The Role of Information in Environmental Governance

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2009.02048.x
• Published date: 01 September 2009
• Date: 01 September 2009
• Author: Daniel J. Fiorino

980 Public Administration Review • September | October 2009

 e Role of Information in Environmental Governance

Daniel J. Fiorino is the director of the

National Environmental Performance Track

at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

He is the author of

The New Environmental

Regulation

(MIT Press, 2006) and a fellow of

the National Academy of Public Administra-

tion. He teaches courses in environmental

politics and sustainability at American

University and Johns Hopkins University.

E-mail: f‌i orino.dan@epamail.epa.gov

Daniel J. Fiorino

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Arthur P. J. Mol, Environmental Reform in the

Information Age:  e Contours of Environmental

Governance (New York: Cambridge University

Press, 2008). 336 pp. $90.00 (cloth), ISBN:

9780521888127.

Information has always played a central role in

solving environmental problems. It is used to

understand issues, inf‌l uence policies, evaluate

risks, shape policy agendas, and inform decisions, and

serves as a strategy for changing behavior.  e role

that information may and will play in environmental

management and governance is changing dramatically,

largely because of technology innovations that are

transforming political relationships, scientif‌i c capabili-

ties, patterns of governance, and policy strategies.

 is book analyzes the connections between two

major topics of our time: information and the

environment. Indeed, one could easily label the next

few decades as the information age or the age of the

environment. As Arthur P. J. Mol points out, however,

the signif‌i cance of the two as they relate to each other

and the relationships among them have not been

examined in depth.  is book usefully begins to f‌i ll

this gap in the f‌i eld.

 e book consists of 11 chapters organized into three

parts plus an introduction.  e opening chapter

introduces the concept of “informational governance”

and its relation to the challenges of environmental

governance. Informational governance is the idea that

“information is fundamentally restructuring processes,