Who shapes local climate policy? Unpicking governance arrangements in English and German cities

A new framework for analysing subnational policymaking is applied to climate governance in the ‘twin towns’ of Newcastle upon Tyne and Gelsenkirchen. Low levels of resource interdependence between central and local government in England mean that Newcastle Council has to rely heavily on other horizontal actors to achieve its climate objectives. In contrast, Gelsenkirchen Council receives substantial support from higher tiers of government, which gives it greater control over policymaking within the locality. Greater independence between tiers of government can make it more difficult for subnational bodies to adopt the kind of ambitious policies that may be necessary to combat wicked and/or significant policy challenges such as climate change. Instead, interdependent ‘joint-decision’ systems, which facilitate mutual support across tiers of government, may be better equipped to ensure that subnational public bodies have the capacity to act appropriately.     

Hybrid governance tensions fuelling self-reflexivity in Alternative Food Networks: the case of the Brussels GASAP (solidarity purchasing groups for peasant agriculture)

This paper applies the concept of Hybrid Governance to the analysis of the GASAP (Groupe d’Achats Solidaires de l’Agriculture Paysanne), a solidarity-based producers–consumers network established in Brussels in 2006. The Hybrid Governance concept allows to capture the role of key governance tensions in driving the self-organisation, scaling out and self-reflexive dynamics of Alternative Food Networks (AFNs). The approach provides a multifaceted and sound socio-political account of the ways AFNs arise, self-organise, associate and build networks in the pursuit of their food allocation objectives, often facing a contradictory socio-institutional environment. Three types of governance tensions, i.e. organisational, resource, and institutional, as well as the interactions among them, are analysed throughout the life-course of the GASAP network. The analysis identifies three phases in the GASAP’s life-course, showing how governance tensions and their interrelations arise and play a critical role in conditioning the overall development of the organisation through time. The paper concludes with highlighting prospective values of the hybrid governance approach for the analysis of AFNs in general. These values relate to: the role of the hybrid approach in illuminating on key drivers behind the scaling out of AFNs; the hybrid governance as a tool to conceptualise and sustain the self-reflexive capacity of local food initiatives and the ways by which this approach unravels challenges to build cooperative alliances and networks among a diversity of agents in the food arena.     

Local hegemonies resisting a green shift and what to do about it: the introduction of a regional park in southern Norway

In the Lister region in the southern part of Norway, attempts are currently being made to facilitate for a green shift. The paper discusses two different approaches towards such a challenge. The first is procedural, where success or failure hinges on the methods applied in the effort to convince locals to incorporate climate considerations. The alternative is to reflect upon how a green ideology blends into pre-existing ideological elements in the region. It is claimed that an important reason for the failure so far to place the environment at the core of regional development, is that too much emphasis has been put on the first approach, on procedure and dialogue, whereas few efforts have been made to understand the structure of the discursive terrain in the region. What prevents a green shift has less to do with methods and is more connected to the dominance of a logic of economic growth and the fact that locals are confident that nature is already dealt with in a sensible manner. The conclusion is that we need to understand what people are concerned about and what prevents them to change, before we start telling them how to think and do development.     

Deliberative democracy meets democratised science: a deliberative systems approach to global environmental governance

The main achievements of the debates on deliberative democracy and democratised science are investigated in order to analyse the reasons, meanings and prospects for a democratisation of global environmental policy. A deliberative systems approach, which emphasises the need to explore how processes in societal spheres interact to shape the deliberative qualities of the system as a whole, is adopted. Although science plays a key role in this, its potential to enhance deliberative capacity has hardly been addressed in deliberative theories. The democratisation of science has potential to contribute to the democratisation of global environmental policy, in that it also shapes the potential of deliberative arrangements in the policy sphere. Deliberative arrangements within the policy sphere may stimulate the democratisation of science to different degrees.     

生态文明治理体系和治理能力现代化的几个核心问题研究

生态文明治理现代化是国家治理现代化的重要组成部分，本文从国家治理现代化出发，分析了我国生态文明治理体系和治理能力现代化的概念与内涵，针对当前生态文明治理体系和治理能力存在的五个方面问题，提出了生态文明治理体系现代化需要坚持完善的生态环境保护、资源高效利用、生态保护修复、生态环保责任等四个重点方向，提出了生态文明治理能力现代化需要改革创新的领导能力、决策能力、法治能力、科学精准治理能力、基础保障能力、市场化治理能力、公众参与能力等七大关键领域，这是加快推进生态文明治理体系和治理能力现代化的迫切需求。     

河湖水环境问题及管理和治理模式

本文首先介绍了我国当前的河湖水环境现状,分析了我国水资源存在的一系列问题,主要问题包括水体污染和富营养化;河湖面积严重萎缩,河湖水的功能逐渐退化;难以降解的有机污染物污染量加大。有针对性地提出了改善我国河湖水环境的管理以及治理模式,进一步落实了保护河湖水环境工作,加强水资源周围生态环境的文明建设,实现河湖水环境的可持续发展。     

国家重点生态功能区县域环境监测质量评价方法及应用示范

以国家重点生态功能区县域环境监测质量评价为目标,综合应用德尔菲法、层次分析法和模糊综合评价法,构建了国家重点生态功能区县域环境监测质量评价方法,并确定了评价因子、权重系数、计算方法。该方法评价指标共分为三层:第一层为目标层,即国家重点生态功能区县域环境监测质量;第二层为准则层,包括人员及资质、现场监测、实验室管理、报告编制及数据上报;第三层为方案层,包括人员操作、持证上岗、资质认定、人员培训、水质布点采样流转情况、空气自动站运维情况、现场质控实施情况、实验室环境条件、样品试剂的保存与管理、仪器检定与校准、实验室质量控制实施情况、数据填报软件运行情况、监测报告规范性等13个评价要素。经矩阵一致性检验确定了各评价要素的权重,将该权重与各要素得分运算后得到县域环境监测质量评价结果。在此基础上,选取广东、山西、陕西、四川和青海等5个省份的15个国家重点生态功能区县域作为典型区开展了实地调研,并应用评价体系对其进行了监测质量等级评价。结果表明,15个典型县域中,环境监测质量等级为优的县域占13.3%,一般、较差的县域分别占66.7%、20%。县域环境监测承担单位在资质、报告编制及数据上报方面表现较好,在现场监测、人员操作方面问题突出,在实验室管理方面有待提升。     

Social representations of governance for change towards sustainability: perspectives of sustainability advocates

There is a substantial body of literature on public understandings of large-scale ‘environmental’ phenomena such as climate change and resource degradation. At the same time, political science and economics analyse the governance arrangements to deal with such issues. These realms of research rarely meet: there has been little research into people’s understandings of the governance of environmental change. This study adds a psychological perspective to governance research by investigating social representations of governance that promotes societal change towards sustainability, and related practices. It examines data from qualitative interviews with sustainability-interested people in seven European countries (n = 105). The analysis identified building blocks of representations suitable as an analytical framework for future research on governance representations. The diversity of their content reflected a range of pathways to societal change. Representations often seemed to have a creative function as a guiding vision for individuals’ own practices, but their wider transformative potential was constrained.     

甘肃境内国家重点保护鸟类鱼类、两栖类的分布规律

对甘肃省境内国家重点保护鸟类的分布规律进行了分析.结果表明,该省分布有国家重点保护鸟类59种(含亚种),隶属7目11科,其中,国家1级保护鸟类12种,2级保护鸟类47种;重点保护鱼类1种;两栖类2种.国家重点保护鸟类以古北界为主,占61.0%,东洋界鸟类仅分布于陇中黄土高原省和陇南山地省占11.9%.陇中黄土高原省、祁连山地省、陇南山地省分布有国家重点保护鸟类57 5%～61.0%,是甘肃境内国家重点保护鸟类的集中分布区.祁连山、白龙江、洮河林区是甘肃省鸟类重点保护区域,祁连山、白水江、安西3个保护区保护了甘肃省境内保护鸟类的86.4%.国家重点保护鱼类仅有秦岭细鳞鲑(Brachymystaxlenok)1种,为古北界成分,国家2级保护动物,分布于中部黄土高原省的渭河南岸较大支流中.国家重点保护两栖类有2种,均为古北界成分,国家2级保护动物,分布于陇南山地省.     

《京都》15年后:分阶段减排政策与“绿色悖论”问题

低碳经济的政策分析,通常囿于单一国家层面的局部均衡结果,较少考虑到全球整体行动的外部影响,但从《联合国气候变化框架公约》建立以来的全球一致减排行动,却产生了一些意料之外的负面效果。本文通过梳理《京都议定书》签订以来,全球低碳经济合作中遇到的新挑战,以及碳交易市场的建设状况,采用制度分析与新古典框架下的市场均衡分析方法,讨论了全球一致减排行动所触发的"绿色悖论"问题。研究发现,造成"绿色悖论"的主要原因,一方面是由于国际合作存在制度设计上的缺陷,《京都议定书》及其关键性的附件一,将重点放在如何限制发达工业国的减排设计上,但却忽视了发展中国家在协议期内有可能出现的增排问题,以及发达国家向发展中国家污染转移的碳泄漏等问题;另一方面,当对不可再生资源的使用征税、以及对其替代品进行补贴时,将会导致在当前期对于化石能源的加速开采,并可能导致对同时期的化石燃料替代品的其他可再生资源的开采速度也大幅度加快,造成了在双重加速开采下的全球绿色福利损失以及CO2排放量的急剧升高,化石能源消费与温室气体排放面临到比协议签署前更为严峻,甚至与全球合作减排框架的设计初衷相悖的结果。研究结果表明,非全局性的减排公约和分阶段的减排政策,是造成"绿色悖论"现象的重要条件,缺少了大量发展中国家和一些重要工业国的缔约,使得负面的环境外部性难以克服;同时,减排任务和责任有所区别的分阶段设计,会把在未来行动期内可预见到的更高地化石能源使用成本转嫁到当前的行动期,造成短时间内资源与环境的迅速破坏。但本文的研究也表明,社会最优经济与对可再生能源进行补贴是克服"绿色悖论"现象的两条可行路径,且需要有与其相匹配的政府政策的支持。由此,本文的主要政策建议是,中国需要加强在国际气候公约中的影响力,提升自身话语权;以碳税政策作为发展低碳经济制度设计的主要政策工具;加快技术进步、提高能源使用效率,对于可再生能源研发进行补贴;根据国情不断优化碳税税率,并适时调整与其相匹配的新能源补贴等相关政策。