Exploring the risks and benefits of flexibility in biodiversity offset location in a case study of migratory shorebirds

Biodiversity offsets aim to counterbalance the residual impacts of development on species and ecosystems. Guidance documents explicitly recommend that biodiversity offset actions be located close to the location of impact because of higher potential for similar ecological conditions, but allowing greater spatial flexibility has been proposed. We examined the circumstances under which offsets distant from the impact location could be more likely to achieve no net loss or provide better ecological outcomes than offsets close to the impact area. We applied a graphical model for migratory shorebirds in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway as a case study to explore the problems that arise when incorporating spatial flexibility into offset planning. Spatially flexible offsets may alleviate impacts more effectively than local offsets; however, the risks involved can be substantial. For our case study, there were inadequate data to make robust conclusions about the effectiveness and equivalence of distant habitat-based offsets for migratory shorebirds. Decisions around offset placement should be driven by the potential to achieve equivalent ecological outcomes; however, when considering more distant offsets, there is a need to evaluate the likely increased risks alongside the potential benefits. Although spatially flexible offsets have the potential to provide more cost-effective biodiversity outcomes and more cobenefits, our case study showed the difficulty of demonstrating these benefits in practice and the potential risks that need to be considered to ensure effective offset placement.     

财政分权对环境污染的空间效应

利用2006—2017年我国30个省级行政单位的面板数据,采用空间计量模型对财政分权与环境污染之间的关系进行实证分析,并通过效应分解分别计算出财政收入分权和财政支出分权对环境污染的直接效应、空间溢出效应和总效应。模型估计的结果表明:①财政收入分权与财政支出分权通过直接效应和空间溢出效应两种途径对环境污染产生显著影响,但收入分权与支出分权对环境污染的空间效应具有异质性。②财政收入分权对环境污染具有显著的负向直接效应和负向空间溢出效应,影响系数分别为-5.429和-17.572。提高财政收入分权度不仅有利于减轻本省份环境污染,也对邻近省份的环境污染起到抑制作用。而财政支出分权对环境污染具有显著的负向直接效应和正向的空间溢出效应,影响程度分别为-3.345和1.173。提高财政支出分权虽然有利于减少本省份污染的排放,但在一定程度上引起省际的污染外溢效应,提高邻近省份的污染程度。③从总效应来看,财政收入分权和财政支出分权对环境污染均呈现出显著的负向相关性,影响程度分别为-23.001和-2.172。提高财政分权可降低环境污染水平,有利于环境质量提升。④通过构建不同空间权重矩阵,检验模型的稳健性,结果表明模型估计是稳健可靠的。根据分析结论,可能的启示与建议有:①合理划分中央政府和地方政府之间的财政事权和支出责任,在提高财政支出分权度的同时提高地方政府财政收入分权度,充分发挥地方政府环境治理的积极性和主动性。②继续加大生态环境保护力度,完善绿色经济考核机制,引导地方政府加大对污染治理和环境改善的支出水平及效率。     

Understanding and addressing the environmental risk of microplastics

Over the past decades, the plastic production has been dramatically increased. Indeed, a category of small plastic particles mainly with the shapes of fragments, fibers, or spheres, called microplastics (particles smaller than 5 mm) and nanoplastics (particles smaller than 1 μm) have attracted particular attention. Because of its wide distribution in the environment and potential adverse effects to animal and human, microplastic pollution has been reported as a serious environment problem receiving increased attention in recent years. As one of the commonly detected emerging contaminants in the environment, recent evidence indicates that the concentration of microplastics show an increasing trend, for the reason that up to 12.7 million metric tons of plastic litter is released into aquatic environment from land-based sources each year. Furthermore, microplastic exposure levels of model organisms in laboratory studies are usually several orders of magnitude higher than those found in environment, and the microplastics exposure conditions are also different with those observed in the environment. Additionally, the detection of microplastics in feces indicates that they can be excreted out of the bodies of animal and human. Hence, great uncertainties might exist in microplastics exposure and health risk assessment based on current studies, which might be exaggerated. Policies reduce microplastic emission sources and hence minimize their environmental risks are determined. To promote the above policies, we must first overcome the technical obstacles of detecting microplastics in various samples.     

The place of nature in conservation conflicts

Conservation conflicts are gaining importance in contemporary conservation scholarship such that conservation may have entered a conflict hype. We attempted to uncover and deconstruct the normative assumptions behind such studies by raising several questions: what are conservation conflicts, what justifies the attention they receive, do conservation-conflict studies limit wildlife conservation, is scientific knowledge stacked against wildlife in conservation conflicts, do conservation-conflict studies adopt a specific view of democracy, can laws be used to force conservation outcomes, why is flexibility needed in managing conservation conflicts, can conservation conflicts be managed by promoting tolerance, and who needs to compromise in conservation conflicts? We suggest that many of the intellectual premises in the field may defang conservation and prevent it from truly addressing the current conservation crisis as it accelerates. By framing conservation conflicts as conflicts between people about wildlife or nature, the field insidiously transfers guilt, whereby human activities are no longer blamed for causing species decline and extinctions but conservation is instead blamed for causing social conflicts. When the focus is on mitigating social conflicts without limiting in any powerful way human activities damaging to nature, conservation-conflict studies risk keeping conservation within the limits of human activities, instead of keeping human activities within the limits of nature. For conservation to successfully stop the biodiversity crisis, we suggest the alternative goal of recognizing nature's right to existence to maintenance of ecological functions and evolutionary processes. Nature being a rights bearer or legal person would imply its needs must be explicitly taken into account in conflict adjudication. If, even in conservation, nature's interests come second to human interests, it may be no surprise that conservation cannot succeed.     

“竞争申请制”:可持续发展政策试点与央地关系重构

可持续发展目标(SDGs)的提出,开启了人类可持续发展领域最宏大的政策实验,也为开展国际视野的比较公共政策研究提供了难得机遇。执行SDGs及国家可持续发展政策需要处理好中央政府与地方政府间关系,而政策试点是协调这一关系的重要政策工具。已有文献对经济政策试点做了较充分的研究,然而对旨在实现经济、社会与环境协调的可持续发展政策试点,现有研究尚缺乏成型理论。在复杂央地关系格局下,对于需持续投入成本且成果难以界定的可持续发展政策试点,其具有怎样的不同于经济政策试点的机制?此外,众多西方学者将美国作为政策试点研究的制度基础并视其为“民主实验室”。然而,政策试点在以中国为代表的不同体制国家中同样存在,并以多样的机制发挥作用。那么,不同国家体制内的可持续发展政策试点又有哪些异同?政策试点影响下中国既有的央地关系发生了怎样的重构?对此,本文基于最典型案例原则,选取中国与美国响应SDGs分别开展的政策试点进行比较研究。笔者识别了不同体制下试点机制的异同,指出中国基于“竞争申请制”开展的可持续发展政策试点强化了中央部委与地方政府间关系,形成了地方官员的可持续发展激励,保障了政策试点的实施。     

呼吸效应对矿井封闭火区氧浓度的影响分析

为避免因火区封闭导致重大安全事故发生，通过采集某矿井1 d内3个不同监测点的大气压力变化情况，建立大气压力波动模型并分析计算，同时建立火区内外压差100，750 Pa情形下的氧浓度模型进而获得火区内侧氧气浓度因呼吸效应，在不同压差、体积大小火区、风阻、瓦斯涌出量、封闭时刻等多因素耦合影响下随时间的变化规律，以评估火区危险性。研究结果表明:井下大气随地面大气周期波动，封闭火区内、外侧之间的气压差因外界大气波动呈现16 h的余弦波动和8 h的线性波动周期变化；密闭质量好的火区具有更好地抗干扰性，内侧氧浓度的降低主要依靠瓦斯稀释；密闭质量差的火区，内侧氧浓度易受到火区涌出瓦斯、外界涌入大气双重影响；火区氧浓度在2%~12%之间波动，以至火区存在发生瓦斯爆炸的可能性；火区内外压差较大时，氧浓度波动变化幅度更大，危险作用持续时间更长。结合火区氧浓度波动模型，可有效地对矿井火区采取安全的防范措施，避免瓦斯爆炸事故发生。     

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.     

How does eliminating mercury from artisanal and small-scale gold mining lead to achieving sustainable development goals?

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is the principal anthropogenic activity that globally contributes to overloading our environment with mercury. Although the Minamata Convention, led by the United Nations, is a crucial instrument to eliminate its use progressively, novel approaches to accelerate this difficult transition are welcome. This article proposes a framework for policy-making or improvement, fostering the enforcement of mercury elimination through the lens of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing on the excluded artisanal and small-scale gold miners and their dependents. We move forward with a literature review of the Artisanal and Small Mining topic, taking each SDG as a unit of analysis. Understanding the problem as a puzzle of four sets of pieces, namely: (1) social, (2) environmental, (3) economic, and (4) institutional, the paper offers potential opportunities for the decision-makers and practitioners to accelerate the substitution of this heavy metal and develop sustainable futures for the ASGM communities. We conclude by proposing a pragmatic framework that synthesizes the means, actions, and ends to accelerate a sustainable transition.     

北京市典型废弃物焚烧源2010—2017年二NFDA1英排放特征和减排效果分析

分析2010—2017年北京市三类典型废弃物焚烧源的废气二NFDA1英排放监测数据,计算排放因子和排放量,评估减排政策成效,并分析不同排放源达标排放时同类物分布特征异同和变化规律,探讨影响排放的重要因素。结果表明: 5家焚烧源平均排放浓度为 0.008～0.069 ng/m³(以TEQ计,下同),废气二NFDA1英排放因子为 0.027～1.7 μg/t,2016年向空气中排放的二NFDA1英量为 0.002 5～0.058 g；生活垃圾、危险废物和医疗废物焚烧源的低、高氯代同类物质量分数比的平均值分别为接近于 0.5、大于0.5和小于0.5,危险废物焚烧源的 ∑PCDFs、∑PCDDs质量分数比的平均值大于2； 123478-HxCDF和123678-HxCDF质量浓度接近且线性相关,具有相近的生成机理和去除效率； I-TEQ变化趋势与∑PCDFs质量分数的变化趋势基本一致,活性炭喷射和布袋除尘的去除效率是影响二NFDA1英排放的重要因素之一；危险废物焚烧源HWI1随运行时间增加排放浓度增加,而及时更换烟道管壁有助于消除“记忆效应”的不良影响。     

Depoliticizing adaptation: a critical analysis of EU climate adaptation policy

The ways in which climate adaptation is understood in the European Union is examined via three key policy documents: the Strategy on adaptation and the Green and White Papers that preceded it. Drawing on Poststructuralist Discourse Theory, light is shed on the implicit values and assumptions that underpin this recent policy initiative. The findings demonstrate a tension between the declared ambition to act on adaptation and implicit suggestions that nothing really has to change, and the challenge can be addressed by market and technological innovations, and by mainstreaming adaptation into existing sectoral policies. The policy discourse effectively serves to depoliticize choices societies make in response to climate change, presenting adaptation as a non-political issue. Insight into European adaptation discourse enables deeper understanding of recent policy developments and opens up possible entry points for critique.