Creating an Alternative Governance for Phosphorus Circularity Through Framings That Strengthen Intersectoral Policy Coherence in the EU: Constraints and Implementation Possibilities

Phosphorus’ availability and pricing is critical for the entire food system. Transformative phosphorus governance is required to reduce the European Union’s fertiliser vulnerability. At the same time, the EU’s governance approach is constrained by multiple problem definitions and missing salient framings that could make phosphorus recovery a priority of the EU’s decision-making agenda. The article addresses this policy gap by gathering and discussing different institutional and stakeholder framings that could inform a transition to a transformed phosphorus governance. We combine triangulated methods (framing as an analytical heuristic, semi-structured expert interviews, document analysis, and conference observations) with Kingdon’s three streams of agenda-setting as a conceptual framework to identify alternative intersectoral framings of phosphorus sustainability. Our findings suggest that the window of opportunity filled by the EU’s Fertiliser Affordability Communication supports a decarbonisation pathway that fails to emphasise the potential of emergent framings supporting phosphorus recovery. We analyse these framings and suggest that a new window of opportunity for their elevation on the EU’s decision-making agenda is opening with the inauguration of a new European Commission. We propose five alternatives that apply powerful spillover framings to implement phosphorus governance that is synchronous with the commission’s sectoral priorities. We believe that an extension of the EU’s current environmental policy along these pathways can potentially contribute to phosphorus sustainability.