Resources policies in Australia

Developments in Australia's resource industries in recent years have raised policy issues not previously encountered, and their consideration has been superimposed onto traditional policies affecting resource production and use. This review of Australia's policies on resources - here meaning minerals and energy policies - looks at the objectives of these policies and their interrelationships. It considers issues such as management, development objectives, investment, taxation, environment and processing, and likely future developments.     

碳达峰政策体系建设的思路与重点任务

我国2030年前实现碳达峰面临巨大压力,需要系统研究构建碳达峰政策体系,为碳达峰提供政策动力。本文分析了我国碳达峰相关政策实施情况,探讨了碳达峰政策创新思路,提出了碳达峰政策体系建设的重点任务以及政策实施保障。以减污降碳为主线,推进低碳发展政策与生态环境保护政策的统筹融合,构建完善以碳排放总量控制为核心的,涵盖行业部门、重点区域地区、减排相关方的,多手段类型相结合的碳达峰政策体系,促进产业、能源、交通结构调整和低碳发展,有效推动重点行业和领域碳排放达峰路径与关键举措的顺利落地。从建立健全碳排放总量控制考评制度、加快构建排污许可证与碳排放管控协同制度、深化能源资源价格机制改革、全面推开碳排放权交易市场等方面提出重点政策建议。     

State mineral production taxes and mining law reform

Fuel and leasable minerals mined in the United States have historically been subject to federal royalties while locatable minerals have not. In recent years there have been multiple attempts to alter this policy and subject locatable minerals to federal royalties as well; most recently the preliminary 2012 Obama budget included a gross royalty on hard-rock mining on public lands. This paper analyzes the issue of imposing such federal royalties from both a legal and economic perspective. From a legal perspective, it is argued that the state of western property rights precludes royalties on currently extant claims so revenues from a royalty would not be realized for many years. From an economic perspective, it is argued that the effect on revenue would be smaller than one might anticipate due to such a royalty crowding out state levies or encouraging vertical disintegration on the part of mining firms to avoid much of the burden of the royalty.     

Winners and losers from industry reforms in the developing world: experiences from the electricity and mining sectors

The reform of previously state-owned and operated industries in many Less Developed Countries (LDCs) provide contrary experiences to those in the developed world, which have generally had more equitable distributional impacts. The economic reform policies proposed by the so-called ‘Washington Consensus’ state that privatisation provides governments with opportunities to raise revenues through the sale of under-performing and indebted state industries, thereby reducing significant fiscal burdens, and, at the same time, facilitating influxes of foreign capital, skills and technology, with the aim of improving operations and a ‘trickle-down’ of benefits. However, experiences in many LDCs over the last 15–20 years suggest that reform has not solved the problem of chronic public-sector debt, and that poverty and socio-economic inequalities have increased during this period of ‘neo-liberal’ economics. This paper does not seek to challenge the policies themselves, but rather argues that the context in which reform has often taken place is of fundamental significance. The industry-centric policy advice provided by the IFIs typically causes a ‘lock-in’ of inequitably distributed ‘efficiency gains’, providing minimal, if any, benefits to impoverished groups. These arguments are made using case study analysis from the electricity and mining sectors.     

Expanding the Range of Choice in Water Management: An Evaluation of Policy Approaches

This paper examines the ‘range of choice’ concept in water management. Although many efforts have been made to design policies that broaden the consideration of water resources alternatives, the experiences gained from these policy experiments have not been adequately assessed. What insights might American policy approaches offer for developing countries? To address this question, four general policy types were identified and compared: (1) comprehensive single-objective policies; (2) comprehensive multiple-objective policies; (3) specific non-structural policies; and (4) specific technological policies. Case studies of each approach revealed that effective institutional development occurs when policies are: (1) stated in clear and specific language; (2) modified as experience is gained; (3) adequate in terms of statutory and administrative authority; and (4) subject to an orderly process of public and judicial review. The most successful policy efforts to date have involved specific alternatives, while multiple-objective policies have encountered the most difficulties. Common institutional problems are identified, and their potential relevance for developing countries is discussed.     

Challenges to the implementation of a sustainable development certification programme for the minerals and metals industry

Private, voluntary eco-labelling and certification programmes are being developed for a number of industries to promote and verify higher environmental, economic and social standards. In some cases, these initiatives have developed regardless of whether there is initial, broad support within industry. This article seeks to identify some of the challenges inherent in the implementation of a sustainable development certification programme for the minerals and metals industry. The article looks for guidance from initiatives that are drawn for the most part from other resource industries, most notably forestry. While the article takes a Canadian perspective, many of the challenges raised in the article are also applicable internationally. The article concludes that stakeholders can learn from other resource industries if a decision is made to develop a certification programme for the minerals and metals industry. Crucial to the long-term success of such a programme will be the establishment of a true partnership among stakeholders throughout the initiative's development. Crown Copyright.     

Inventories and maps: cognitive ways of framing the nature policies in Europe

Since the Earth Summit in Rio, declining biodiversity has become a subject of general concern for many countries. To counter these negative trends, government nature policies in Europe at least are now thought out primarily in terms of networks. They concern new areas outside nature reserves, new players and new management strategies. Consequently, these policies should themselves become the subject of new public debate. Our study concerns the analysis of the forms used to collect the data required to set up the European Union's Natura 2000 network and maps drawn as part of the Council of Europe's Pan-European Ecological Network strategy. The aim of this article, which takes the perspective developed by the sociology of science, will be to show how the forms and maps used in these new nature policies produce knowledge that precedes policy discussions to search for the best possible socio-political compromises. In other words, the knowledge that is collected in and by means of these documents, forms and maps offers a cognitive way of ‘framing’ the subsequent public debates. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The dynamics of artisanal and small-scale mining reform

Artisanal and small‐scale mining are activities that have long been established in many developing countries, employing millions of people globally, either directly or in affiliated industries. Also, such activities are deplored for their adverse environmental impacts and their general avoidance of governments, tax collectors and other regulators. Decades of work have gone into addressing these problems, but with limited overall progress in evidence. Going back to some of the key dynamic relationships involved in artisanal mining and small‐scale mining, the need for policy reform that gives consistent and effective incentives is argued to be the foundation on which other discussions about environmental protection, sustainability and livelihoods can be built.     

Energy technology modelling of major carbon abatement options

The International Energy Agency Energy Technologies Perspectives (ETP) model is used to assess the prospects for carbon abatement options, including carbon capture and storage, up to 2050. Three main scenarios are considered: a Baseline scenario with current energy policies, an accelerated technology scenario that seeks to return energy-related CO₂ emissions in 2050 to their level in 2005, and a scenario for which CO₂ emissions are reduced at 50% of current levels by 2050. To reach these emissions reduction targets, annual global CO₂ emissions in the year 2050 must be reduced by 35 GtCO₂ to 48 GtCO₂ compared to the Baseline scenario. The analysis presented here shows that a broad portfolio of emissions reducing technologies will need to be deployed across all economic sectors of the global economy to reach these targets. Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) is one of the suite of technologies employed across the globe to reach these targets. CCS adoption occurs in many aspects of the global economy and accounts for 14–19% of all emissions reductions. The total amount of CO₂ captured and stored in deep geologic reservoirs up to 2050 ranges between 5.1 GtCO₂ and 10.4 GtCO₂ in these two climate policy scenarios. Up to 2030, more than half of total CCS deployment takes place in OECD countries. After 2035, emerging economies account for more than half of total CCS use. This paper also demonstrates that as the climate policy becomes more stringent it will be necessary for CCS to deploy more extensively in many different industries outside of the electric power sector which often receives the most attention in discussions of CCS's role in addressing climate change.     

National minerals policies and stakeholder participation for broad-based development in the southern African development community (SADC)

This paper explains how the well-accepted concept of improved stakeholder participation during mineral policy development leads to a national mineral policy that accommodates the diverging views and interests that allows wide acceptance of decisions, enhancing the success of implementation and, ultimately, national benefits. This process is based on lessons learnt during the South African experience and has been successfully applied in the development of the Namibian and Malawian national minerals policies. An effective policy in the SADC will engineer the delicate balance between poverty reduction and an internationally competitive minerals sector. This balance enhances the possibility of long-term economic growth and development in the SADC region. The overriding advantage of this strategy is that it generates ‘home-grown’ policy instruments and implementation of mineral law with which stakeholders can identify. This process presents a new challenge to traditional policy formulation strategies in emerging economies and the bottom-up approach, linked to wide political support, allows the potential realisation of national objectives.     

Using environmental accounts to promote sustainable development: Experience in southern Africa

Environmental accounts bring together economic and environmental information in a common framework to measure the contribution of the environment to the economy and the impact of the economy on the environment. They enable governments to set priorities, monitor economic policies more precisely, enact more effective environmental regulations and resource management strategies, and design more efficient market instruments for environmental policies. This article uses examples from the regional environmental accounting programme in southern Africa to demonstrate the usefulness of environmental accounts to policy-making and natural resource management. The examples address the contribution of natural capital endowments (minerals and fisheries) to sustainable development in Botswana and Namibia; the economic importance of non-market forest goods and services in South Africa; and the socio-economic impact of current water allocation and pricing policies in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. While there are many additional policy applications, these few provide a powerful argument for the use of environmental accounts in all countries.     

中国生态文明建设试点政策评估研究

生态文明建设是关系中华民族永续发展的千年大计。近年来,为加强我国生态文明建设,国家层面制定了一系列生态文明建设试点政策,发挥了对全局性改革的示范、突破和带动作用,但也存在部分试点政策执行进展偏慢、效果不如预期等问题,亟待进行系统评估。本研究基于政策过程理论,从政策制定与政策执行两个维度遴选26项评估指标,通过定量分析与定性分析相结合,对我国的生态文明试点政策体系(共9大类、53项)进行系统评估。研究发现:(1)政策目标有待完善,考核机制尚需健全;(2)改革任务交叉重复且分工不明,存在部门利益导向;(3)试点的空间、类型分布不均衡,试点选择科学性不足;(4)立法、市场、社会参与等管理手段有待进一步完善。在此基础上,本研究从目标设置、任务优化、试点布局以及管理机制运用等四个方面提出了若干对策建议,以期对完善我国生态文明建设制度体系提供决策参考。     

From Trust to Trustworthiness: Why Information is not Enough in the Food Sector

The many well-publicized food scandals in recent years have resulted in a general state of vulnerable trust. As a result, building consumer trust has become an important goal in agri-food policy. In their efforts to protect trust in the agricultural and food sector, governments and industries have tended to consider the problem of trust as merely a matter of informing consumers on risks. In this article, we argue that the food sector better addresses the problem of trust from the perspective of the trustworthiness of the food sector itself. This broad idea for changing the focus of trust is the assumption that if you want to be trusted, you should be trustworthy. To provide a clear understanding of what being trustworthy means within the food sector, we elaborate on both the concept of trust and of responsibility. In this way we show that policy focused on enhancing transparency and providing information to consumers is crucial, but not sufficient for dealing with the problem of consumer trust in the current agri-food context.     

Planning for compact urban forms: local growth-management approaches and their evolution over time

Urban growth is a key issue for spatial planning as it influences urban patterns and disrupts open landscapes. To effectively steer urban growth towards compact urban forms, many growth-management policies have been developed over recent decades. However, few studies have assessed how municipal policy mixes have evolved over time. In our representative Swiss-wide survey, we evaluated the prevalence and the time of introduction of 18 policies. Our results indicate that large municipalities use a broad range of reinforcing policies over decades. In contrast, small municipalities mostly rely on conventional land-use regulations. The lack of innovative, incentive-based policies casts doubt on small municipalities' ability to effectively manage urban growth. However, our analyses reveal recent efforts by small municipalities to diversify approaches to growth management and adopt innovative policies. These efforts should be supported by guiding small municipalities in their policy choices, and providing support to those lacking planning capacity.     

Inexact fuzzy-stochastic mixed-integer programming approach for long-term planning of waste management – Part A: Methodology

In this study, an inexact fuzzy chance-constrained two-stage mixed-integer linear programming (IFCTIP) approach is proposed for supporting long-term planning of waste-management systems under multiple uncertainties in the City of Regina, Canada. The method improves upon the existing inexact two-stage programming and mixed-integer linear programming techniques by incorporating uncertainties expressed as multiple uncertainties of intervals and dual probability distributions within a general optimization framework. The developed method can provide an effective linkage between the predefined environmental policies and the associated economic implications. Four special characteristics of the proposed method make it unique compared with other optimization techniques that deal with uncertainties. Firstly, it provides a linkage to predefined policies that have to be respected when a modeling effort is undertaken; secondly, it is useful for tackling uncertainties presented as intervals, probabilities, fuzzy sets and their incorporation; thirdly, it facilitates dynamic analysis for decisions of facility-expansion planning and waste-flow allocation within a multi-facility, multi-period, multi-level, and multi-option context; fourthly, the penalties are exercised with recourse against any infeasibility, which permits in-depth analyses of various policy scenarios that are associated with different levels of economic consequences when the promised solid waste-generation rates are violated. In a companion paper, the developed method is applied to a real case for the long-term planning of waste management in the City of Regina, Canada.     

美国环境产业相关政策及启示

本文将美国的环境产业发展过程划分为三个阶段，并对后两个阶段的政策特点进行了分析。最后，借鉴美国环境产业相关的政篆并结合我国国情，提出了针对我国环境产业发展的建议。     

The Elements of a Sustainable Aggregates Policy

This paper explains the UK policy framework outlined in Mineral Planning Guidance Note 6, draws a distinction between concepts of sustainability in relation to minerals in general and aggregates in particular, and questions the conventional wisdom that sustainability is an all-embracing concept in planning policy. The discussion also examines the actual and potential relationships between minerals local plans and sustainability and outlines the most likely way forward for planning policy at the local level.     

Environmental accounting as a management tool in the Mediterranean context: the Spanish economy during the last 20 years

Although human presence is one of the main characteristics of the Mediterranean identity since ancient times, a false dialectic between conservation and social-economic development has emerged in recent decades. On the one hand, an economic growth policy is taken as the paradigm of social-economic development; on the other hand, there is a multi-scale conservation policy, in which natural protected areas, as patches of preserved nature, are used as one of the main tools to deal with the challenge of sustainability. The Mediterranean Basin is the habitat of many unique species and one of the 25 main biodiversity hotspots in the world, and as a consequence a strong conservation policy has been used to protect environmental values. At the same time, Mediterranean countries are deeply involved in promoting strong economic growth policies, which are not always compatible with environmental ones. In this paper, Spain has been studied as one model of this situation. Due to political reasons, Spanish economic growth and conservationist policies were pursued together during the last 20 years. As a result, Spain owns one of the largest networks of natural protected areas in Western Europe, and at the same time it has experienced one of the strongest periods of economic growths in the European and Mediterranean context during the 1980s and 1990s. An historical series of resource use in five annual periods in the last 20 years of conservation policy, and the effects on the preservation of natural capital have been investigated by means of the eMergy (spelled with an 'm') synthesis approach, which was used to characterize the flow of environmental services supplied by ecosystems, but not in monetary terms. This study shows that Spain is becoming less self-sufficient and more inefficient in resource use, comprehensively measured in eMergy terms. A large part of Spain's economy depends on imported goods and services, and most economic activities are based on tourist services and associated construction, which promotes intensification in the urban use of the territory and more intense environmental impacts and resource use intensification of those countries supplying the raw materials. The consequence is a decoupling of the Spanish economy from local environmental services and the increase of Ecological footprint of Spain, measured by means of eMergy-based indicators. In spite of the increase in number, area and associated budget of the natural protected areas and other conservation measures, the general sustainability of the nation is decreasing.     

韩国绿色种养循环农业发展概况与经验启示

联合国将碳中和视为当今世界最为紧迫的任务,而农业是温室气体排放最多的产业之一,各国相继出台政策积极开展农业农村减排工作。韩国自2012年开始逐渐减少海洋粪污排泄量,并大力实行绿色种养循环农业,解决本国内畜禽粪污问题。韩国作为中国的重要海上邻国,不论是从研究借鉴角度抑或生态系统共享角度,了解其环境保护政策都是十分必要的。本文从韩国实施的主要政策、各地区农地养分收支现状、代表性运营模式案例、政策关注焦点等方面介绍韩国绿色种养循环农业的发展概况,结合中国绿色种养循环农业现状开展研究。提出三点政策建议：第一,进一步完善畜禽粪污资源化利用机具补贴辅助管理系统,提高系统在农户中的普及率;第二,提高全民环保意识的同时,政府的角色不应局限自上而下的引导型,应该积极促进种植户和养殖户间的自发组织,并大力提倡吸纳社会资本,集结社会各方力量;第三,促进绿色种养循环农业产品的商品化和品牌化,从而调动农户参与绿色种养循环农业的积极性。