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This article deals with the challenge of approaching decision-making processes through strategic environmental assessment (SEA). It is argued that the interaction between policy-making and planning in strategic decision-making processes is a neglected reason for problems with applying SEA, as legislation and guidance on SEA primarily approach either the policy or plan level. To substantiate the argument, the extent of interaction is empirically investigated. Four contemporary decision-making processes in the Danish energy sector are mapped as a series of choices. Fundamental changes with considerable environmental impacts are decided these years, often without preceding SEA processes. The mapping shows a profound interaction between policy-making and planning. In this interaction, public consultation, systematic environmental analyses, and transparency on alternatives are primarily related to choices of planning character. The findings lead to a discussion of the existing SEA guidance that is challenged in terms of adequacy of the guidance to approach the interaction.

In the last decade, the emphasis of regional environmental assessment (EA) has shifted away from simply project approval towards facilitating environmental governance by accommodating heterogeneous stakeholders and emphasising relationship building across diverse institutions. However, there are very few advanced regional EA cases that may be studied to understand how practice has evolved and the implications for regional environmental governance. This paper characterises and assesses the interactions among the members of the Crown of the Continent Managers Partnership (CMP), whereby individuals with planning, policy-making, and EA roles attempted to implement an adaptive approach to regional cumulative effects assessment. Twelve in-depth, semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders provide data used in the investigation. The analysis demonstrates opportunities for an approach to regional EA that facilitates environmental governance through collective visioning, innovative leadership, learning from failure, and collaborative science and management. Lessons from the CMP are relevant internationally to jurisdictions seeking to implement regional EA via multi-disciplinary, multi-jurisdictional partnerships.

Digitalization has led to fundamental changes in the way people behave and live, and the way organizations, societies and nations operate. Although digitalization has brought about enormous benefits in general, it has also made the work of policymakers ever more challenging. A key responsibility of policymakers is consumer protection and this task is made ever more complicated with issues of data privacy and data ownership since many institutions and companies are now able to gather granular consumer data over transactions and the Internet of Things (IoT). For effective policy-making, policymakers need the right data and information. This is no longer straightforward with issues of valuation and measurement — how does one measure digitalization and its outputs, particularly with some new-age products and services being free and are readily available? Moreover, digitalization has brought with it wide-ranging implications for the labor market (such as with the rise of gig economy), education, tax laws, economic policies and financial stability, which force policymakers to continuously keep abreast on emerging technological trends and to ensure their policies are up-to-date. This paper attempts to analyze various literature studies and draw some insights on issues that policymakers need to be mindful of in the digital age. Some potential recommendations will be tabled for discussion and further research.