Policy mixes for addressing environmental challenges

This chapter provides an introductory primer for academic researchers and policy practitioners to understand and apply the policy mix perspective in developing transformative solutions for tackling global environmental challenges. By comparing and synthesising currently divergent understandings of policy mixes across different research disciplines, an extended framework is introduced to better incorporate different conceptual blocks – the policy mix element, associated policy processes, and resulting policy mix characteristics – in systematically investigating the role of policy mixes for addressing environmental challenges. Two standard approaches for delineating complex policy mixes – the top-down and the bottom-up approach – are discussed as a guideline for analysts interested in investigating real-world policy mixes. Taking global climate change as an illustrative example, the chapter then showcases the insights that can be generated by applying this extended policy mix perspective and how it thereby can inform real-world policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation activities. As a concluding remark, three promising research areas – transformative change, multi-level governance settings, and policy regime reconfigurations – are suggested to further advance our understanding of addressing real-world pressing environmental challenges through policy mixes.