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The purpose of this paper is to apply club good theory to challenges in climate justice and to identify the opportunities for creating a club of countries or regions to support climate justice and/or mitigate climate change, as well as the threats that such clubs could lead to the real exclusion of large parts of the world from climate justice.

A theoretical analysis is provided regarding the conditions for creating a club for climate change mitigation. Indicators of good governance and trust, as well as the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index (ND-GAIN), are used to assess the capacity for creating such a club.

While opportunities for achieving climate justice are identified, climate change mitigation is likely to be at most a club good at the global level, thus excluding the most vulnerable countries, regions and groups of people. Although the threats of climate change may be acknowledged, they are easily neglected. Economic growth is likely to be a condition for economic sustainability, which in turn tends to be a condition for environmental sustainability. Decision makers should be conscious of the potential danger of creating a club for climate change mitigation based on the belief that economic growth and technology will solve these problems, as such a club is likely to be either unsustainable, or very small, while deepening existing injustice.

The authors provide an overview of the complexity of issues involved, to gain an appreciation of the vast, perhaps insurmountable, challenges facing climate justice. A club good approach is applied to issues of climate justice, emphasizing the limitations of the all-inclusiveness of climate justice and sustainable development.

The paper aims to outline and analyse some important elements of institutional capital and their potential effect on sustainable development.

The paper presents four elements of institutional capital: public domain, institutional strength, good governance, and institutional equilibrium. The choice of these elements and the analysis of their economic, social and environmental impacts are based on literature study and interpretation and extension of existing analyses which rather focus on either economic or environmental issues.

The main argument of the paper is that institutional capital is a fundament of sustainable development, and that a lack of such capital is likely to cause unsustainable development.

The paper creates a general theoretical basis that may be a useful background for developing policy based on a system approach.

New institutional economics has often been used to analyse institutional determinants of economic growth and, to a lesser extent, to elaborate conditions for environmental protection and social development. The paper has tried to integrate and extend existing theory, focusing on economic activity, natural resource use and negative externalities, into a more general framework presenting the fundamental importance of social and economic order (institutional capital) for achieving sustainable development.

Management education trainers are increasingly called upon to train students to devise interventions for sustainable development in business settings. Due to the dominant reductionist paradigm, these interventions may lead to unwanted side effects. Teaching students about unacknowledged feedback loops in complex systems should prevent them from choosing “the most obvious” intervention without considering unwanted side effects.The current study aims to report the effects of teaching a systems perspective, applied to transport systems, on students’ opinions and expressed paradigms. The following questions are addressed: Do students adhere to the techno-centric paradigm, believing technology, innovation and growth can solve all types of threats for sustainable development, while neglecting low probability, high impact events? Are paradigms held by students coherent? Can teaching lead to a change in opinions and paradigms held by students?

Measures for several systems concepts (i.e. functional stupidity, paradigms and fragility) are taken across a wide sample of university students. Posttests of some key items are taken for a subsample that followed a sustainability and systems perspective in a course on transport economics.

A large share of students think that technology can solve different types of problems in sustainable development (a kind of weak sustainability), but their paradigms tend to be a mix of conflicting opinions. Though student opinions on topics that were explicitly treated in the course have changed, neither a wider paradigm shift nor significantly more coherent paradigms can be confirmed.

The results show that even though students can be taught about the unwanted side effects and limitations on specific techno-fix interventions, this does not automatically translate into a critical mind-set toward techno-fixing in general.

This paper aims to emphasize the significance of integrating sustainable development (SD) content into higher education institutions (HEIs) curricula. The focus is on identifying areas of research demand related to SD in teaching and learning programmes.

This study uses a comprehensive approach, combining bibliometric analysis and an original survey instrument tool. The research involves HEIs staff engaged in both research and teaching roles across 36 countries worldwide.

The findings of the study shed light on the challenges and gaps in incorporating SD into HEIs curricula. Insights reveal that researchers focusing on SD within teaching and learning programmes face a notable obstacle in the form of congested timetables.

While providing valuable insights, this research acknowledges study design and methodology limitations. These limitations should be considered when interpreting the findings and planning future research endeavours in SD in HEIs.

The paper underscores the practical implications of the findings, emphasising the need to address congested timetables as a significant obstacle to sustainability education efforts. The practical insights aim to guide educators and institutions in enhancing the incorporation of SD content in their teaching programmes.

The study’s social implications highlight the broader impact on society, emphasising the role of HEIs in shaping a sustainable future. Addressing the identified challenges can contribute to better preparing students for addressing real-world sustainability issues, thereby fostering positive social change.

This paper concludes by outlining essential measures to address identified challenges and gaps, emphasising the imperative of creating an environment that supports the integration of SD into higher education curricula. The findings provide valuable guidance for educators, policymakers and institutions seeking to enhance sustainability education efforts.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relation between the ISO 14001 standard and sustainable development, and to present a case study of the energy sector in Poland in order to provide an example of the influence of the environmental management system according to ISO 14001 on environmental quality and sustainable development.

The relation between sustainable development and the environmental management system related to the ISO 14000 series is discussed by comparing these series with the ICC Business Charter for Sustainable Development. The case study is based on the analysis of the fulfilment of environmental goals and tasks, which are part of the environmental management system, introduced in the company under research.

The case study provides arguments that the ISO 14001 standard may support sustainable development, in particular when standard legal enforcement mechanisms are weak.

The introduction of standards for business may be a tool for achieving sustainable development.

The paper shows an example of opportunity for business to contribute to sustainable development.

This paper seeks to review multidimensional aspects of local sustainable development policy in the context of governance. It aims to focus on the general conditions in Poland and to base its analysis on empirical research in selected Polish communities.

In the first theoretical part the paper presents multidimensional aspects of governance for local sustainability. Identified barriers are the analyzed, based on case studies of local communities.

The paper shows that even if sustainable development and governance are integrated in theoretical discourses, in the practice of local policy making they are rarely considered in conjunction with each other. A lack of understanding of the importance of governance for sustainability and for local development has been identified on the practical level of local policy making. The Polish case studies show that the responsibility for governance barriers to local sustainable development is shared by local decision‐makers and local societies.

Creation of partnership and dialogue between the local community and government is believed to be of critical importance for local sustainable development. The relationship between local government and society can greatly enhance or obstruct sustainable development initiatives. The change towards local sustainable development requires more open and transparent decision‐making procedures that promote participation by a wide range of stakeholders.

The paper is another voice in the debate on governance for local sustainable development. Based on empirical examination it shows the issue of governance barriers for local sustainable development from a Polish local perspective.

This article seeks to explain the mechanism of adapting enterprises to the requirements of sustainable development. It aims to base this analysis on the concept of new institutional economics.

The theoretical basis of new institutional economics is used to understand and explain the behaviour of enterprises in relation to the natural environment.

The article finds that new institutional economics, compared to rather formalised and abstract mainstream economics, may be quite successfully used in answering why economic entities undertake actions for environmental protection.

New institutional economics may be used as a tool for understanding e.g. why some instruments aiming at environmental protection are more effective and efficient than other instruments. It may provide useful knowledge about the institutional environment while creating new environmental protection instruments. More empirical studies on a greater number of enterprises (not only individual case studies) are necessary to find out which institutions and mechanisms mentioned in the paper are crucial, and which should be supported in order to achieve environmental goals.

There are a great number of empirical papers containing case studies, but only few theoretical attempts to generate a synthesis. This paper fills this gap.