Economic Crisis and Environmental Governance Under Austerity: Evidence from Greece, 2010–2022

The article examines the effects of Greece’s economic crisis on environmental performance during the three economic adjustment programmes implemented between 2010 and 2018. It combines longitudinal data on environmental infringement proceedings covering the periods before, during, and after the crisis (1994–2022) with qualitative evidence from 42 elite interviews involving key Greek and European environmental actors. The interview data are analysed using a structured, codebook-driven thematic analysis. Drawing on an expanded version of the Capacity–Intentionality Framework (CIF), the study makes an original contribution to the emerging literature on environmental governance under conditions of mega-crisis. It shows how the retrenchment of state capacity and the disruption of elite intentionality intensify long-standing structural weaknesses in environmental policy implementation.