Income inequality and willingness to pay for environmental public goods

We study how the distribution of income among members of society, and income inequality in particular, affects social willingness to pay (WTP) for environmental public goods. We find that social WTP for environmental goods decreases (increases) with income inequality if and only if environmental goods and manufactured goods are substitutes (complements). We derive adjustment factors for benefit transfer to control for differences in income distributions between a study site and a policy site. For illustration, we quantify how social WTP for environmental public goods depends on the respective income distributions for empirical case studies in Sweden and the World at large. We find that the adjustment for income inequality can be substantial.     

基于STIRPAT模型的中国城镇生活能源消费影响因素研究

为探究人口规模、收入水平、消费倾向、节能政策和技术等因素对中国城镇生活能源消费的影响,基于拓展的STIRPAT模型并运用2000~2013年中国省际面板数据对各影响因素的效应进行评估。结果显示:城镇生活能源强度、城镇居民消费倾向、人均可支配收入、城镇化率、总人口、政策综合力度6个因素的增长率每变化1%,将会引起城镇生活能源消费量增长率0.9322%、0.8537%、(0.559 2+0.169 2 ln DI)%、0.599 8%、0.408 0%、-0.012 0%的变化,表明除节能政策外,其余5因素均正向促进城镇生活能耗增长。其中生活能源强度对城镇生活能耗影响最大,节能政策虽会抑制城镇生活能耗增长,但作用较为微弱。政府需继续加强节能政策综合实施力度,从而实现生活能源消费领域的节能减排。     

Mercury: The good, the bad, and the export ban

We analyze the bipartisan call to ban US exports of commodity mercury. An export ban can generate positive environmental benefits by increasing the scarcity of mercury in developing economies where significant toxic releases occur. We show, however, that a direct mercury purchase and retirement policy can achieve the same foreign environmental goals without adverse impacts on domestic environmental quality. We present qualitative and quantitative evidence that highlight the potential inefficiencies of a mercury export ban as a method of achieving environmental objectives.     

Scientific evidence,expert entrepreneurship,and ecosystem narratives in the UK Natural Environment White Paper

The Natural Environment White Paper represents the most important conservation policy shift in the United Kingdom (UK) in twenty years. It formalises the ecosystem approach within national policy objectives and emphasises the economic value of ecosystem services. By analysing the use of various evidence sources, the involvement of science entrepreneurs, and the development of policy narratives, our goal was to understand factors that influenced adoption of an ecosystem service framework in the UK. We interviewed 48 policy actors and found that centrally-sponsored synthesis reports with entrepreneurial authors provided the most influential expert-based knowledge in the development of the White Paper. More recently published reports had greater influence, yet the window of opportunity for scientific evidence having policy impact was greater in the problem-setting stages of policy development. The interaction between teams preparing syntheses and expert entrepreneurs helped influence the construction of strategic policy narratives. Those narratives increased the impact of scientific evidence by communicating and framing key policy-salient messages, and brokering between broad ecosystem-based and environmental economics narratives. The combination of ecological and economics evidence was particularly salient in the UK case due to the context of continued biodiversity loss and the acceptability of valuation narratives within central government. Our findings suggest that evidence impact varies at different stages of the policy process, and that this is driven by the interplay of contextual factors like policy timing, personal influence, and the competition between different sets of actors and narratives.     

If Stationarity is Dead,What Do We Do Now?1

Galloway, Gerald E., 2011. If Stationarity Is Dead, What Do We Do Now? Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 47(3):563‐570. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2011.00550.x Abstract: In January 2010, hydrologists, climatologists, engineers, and scientists met in Boulder, Colorado, to discuss the report of the death of hydrologic stationarity and the implications this might have on water resources planning and operations in the United States and abroad. For decades planners have relied on design guidance from the Interagency Advisory Committee on Water Data Bulletin 17B that was based upon the concept of stationarity. After 2½ days of discussion it became clear that the assembled community had yet to reach an agreement on whether or not to replace the assumption of stationarity with an assumption of nonstationarity or something else. Hydrologists were skeptical that data gathered to this point in the 21st Century point to any significant change in river parameters. Climatologists, on the other hand, point to climate change and the predicted shift away from current conditions to a more turbulent flood and drought filled future. Both groups are challenged to provide immediate guidance to those individuals in and outside the water community who today must commit funds and efforts on projects that will require the best estimates of future conditions. The workshop surfaced many approaches to dealing with these challenges. While there is good reason to support additional study of the death of stationarity, its implications, and new approaches, there is also a great need to provide those in the field the information they require now to plan, design, and operate today’s projects.     

The relationship between economic and carbon footprint changes in EU: The achievements of the EU sustainable consumption and production policy implementation

The Sustainable Consumption and Production policy is a key objective in the renewed European Union (EU) Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS). EU countries implement the targets of Sustainable Consumption and Production policy at different a level. Nevertheless, SDS targets are concerned more with production than consumption side. In addition, analysis of the carbon footprint data, which was supplied by the Global Footprint Network, showed that in all EU countries consumption-based carbon footprint caught-up and exceeded the level of production-based carbon (except Denmark and Estonia) during 1993–2010 period. The significant absolute decoupling in terms of carbon footprint from production-based perspective was observed in Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Slovakia, Poland, United Kingdom and Germany, meanwhile from consumption-based perspective only in Denmark, Estonia and Germany. Moreover in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Croatia the consumption-based carbon footprint grew faster than economy in general. Results imply that EU should put more focus on consumption side in terms of Sustainable Consumption and Production policy and measures taken. A commitment to reduce the environmental impact from consumption-based perspective should be more addressed covering values and lifestyles.     

Carbon accounting of material substitution with biomass: Case studies for Austria investigated with IPCC default and alternative approaches

There is evidence that the replacement of carbon-intensive products with bio-based substitutes (‘material substitution with biomass’) can be highly efficient in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Based on two case studies (CS1/2) for Austria, potential benefits of material substitution in comparison to fuel substitution are analysed. GHG savings are calculated according to default IPCC approaches (Tier 2 method assuming first-order decay) and with more realistic approaches based on distribution functions. In CS1, high savings are achieved by using wood residues for the production of insulating boards instead of energy. The superiority of material substitution is due to the establishment of a long-term carbon storage, the high emission factor of wood in comparison to natural gas and higher efficiencies of gas-fired facilities.The biomass feedstock in CS2 is lignocellulosic ethanol being used for bio-ethylene production (material substitution) or replacing gasoline (fuel substitution). GHG savings are mainly due to lower production emissions of bio-ethylene in comparison to conventional ethylene and significantly lower than in CS1 (per unit of biomass consumed). While CS1 is highly robust to parameter variation, the long-term projections in CS2 are quite speculative.To create adequate incentives for including material substitution in national climate strategies, shortcomings of current default accounting methods must be addressed. Under current methods the GHG savings in both case studies would not (fully) materialize in the national GHG inventory. The main reason is that accounting of wood products is confined to the proportion derived from domestic harvest, whereas imported biomass used for energy is treated as carbon-neutral. Further inadequacies of IPCC default accounting methods include the assumption of exponential decay and the disregard of advanced bio-based products.     

Science,policy and place in volcanic disasters: Insights from Montserrat

This paper presents the results of empirical research on Montserrat, in the British West Indies, undertaken in 2008–2010. It highlights the challenges of managing a crisis that evolved from acute to chronic over a period of fifteen years. In particular, the paper considers the evolution of science and policy over a period of fifteen years in its social and cultural context. It discusses the relationship between different types of evolving knowledges, and the interaction between them. Finally, a reflexive model is introduced to draw attention to some of the challenges of managing the science–policy interface under high uncertainty and high stakes.     

Conservation Focus on Europe: Major Conservation Policy Issues That Need to Be Informed by Conservation Science

Abstract:  Europe is one of the world's most densely populated continents and has a long history of human-dominated land- and seascapes. Europe is also at the forefront of developing and implementing multinational conservation efforts. In this contribution, we describe some top policy issues in Europe that need to be informed by high-quality conservation science. These include evaluation of the effectiveness of the Natura 2000 network of protected sites, implications of rapid economic and subsequent land-use change in Central and Eastern Europe, conservation of marine biodiversity and sustainability of fisheries, the effect of climate change on movement of species in highly fragmented landscapes, and attempts to assess the economic value of ecosystem services and biodiversity. Broad policy issues such as those identified are not easily amenable to scientific experiment. A key challenge at the science–policy interface is to identify the research questions underlying these problem areas so that conservation science can provide evidence to underpin future policy development .