Is New Governance the Silver Bullet? Insights from the Australian Buildings Sector

Abstract

New governance is gaining momentum in the addressing of environmental risks. It is often expected that new governance arrangements will achieve higher levels of effectiveness than traditional forms of environmental policy. The current research questions this assumption based on a series of 53 interviews with experts in 15 new governance arrangements in the Australian buildings sector. It finds that these arrangements have, so far, achieved limited success in terms of increased numbers of buildings with high levels of environmental performance. Some lessons are drawn to increase the effectiveness of (future) new governance arrangements.

Keywords: new governance, environmental governance, public-private policy making, environmental behaviour change

JEL Classification: D7, K2