建立政府主导的企业环境信息公开制度

政府主导的强制性企业环境排放信息公开制度以公众环境知情权为理论基础,是欧盟等国外环境信息公开立法所普遍采取的基本模式。我国有必要建立政府主导的企业环境排放信息公开制度,以改变目前企业环境排放信息无法为公众充分、及时、有效获取的状况。而此过程需要在借鉴国外立法经验的基础上,结合中国实际,稳步推进。     

事业单位环境信息公开制度浅析

环境知情权已然成为当代世界各国和民众关注的热点,而环境知情权实现的前提是环境信息公开。关于环境信息公开,我国现有的法律规范主要侧重于政府和企业,但对于同样存在排污行为的事业单位没有系统规定。企业与事业单位的环境信息公开内容和标准通常是模糊的,且有关规定的可操作性不强。因此,需要考虑事业单位的特殊性,在立法上扩大事业单位公开主体的范围,明确责任内容,健全监管和激励机制,进一步完善事业单位环境信息公开制度。     

积极的信息公开才是真正负责

环境资源应属全人类公有,政府与民众均有责任。信息透明可将环境风险降到最小,一为公众知情权的诉求推动,二为早日研究出应对之策。环境形势逼人,政府只有积极主动的信息公开,才能真正实现为民众负责。     

深圳市环境信息公开和公众参与管理实践与对策

环境信息公开和公众参与已经成为一种重要的环境管理辅助手段,深圳市立足城市之先,在立法和执法方面开展了一系列实践工作,并积累了一定的经验和教训。在研究深圳市环境信息公开和公众参与管理现状的基础上,结合实践中存在的焦点和难点问题,以提高公民环境知情权和参与权的落实水平为目标,从观念、立法、技术指引和参与形式等方面提出政策建议,为深圳市环境信息公开与公众参与管理实践提供了较好的理论和实践探索。     

论政府环境信息公开与完善

国家的环境管理职能决定了政府环境信息的全面性、真实性和权威性,因而政府环境信息是衡量环境管理能力和判断环境质量状况、公众参与环境保护,维护自身环境权益的重要依据,也是环境管理的重要环节,更是环境知情权、环境保护参与权和监督权实现的基础。尽管我国政府环境信息公开已经取得了预期的成效,但也有多方面需要与时俱进,在法律制度层面进行完善。     

环境信息公开与公众监督的良性互动

我国社会正进入一个特殊的环保敏感期,环境利益冲突既是社会进步的体现,也成为转型时期的一种折射。为此,环保部门应进一步推进环境信息公开,承认和保障公众的环境知情权、参与权、批评权和监督权,发挥公众舆论对政府、环境污染者和生态破坏者的监督和纠正作用。当政府成为责任政府和透明政府,当公民学会了理性表达诉求,公民与政府之间才可能建立良性互动。     

刍议环境信息公开

环境信息公开是公民环境权的一项重要内容,是政府环境责任的一个重要方面,也是公众参与的一个组成部分。在环境污染日益严峻的当下,唯有充分发挥和实现政府的环境责任,保障公众的环境知情权、参与决策权和获得行政司法救济,才能避免环境群体事件的发生,有效维护公民的环境权益和社会稳定。     

企业环境行为信息公开的原则与实践

环境信息公开主要是为了维护公民、单位,特别是利益相关方的知情权以及获取环境信息的合法权益;为公众监督政府依法保护生态环境提供可能;为政府监督企业实施清洁生产提供依据;为企业创造展示履行社会责任的决心与目标的机会;建立一个沟通企业、政府、公众的平台。     

环评信息公布制度应该立法

在法无明文的情形下,国家环保总局能够主动公开圆明园环评报告内容,真可谓是政府信息公开的一种自觉行为。这一行为本身既保障了公众的知情权,也体现了现代政府的透明高效。此前,由于我国有关环评活动的现行法《环境影响评价法》和《建设项目环境保护管理条例》,均未涉及环评文     

绿色思想

程洁通过公开环评报告,才能吸引更多的公众参与环评,才能更有效地遏制审批寻租,也才能真正地实现人与自然的和谐,国家与社会的和谐。周训芳走出目前的环境信息公开困局的根本出路,在于政府主动适应公民环境权的发展趋势,尽早实现环境管理模式的生态化,使环境信息成为福音,而不是负累。申进忠政府作为义务主体来推动企业环境排放信息公开不仅具有理论上的合理性,也是欧盟等国外环境信息公开立法所采取的基本模式。     

Projected Changes in Discharge in an Agricultural Watershed in Iowa

Our improved capability to adapt to the future changes in discharge is linked to our capability to predict the magnitude or at least the direction of these changes. For the agricultural United States Midwest, too much or too little water has severe socioeconomic impacts. Here, we focus on the Raccoon River at Van Meter, Iowa, and use a statistical approach to examine projected changes in discharge. We build on statistical models using rainfall and harvested corn and soybean acreage to explain the observed discharge variability. We then use projections of these two predictors to examine the projected discharge response. Results are based on seven global climate models part of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 and two representative concentration pathways (RCPs 4.5 and 8.5). There is not a strong signal of change in the discharge projections under the RCP 4.5. However, the results for the RCP 8.5 point to a stronger changing signal related to larger projected increases in rainfall, resulting in increased trends, in particular, in the upper part of the discharge distribution (i.e., 60th percentile and above). Examination of two hypothetical agricultural scenarios indicates that these increasing trends could be alleviated by decreasing the extent of the agricultural production. We also discuss how the methodology presented in this study represents a viable approach to move forward with the concept of return period for engineering design and management in a nonstationary world.     

Environmental assessment in countries in transition: evolution in a changing context

Over the last fifteen years, Environmental Assessment systems of transitional societies of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia have undergone dramatic change from appraisals integrated into centrally planned economies to formal procedures aimed to ensure interdisciplinary analysis of environmental impacts and linked to publicly accountable decision-making. In most Central European nations, EA systems have been radically reformed to approximate the procedures used in developed countries, particularly in the European Union. In contrast, EA in most of the former Soviet republics has been reformed more gradually and is still based on the so-called State Environmental Review procedure inherited from the USSR and substantially different from 'Western' EA. About one-third of the transitional countries (in the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia) have, so far, failed to establish functioning EA systems. Throughout the region, there has been a gap between EA legislation and practice, especially concerning interdisciplinary analysis of environmental impacts, public participation, and utilisation of EA findings in decision-making. A key driving force in the reform of EA systems has been the change in their societal context, the so-called 'process of transition'. Three main policy agendas--environmental protection, reforms of decision-making, and conforming to international requirements--along with the institutional context of EA regulations and practice have influenced both the change of EA systems over time and the regional variations in the patterns of their evolution. This study suggests that an effective reform of an EA system should be context-sensitive, or be 'in gear' with the political and economic transition. Future EA research should consider their changing societal contexts and focused on practical effects of applying EA procedures.     

Community-company relations in gold mining in Ghana

As a result of Structural Adjustment Programme from the 1980s, many developing countries have experienced an increase in resource extraction activities by international and transnational corporations. The work reported here examines the perceived impacts of gold mining at the community level in the Wassa West District of Ghana, Africa and discusses those perceived impacts in the context of globalization processes and growing multinational corporate interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Interview data compared community members' perceptions with those of company representatives in three communities. The results indicate that communities held companies responsible for a series of economic, social, and environmental changes. While recognizing some of the benefits brought by the mines, communities felt that the companies did not live up to their responsibility to support local development. Companies responded by denying, dismissing concerns, or shifting blame. Findings from this work show that lack of engagement and action by government agencies at all levels resulted in companies acting in a surrogate governmental capacity. In such situations, managing expectations is key to community-company relations.     

电催化氧化处理难降解废水技术研究进展

电催化氧化处理难降解废水技术已得到了广泛关注.本文从电极材料与应用,电极结构及反应器形状,以及与其它处理方法联用等综述了最新研究进展,并在此基础上总结出了电催化氧化技术今后的发展方向.     

我国城市生态评价研究进展

城市建设带来了越来越多的生态环境问题，生态城市建设是解决这些问题的良好途径。生态城市的建设要有一定的评价体系作为支撑，本文综述了国内基于AHP方法建立的应用较为广泛的城市生态评价体系和方法，并对国内城市生态评价的现状做了分析。     

Private participation in isolated grids in Mozambique

This article presents a case study from Mozambique of the electrification of two selected towns under a World Bank financed project. Low-cost electricity services were extended to the two isolated areas after an enabling framework had been created for private sector participation. The World Bank project also demonstrates that the private sector can be attracted to participate in rural electrification schemes even in a poor country. The example shown in this article is one of the few of its kind in SubSaharan Africa.     

Sustainability Appraisal in neighbourhood planning in England

The preparation of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) inclusive sustainability appraisals (SAs) for neighbourhood plans (NPs) in England may be required when significant environmental effects are expected to arise from an NP. In this paper, we report on the result of a Ph.D. project, conducted between 2012 and 2015, in which all 15 NP SEA inclusive SAs that had been completed at the time were evaluated. In this context, the quality of SA practice was found to differ substantially. SAs were prepared either ‘in-house’ (i.e. by neighbourhood planning steering groups) or by consultants. The quality of SAs was found to be associated with their overall perceived degree of influence on the underlying NPs. Whilst the focus of this paper is on practice in England, findings are expected to be of interest to a wider international audience, in particular to those experimenting with voluntary neighbourhood/local level plan SA/SEA.     

Status and trends in EFlows in southern Africa

Environmental Flows (EFlows) are defined as the quantity, timing and quality of the flow of water, sediment and biota necessary to sustain freshwater and estuarine ecosystems, and the human livelihoods and well-being that depend on these ecosystems. As such they are a vital component of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). A recent survey found that, in general, Africa lags behind schedule with respect to the global SDG Target 6.5 to implement IWRM at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate. This web-based review explores progress made in EFlows Assessments and implementing their outcomes in southern Africa. It outlines the apparent impetus to the uptake of EFlows provided by legislation, common funding mechanisms for EFlows assessment and evolving trends in EFlows assessment. It also highlights instances of implementation of EFlows in both in-country and transboundary settings.     

Pesticides in rain in four agricultural watersheds in the United States

Rainfall samples were collected during the 2003 and 2004 growing seasons at four agricultural locales across the USA in Maryland, Indiana, Nebraska, and California. The samples were analyzed for 21 insecticides, 18 herbicides, three fungicides, and 40 pesticide degradates. Data from all sites combined show that 7 of the 10 most frequently detected pesticides were herbicides, with atrazine (70%) and metolachlor (83%) detected at every site. Dacthal, acetochlor, simazine, alachlor, and pendimethalin were detected in more than 50% of the samples. Chlorpyrifos, carbaryl, and diazinon were the only insecticides among the 10 most frequently detected compounds. Of the remaining pesticide parent compounds, 18 were detected in fewer than 30% of the samples, and 13 were not detected. The most frequently detected degradates were deethylatrazine; the oxygen analogs (OAs) of the organophosphorus insecticides chlorpyrifos, diazinon, and malathion; and 1-napthol (degradate of carbaryl). Deethylatrazine was detected in nearly 70% of the samples collected in Maryland, Indiana, and Nebraska but was detected only once in California. The OAs of chlorpyrifos and diazinon were detected primarily in California. Degradates of the acetanilide herbicides were rarely detected in rain, indicating that they are not formed in the atmosphere or readily volatilized from soils. Herbicides accounted for 91 to 98% of the total pesticide mass deposited by rain except in California, where insecticides accounted for 61% in 2004. The mass of pesticides deposited by rainfall was estimated to be less than 2% of the total applied in these agricultural areas.     

Investment in human capital in Africa

Summary The author analyses the problems currently faced by the African continent, recognises six factors which he believes are important in influencing the analysis, and argues that the only secure, renewable asset any country or continent has, is its people. He maintains that people development, rather than the classical economic forms of encouraging development, offers Africa a viable way forward. He then identifies a number of specific issues within such a strategy of investment in human capital.Brian Walker is the President of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), and this address was given at the inaugural meeting of the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless, in London, on 18th April, 1985. A second, earlier, associated address was published inThe Environmentalist 5(3) 167–170.