decision making processes, such as the formulation of policies, plans and programmes. In order to be effective, the assessment must take the real decision making process as the departure point. Existing SEA approaches are frequently...

Procedures for the ex ante assessment of public policies are currently in vogue across the OECD. Their design is typically informed by an instrumentally rational model of problem solving, which assumes that knowledge is collected, evaluated and then translated straightforwardly into 'better policies'. This model has, it seems, been little affected...

Procedures for the ex ante assessment of public policies are currently in vogue across the OECD. Their design is typically informed by a rational-instrumental model of problem solving, which assumes that knowledge is collected, evaluated, and then translated straightforwardly into ‘better policies’. But this model has been little affected by more t...

Most Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) research and applications have so far neglected the ex post stages of the process, also called SEA follow-up. Tool kits and methodological frameworks for engaging effectively with SEA follow-up have been conspicuously missing. In particular, little has so far been learned from the much more mature evalu...

Research into environmental policy integration (EPI) has focused very much on coordination issues associated with the preparation of policies at national and international levels. We instead examine some challenges in implementing EPI at the local level. We look at legal and policy frameworks relating to environmental governance and actual waste ma...

This paper makes a critical comment on the renewed interest in refocusing SEA on the natural environment, and argues that although this may well reflect the preferences of SEAm practitioners, crucially it ignores the users in planning and policy making.

Impact assessment frameworks are gaining increasing attention as a procedure to integrate sustainability concerns in European and national policy-making. The gap between political visions on sustainable development and the reality of policy-making is, however, still pronounced, and a very limited range and scope of available assessment methods are...

Integrated assessment is rapidly developing in the scientific as well as policy community. Different methods, techniques and procedures (i.e., tools) are used in these assessments. Often, the choice for using certain tools in an assessment is not well founded. This paper presents a framework that scientifically underpins the role of, and thus choic...

A number of different tools for analysing environmental impacts of different systems have been developed. These include procedural tools such as strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and environmental management systems (EMS) as well as analytical ones such as life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle costing (LCC), cost–benefit analysis (CBA) and...

Widely advocated as a means to make policy making more integrated, policy assessment remains weakly integrated in practice. But explanations for this shortfall, such as lack of staff training and resources, ignore more fundamental institutional factors. This paper identifies institutional capacities supporting and constraining attempts to make poli...

Not all environmental problems get the same level of policy attention. An interesting question is thus why certain aspects receive attention and others do not. This paper studies the level of policy attention given to different environmental aspects in agriculture and energy policy in Sweden and explores empirically some factors that can explain th...

The increasing complexity of policy problems, coupled with the political desire to base new policies on the foundation of firm evidence, has accelerated the development of policy assessment tools. These range from complex computer models and cost benefit analysis through simple checklists and decision trees. In the last decade, many governments hav...

Integrated assessment is rapidly developing in the scientific as well as policy community. Different methods, techniques and procedures (i.e., tools) are used in these assessments. Often, the choice for using certain tools in an assessment is not well founded. This paper presents a framework that scientifically underpins the role of, and thus choic...

Most SEA practice and research has focused on the pre-decision stages, whereas post-decision follow-up stages such as monitoring, evaluation, and management have been given far less attention. These stages, referred to as SEA follow-up, are integral to making SEA effective and learning-oriented. This paper takes the first step towards a framework f...

Environmental values and concerns are meant to be reflected through environmental policy, which is then integrated into mainstream economic and social policy and serves to govern society and the economy. Yet effective environmental policy integration (EPI) has proven to be very difficult in actual practice and it remains largely an elusive aspirati...

This paper examines Environmental Policy Integration (EPI) in the context of governance at the national policymaking level. It argues that in this context, EPI depends in part on processes of social learning, involving close interactions and a qualified dialogue among stakeholders. Social learning approaches are in line with contemporary internatio...

This study examines two challenges related to the integration of environmental concerns into public policymaking: how to shape institutions that facilitate policy learning in national policymaking processes, and how to create effective supporting assessment processes. A simple construct of policy learning is applied empirically; distinguishing what...

Goal, Scope and Background Although LCA is traditionally a site-independent tool, there is currently a trend towards making LCA more site-dependent if not site-specific. For Europe, site-dependent impact factors have been calculated on a country basis for acidification, terrestrial eutrophication and toxicological impacts. It is, however, an open q...

Environmental policy integration (EPI) has been advanced as a guiding policy principle in Europe to ensure that environmental concerns are considered across all areas of policymaking. EPI can be treated analytically as a process of policy learning. The author analyses EPI and other types of learning in Swedish energy policy from the late 1980s up t...

Most Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) research has been preoccupied with SEA as a procedure and there are relatively few developments and tests of analytical methodologies. This paper applies and tests an analytical framework for an energy sector SEA. In a case study on a policy proposal for waste-to-energy taxation in Sweden, it studies ch...

Europe has positioned itself as a front runner for climate mitigation policy globally. However, to reach climate mitigation targets that go far beyond Kyoto commitments, climate policy must become more integrated with sectoral policies such as energy, transport and agriculture. To achieve such policy integration, policy reframing and dilemma sharin...

Environmental policy integration (EPI) has been broadly embraced as a principle in European policy making. Yet, what it means in practice is far from clear and its translation from rhetoric to action has been shown to be complex and politically difficult. This paper provides a conceptual clarification of EPI based on a review of current research. I...

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is a procedural tool and within the framework of SEA, several different types of analytical tools can be used in the assessment. Several analytical tools are presented and their relation to SEA is discussed including methods for future studies, Life Cycle Assessment, Risk Assessment, Economic Valuation and M...

Introduction: This chapter looks at how computer models were used in IA Focus Groups within the study discussed in this volume. In these groups, different computer models – ranging from complex and dynamic global models to simple accounting tools – were used in the second phase of the procedure. Based on a total of 52 IA Focus Groups with citizens,...

Integrated assessment (IA) can be defined as a structured process of dealing with complex issues, using knowledge from various scientific disciplines and/or stakeholders, such that integrated insights are made available to decision makers (J. Rotmans, Enviromental Modelling and Assessment 3 (1998) 155). There is a growing recognition that the parti...

Formal procedures for the ex ante appraisal of planned policies are currently receiving a remarkable level of attention in the European Union and in other OECD countries as a tool for pursuing sustainable development, policy integration and better governance. The design of these procedures is typically based on a rational model of problem solving:...