Government intervention in green industries: lessons from the wind turbine and the organic food industries in Denmark

Government intervention in green infant industries may be justified as a strategy to increase the provision of public goods. How should government policies be designed to promote such industries? One way to analyse this question is to compare government intervention in green infant industries in which it has been successful with green infant industries in which it has been less successful. The Danish government has intervened intensively in the wind turbine industry and organic farming sector mainly for environmental reasons since 1992 and 1987, respectively, but with very different impacts. While the electricity market share of wind energy reached 20% in 2007, organic food consumption lags behind with a food market share of approximately 8.5% in 2007. This paper compares the packages of policy instruments applied in the two industrial sectors and assesses whether differences in instrument choice may explain the significant differences in market shares. It is demonstrated that government intervention in the wind turbine industry has emphasized the use of policy instruments designed to increase demand for wind energy, whereas organic farming policy has put more emphasis on instruments motivating farmers to increase supply. This may be an important factor explaining variance in growth. Finally, the paper analyses whether the lessons from government policy aimed at promoting the wind turbine industry can be transferred to organic farming policy.     

Green house gas emissions from composting and mechanical biological treatment.

In order to carry out life-cycle assessments as a basis for far-reaching decisions about environmentally sustainable waste treatment, it is important that the input data be reliable and sound. A comparison of the potential greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with each solid waste treatment option is essential. This paper addresses GHG emissions from controlled composting processes. Some important methodological prerequisites for proper measurement and data interpretation are described, and a common scale and dimension of emission data are proposed so that data from different studies can be compared. A range of emission factors associated with home composting, open windrow composting, encapsulated composting systems with waste air treatment and mechanical biological waste treatment (MBT) are presented from our own investigations as well as from the literature. The composition of source materials along with process management issues such as aeration, mechanical agitation, moisture control and temperature regime are the most important factors controlling methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and ammoniac (NH3) emissions. If ammoniac is not stripped during the initial rotting phase or eliminated by acid scrubber systems, biofiltration of waste air provides only limited GHG mitigation, since additional N2O may be synthesized during the oxidation of NH3, and only a small amount of CH4 degradation occurs in the biofilter. It is estimated that composting contributes very little to national GHG inventories generating only 0.01-0.06% of global emissions. This analysis does not include emissions from preceding or post-treatment activities (such as collection, transport, energy consumption during processing and land spreading), so that for a full emissions account, emissions from these activities would need to be added to an analysis.     

Intra- and interannual variability surpasses direct temperature effects on the clearance rates of the invasive clam Corbicula fluminea

We measured the clearance rates of the filter-feeding bivalve Corbicula fluminea over a period of 2?years. Strong seasonal variations, such as a 50-fold increase from February to July, were observed. These variations were only poorly linked to temperature, as they could be found at both the ambient field temperature and a constant temperature of 15°C. Instead, peaks in the filtration activity corresponded to the spawning activity. Additionally, a strong interannual variability with much lower clearance rates in 2009 than in 2008 was identified. The low clearance rates were linked to a preceding period of low winter temperatures close to the lethal temperature of 2°C and the associated reduced reproduction rates. Our findings demonstrate that other factors besides temperature and body mass can strongly affect clearance rates. These results should be considered when predicting the effects of changing temperatures on the ecosystem impact of filter-feeding bivalves.     

Exposure reduction of seed treatments through dehusking behaviour of the wood mouse <Emphasis Type="Bold">(</Emphasis><Emphasis Type="Italic">Apodemus sylvaticus</Emphasis><Emphasis Type="Bold">)</Emphasis>

Background, aim and scope  

Seed treatments are widely used on cereals and other annual crops throughout Europe. Most of the formulated pesticide is found on the outside of the seed, the husk. Risk assessments of seed treatments are especially needed for granivorous mice living in the agricultural landscape e.g. for registration using the guidance for risk assessment for birds and mammals (EFSA 2009). The dehusking of seeds before consumption is a known behaviour of these mammals, but so far, no quantitative data on the reduction of exposure of seed treatments by dehusking were published. Therefore, we aimed at providing a first quantitative estimate of this behaviour-related exposure reduction for the wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) with different seed types.     

Microbial Communities in Composite Biofilms Participating in the Degradation of PCB

A moorland soil site polluted with PCB showed a high diversity ofmetabolically active bacteria. Beside frequent types of 16S rRNAsequences similar to those of the species ofSphingomonasand the Acidobacterium phylum an unusual high number ofsequences from the genus Burkholderia were found. Burkholderia was also the main genus in isolates enriched onbiphenyl or various chlorobenzoates. In microcosm experimentssterilized surfaces exposed to PCB polluted soil always showed thepresence of clay aggregates formed by bacteria attached to thesubstratum. The bacteria use the PCB loaded clay colloids astransport medium for the water insoluble substrate to get accessto the carbon source. This is a novel mechanism of how bacteria dealwith hydrophobic substrates.     

The relationship between agricultural intensification and biological control: experimental tests across Europe

Agricultural intensification can affect biodiversity and related ecosystem services such as biological control, but large-scale experimental evidence is missing. We examined aphid pest populations in cereal fields under experimentally reduced densities of (1) ground-dwelling predators (-G), (2) vegetation-dwelling predators and parasitoids (-V), (3) a combination of (1) and (2) (-G-V), compared with open-fields (control), in contrasting landscapes with low vs. high levels of agricultural intensification (AI), and in five European regions. Aphid populations were 28%, 97%, and 199% higher in -G, -V, and -G-V treatments, respectively, compared to the open fields, indicating synergistic effects of both natural-enemy groups. Enhanced parasitoid: host and predator: prey ratios were related to reduced aphid population density and population growth. The relative importance of parasitoids and vegetation-dwelling predators greatly differed among European regions, and agricultural intensification affected biological control and aphid density only in some regions. This shows a changing role of species group identity in diverse enemy communities and a need to consider region-specific landscape management.