George Hoberg is a Professor Emeritus at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (SPPGA) at the University of British Columbia. He specializes in environmental and natural resource policy and governance. His research interests include environmental policy, energy policy, forest policy, and more generally the design of policies and institutions to promote sustainability. His current research focuses on the clean energy transformation.

Dr. Hoberg taught public policy and American politics in the Department of Political Science for 13 years, and forest and energy policy in the Faculty of Forestry from 2001 to 2016. He has published on the role of science in policy-making and international constraints on domestic policy autonomy. He has also written books on BC and Canadian forest policy, environmental policy in the US, toxic substances regulation, and edited two books on comparative Canada-US policies and the US influence on Canada. From 2001-2006, he was head of the Department of Forest Resources Management at UBC. He is an associate of the Department of Political Science and Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability, and a member of the Clean Energy Research Centre. He is the former Graduate Program Director of the Master of Public Policy and Global Affairs at SPPGA.

Learn more and watch the launch of his latest book, The Resistance Dilemma Place-Based Movements and the Climate Crisis, here.

Books

Hoberg, George. The Resistance Dilemma Place-Based Movements and the Climate Crisis. The MIT Press, 2021.

M.K. (Marty) Luckert, David Haley, George Hoberg. Policies for Sustainably Managing Canada’s Forests: Tenure, Stumpage Fees, and Forest Practices. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2011.

Hoberg, George, ed. Capacity for Choice: Canada in a New North America. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002.

Benjamin Cashore, George Hoberg, Michael Howlett, Jeremy Rayner, and Jeremy Wilson. In Search of Sustainability: Forest Policy in British Columbia in the 1990s. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2001.

Keith Banting, George Hoberg, and Richard Simeon, ed. Degrees of Freedom:  Canada and the United States in a Changing World. Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997.

Kathryn Harrison and George Hoberg. Risk, Science, and Politics:  Regulating Toxic Substances in Canada and the United States. Kingston:  McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1994.

Journal articles

Carol Hunsberger, Sarah Froese, George Hoberg, 2020. “Toward ‘good process’ in regulatory reviews: Is Canada’s new system any better than the old?“.
Environmental Impact Assessment Review, Volume 82, 2020, 106379, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2020.106379

Peterson St-Laurent, G., Hoberg, G., Sheppard, S.R.J. and Hagerman, S.M., 2020. Designing and evaluating analytic-deliberative engagement processes for natural resources management. Elem Sci Anth, 8(1), p.8. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.402

George Hoberg. 2018. “Pipelines and the Politics of Structure: Constitutional Conflicts in the Canadian Oil Sector,” Review of Constitutional Studies 23: 52-89.

Peterson St-Laurent, Guillaume, Shannon Hagerman, Robert A. Kozak, and George Hoberg. 2018. “Public perceptions about climate change mitigation in British Columbia’s forest sector.” PLoS ONE 13(4): e0195999.

Peterson St-Laurent, Guillaume, George Hoberg, and Stephen R. J. Sheppard. 2018. “A Participatory Approach to Evaluating Strategies for Forest Carbon Mitigation in British Columbia.” Forests, 9, 225; doi:10.3390/f9040225

Peterson St-Laurent, Guillaume, Shannon Hagerman, and George Hoberg. 2017. “Barriers to the development of forest carbon offsetting: Insights from British Columbia, Canada.” Journal of Environmental Management 203 (Pt 1):208-217. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.07.051

Potvin, Catherine et al. 2017. Stimulating a Canadian narrative for climate. FACETS. Published online 14 February 2017.

George Hoberg, Guillaume Peterson St-Laurent, Gabrielle Schittecatte, Caren C. Dymond. 2016. Forest carbon mitigation policy: A policy gap analysis for British Columbia. Forest Policy and Economics 69 (2016) 73–82. doi:10.1016/j.forpol.2016.05.005

George Hoberg, Leah Malkinson, Laura Kozak, “Barriers to innovation in response to regulatory reform: Performance-based forest practices regulation in British Columbia,” Forest Policy and Economics 62 (January 2016): 2–10. doi:10.1016/j.forpol.2015.10.014

George Hoberg and James Meadowcroft, “Climate Action,” Alternatives Journal, March 2015.

Geoffrey H. Salomons and George Hoberg, “Setting Boundaries of Participation in Environmental Impact Assessment,” Environmental Impact Assessment Review. Volume 45, February 2014, Pages 69–75. doi:10.1016/j.eiar.2013.11.001

George Hoberg, “The Battle Over Oil Sands Access to Tidewater: A Political Risk Analysis of Pipeline Alternatives,” Canadian Public Policy – Analyse de Politiques 39, no 3 (2013): 371-91. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/CPP.39.3.371

George Hoberg and Leah Malkinson, “Challenges in the design of performance-based forestry regulations: Lessons from British Columbia,” Forest Policy and Economics 26 (2013) 54–62 doi:10.1016/j.forpol.2012.08.013

Hoberg, George and Jeffrey Phillips. 2011, “Playing Defence: Early Responses to Conflict Expansion in the Oil Sands Policy Subsystem,” Canadian Journal of Political Science  44 : pp 507-527 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0008423911000473

Lisa Ambus and George Hoberg, “The Evolution of Devolution: A Critical Analysis of the Community Forest Agreement in British Columbia,” Society & Natural Resources 24 (2011), Issue 9, pp. 933-950.

Trosper, R. L., H. Nelson, G. Hoberg, P. Smith and W. Nikolakis. 2007. “Institutional Determinants of Profitable Commercial Forestry Enterprises Among First Nations in Canada.” Canadian Journal of Forest Research 38(2): 226-238

Mabee, H.N.S and Hoberg, G. 2006. Equal Partners? Assessing co-management of forest resources in Clayoquot Sound, Society and Natural Resources 19 Number 10/November-December, pp. 875-888.

George Hoberg, “Science, Politics, and US Forest Law: The Battle over the Forest Service Planning Rule,” Natural Resources Journal 44, no 1 (2004): 1-27. http://lawschool.unm.edu/nrj/volumes/44/1/02_hoberg_science.pdf

R. Mabee, H.N.S. and G. Hoberg, “Protecting culturally significant areas through watershed planning in Clayoquot Sound.” Forestry Chronicle, vol 80, no 2 (2004): 229-240.

Book chapters

Hoberg, George. 2017. “Ambition without Capacity: Environmental and Natural Resource Policy in the Campbell Era” In Tracy Summerville and Jason Lacharite (eds.). The Campbell Revolution:  Power and Politics in British Columbia from 2001 to 2011. McGill-Queen’s University Press. Chapter 9.

Hoberg, George. 2016. “Unsustainable Development: Energy and Environment in the Harper Decade.” In The Harper Factor: Assessing a Prime Minister’s Policy Legacy. Jennifer Ditchburn and Graham Fox, eds. McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Mabee, Holly, D.B. Tindall, George Hoberg, and J.P. Gladu, “Co-Management of Forest Lands. The Cases of Clayoquot Sound, and Gwaii Haanas.” Pp. 242-259 in Aboriginal Peoples and Forest Lands in Canada, edited by D.B. Tindall, Ronald L. Trosper and Pamela Perreault. Vancouver, B.C.: University of British Columbia Press, 2013.

Jason Forsyth, George Hoberg, and Laura Bird (2013). In Search of Certainty: A Decade of Shifting Strategies for Accommodating First Nations in Forest Policy, 2001-2011.” pp. 299-312 in Aboriginal Peoples and Forest Lands in Canada, edited by D.B. Tindall, Ronald L. Trosper and Pamela Perreault. Vancouver, B.C.: University of British Columbia Press.

George Hoberg. 2010. “Bringing the Market Back In: BC Natural Resource Policies During the Campbell Years,” in British Columbia Politics and Government, Micheal Howlett, Dennis Pilon, and Tracy Sommerville, eds. Toronto: Edmond Montgomery. pp. 331-51.

Constance McDermott and George Hoberg. 2003. “From State to Market:  Forestry Certification in the United States and Canada.” In Two Paths Toward Sustainable Forests:  Public Values in Canada and the United States. Bruce A. Shindler et al, eds. Corvallis, OR:  Oregon State University Press.  pp. 229-50.

Reports

Guillaume Peterson St-Laurent and George Hoberg, Climate Change Mitigation Options in British Columbia’s Forests: A Primer, Prepared for the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions Forest Carbon Mitigation Project.

Catherine Potvin lead author. George Hoberg one of 31 authors, Acting on Climate Change: Solutions by Canadian Scholars, a position paper from Sustainable Canada Dialogues. Sustainable Canada Dialogues, 2015.