The Past,Present, and Future of Environmental Insurance Including a Case Study of MTBE Litigation

Environmental insurance policies and the success of claims brought under them depend upon the intersection of both the legal and technical issues involved. The evolution of environmental insurance policies, from their origin in the Commercial General Liability policies up to the creation of new insurance products designed to cover specifically environmental concerns are addressed in this work. Both scientists and attorneys will have to develop a fuller understanding of environmental damage and assessments. The intent of this article is to provide a starting point for members of both disciplines in their quest for a fuller understanding of the legal and technical issues involved in environmental claims.     

Environmental Pollution Liability Insurance in China: In Need of Strong Government Backing

Environmental pollution liability insurance was officially introduced in China only in 2006, as part of new market-based approaches for managing environmental risks. By 2012, trial applications of pollution insurance had been launched in 14 provinces and cities. More than ten insurance companies have entered the pollution insurance market with their own products and contracts. Companies in environmentally sensitive sectors and high-risk industries bought pollution insurance, and a few successful compensation cases have been reported. Still, pollution insurance faces a number of challenges in China. The absence of a national law weakens the legal basis of pollution insurance, and poor technical support stagnates further implementation. Moreover, current pollution insurance products have limited risk coverage, high premium rates, and low loss ratios, which make them fairly unattractive to polluters. Meanwhile, low awareness of environmental and social liabilities leads to limited demand for pollution insurance products by industrial companies. Hence, the pollution insurance market is not yet flourishing in China. To improve this situation, this economic instrument needs stronger backing by the Chinese state.     

Captive Insurance Companies and the Management of Environmental Risks

Recent publicity has focused on the crisis in the market for commercial liability insurance. Industries and professionals concerned with air pollution are among those facing an acute shortage of insurance coverage. Captive insurance companies are gaining popularity as a means of securing comprehensive pollution liability coverage. Captives are separate corporations established by companies with similar risk management problems to write policies covering pollution emissions. Federal tax law requires that captives be set up properly, with transfer and distribution of risk, before premiums paid by the member companies are deductible. Financial responsibility requirements of the EPA are being redesigned, and may be favorable to the use of captives. Six states and several off-shore countries have statutes allowing captive insurance companies. Attention to practical details can lead to success in using captives to secure business advantages as well as protection from the risk of environmental impairment. Several of such considerations are discussed in light of the tax, environmental, and state regulatory issues relevant to the question, with an eye toward giving practical legal advice for structuring captives.     

Aquaculture effects on environmental and public welfare - the case of Mediterranean mariculture

Aquatic farming has been considered, during the last decades, as the fastest growing food production industry powered by governmental and technological impulsion. Compensation for fisheries decline, creation of new jobs and source of financial windfall are the most important benefits. However, similar to most of the human food-production activities, aquaculture raised several issues related to the environmental welfare and consumer safety. An effort to record the aquaculture-environment and -human safety interactions with regard to the Mediterranean mariculture, is attempted herein. We focused on this geographical area due to its individualities in both the hydrological and physicochemical characteristics and the forms of aquaculture activities. The cage farming of euryhaline marine fish species and more recently of bluefin tuna and mollusk farming are the dominating aquaculture activities. The impacts of these activities to the environment, through wastes offloads, introduction of alien species, genetic interactions, disease transfer, release of chemicals, use of wild recourses, alterations of coastal habitats and disturbance of wildlife, are analytically considered. Also the consumer safety issues related to the farming are assessed, including generation of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms, contaminants transferred to humans though food chain and other hazards from consumption of aquacultured items. Within these, the major literature findings are critically examined and suggestions for scientific areas that need further development are made. The major tasks for future aquaculture development in this region are: (i) to ensure sustainability and (ii) to balance the risks to public or environmental health with the substantial economical benefits. In regard with monitoring, tools must be created or adapted to predict the environmental costs and estimate consumer impact. At a canonistic and legal basis, the establishment of appropriate legal guidelines and common policies from all countries involved should be mandatory.     

Managing the relationship with the environment

This article describes the results of a survey carried out by the author's company on behalf of Rank Xerox. The objective was to assess attitudes towards environmental issues in both the public and private sector. Although there were some differences over priorities, both sectors agreed that development of environmental policies was essential to their future.     

The Tools of Environmental Litigation Support: How Environmental Litigation Support Teams Employ a Unique Set of Skills and Tools to Improve the Outcome and Reduce the Cost of Legal Disputes

While the primary goal of environmental investigations is to assess and clean up contaminated properties, significant efforts are also directed towards resolving various matters in legal dispute. Opposing parties often disagree about the cause and timing of contamination and the associated liability and costs for meeting regulatory site closure requirements. Environmental experts are often needed to help resolve such legal disputes with expertise in hydrogeology, toxicology, microbiology, chemistry, engineering, and process safety. These experts, or teams of experts, provide technical approaches to determine the liability and cost apportionment amongst the various potentially responsible parties. Fate and transport models, environmental forensics, and risk assessment help to answer the issues in dispute. Skillful communication of these technical findings is needed to present conclusions to audiences that do not necessarily have technical backgrounds.     

Evidence for the "grasshopper" effect and fractionation during long-range atmospheric transport of organic contaminants

Although there is indisputable evidence that long-range atmospheric transport (LRAT) of organic contaminants occurs on a global scale, uncertainties remain about the detailed mechanism and extent of this phenomenon as well as the physical-chemical properties which facilitate LRAT. In this study, we discuss how mass balance models and monitoring data can contribute to a fuller understanding of the mechanism and extent of LRAT. Specifically we address the issues of "grasshopping" or "hopping" (the extent to which molecules are subject to multiple hops as distinct from a single emission-deposition event) and "global fractionation" (the differing behavior of chemicals as they are transported). It is shown that simple mass balance models can be used to assist the interpretation of monitoring data while also providing an instrument that can be used to assess the LRAT potential and the extent of hopping that organic substances may experience. The available evidence supports the notion that many persistent organic pollutants experience varying degrees of "hopping" during their environmental journey and as a consequence become fractionated with distance from source.     

Economic instruments, transport and the global environment

The use of economic instruments, such as charges, in abating climate change is assessed, with special reference to their application in the transport sector. The general strategies and instruments for global environmental policies are presented. The role of economic instruments in this context is highlighted, both in terms of theory and of application. Economic instruments are then analysed from the perspective of transport policies. Climate and transport appear to have different perspectives on economic instruments. The analysis leads to a framework for developing climate-related economic instruments in transport. These may result in substantial economic savings, especially if approached internationally and if distributional and institutional problems can be overcome. The integration of climate concerns into transport policies can be improved, and several suggestions are made in this respect.     

Social perceptions of environmental issues: a case study looking at people's representations of environmental issues

The implementation of efficient environmental and waste management policies requires a better understanding of how these issues are integrated into social dynamics. In particular, we need to improve our knowledge of social perceptions about these problems. To do this, one can use a methodology based on lexicographical tools. It allows the reconstruction of actors' representations from in-depth interviews. This study aims to demonstrate the benefits and limitations of such a method. It looks at the perceptions of environment and waste issues of French industrial actors. A common representation has been extracted on the basis of the categories most present in the discourses. It has then been completed and refined by a deeper examination of relationships between actors, of values underlying the representation, and of its dynamic aspects. The method presented here would be particularly appropriate for comparative analysis between different groups of actors or different cultures.     

Sustainable Development by Design: Review of Life Cycle Design and Related Approaches

The environmental profile of goods and services that satisfy our individual and societal needs is shaped by design activities. Substantial evidence suggests that current patterns of human activity on a global scale are not following a sustainable path. Necessary changes to achieve a more sustainable system will require that environmental issues be more effectively addressed in design. But at present much confusion surrounds the incorporation of environmental objectives into the design process. Although not yet fully embraced by industry, the product life cycle system is becoming widely recognized as a useful design framework for understanding the links between societal needs, economic systems and their environmental consequences. The product life cycle encompasses all activities from raw material extraction, manufacturing, and use to final disposal of all residuals.

Life cycle design (LCD), Design for Environment (DFE), and related initiatives based on this product life cycle are emerging as systematic approaches for integrating environmental issues into design. This review presents the life cycle design framework developed forthe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a structure for discussing the environmental design literature. Specifying environmental requirements and evaluation metrics are essential elements of designing for sustainable development. A major challenge for successful design is choosing appropriate strategies that satisfy cost, performance, cultural, and legal criteria while also optimizing environmental objectives. Various methods for specifying requirements, strategies for reducing environmental burden, and environmental evaluation tools are explored and critiqued. Currently, many organizational and operational factors limit the applicability of life cycle design and other design approaches to sustainable development. For example, lack of environmental data and simple, effective evaluation tools are major barriers. Despite these problems, companies are beginning to pursue aspects of life cycle design. The future of life cycle design and sustainable development depends on education, government policy and regulations, and industry leadership but fundamental changes in societal values and behavior will ultimately determine the fate of the planet’s life support system.     

Linking Chemistry to Law in Environmental Forensics

The right to a healthy environment is of capital importance, which is why this matter calls for a detailed study, taking into account implications of both chemistry and law. The present study describes the current level of environmental protection, significant pieces of legislation, and five case studies regarding human rights violations. It reveals reports concerning air quality in Romania and in Europe. A large body of evidence emphasizes that permanent legislation revisions and new legal implementations place Europe on the right track, but plenty of issues remain to be solved until main pollutant emissions drop and the environmental situation becomes at least satisfactory.     

BRC4Env,a network of Biological Resource Centres for research in environmental and agricultural sciences

The Biological Resource Centre for the Environment BRC4Env is a network of Biological Resource Centres (BRCs) and collections whose leading objectives are to improve the visibility of genetic and biological resources maintained by its BRCs and collections and to facilitate their use by a large research community, from agriculture research to life sciences and environmental sciences. Its added value relies on sharing skills, harmonizing practices, triggering projects in comparative biology, and ultimately proposing a single-entry portal to facilitate access to documented samples, taking into account the partnership policies of research institutions as well as the legal frame which varies with the biological nature of resources. BRC4Env currently includes three BRCs: the Centre for Soil Genetic Resources of the platform GenoSol, in partnership with the European Conservatory of Soil Samples; the Egg Parasitoids Collection (EP-Coll); and the collection of ichthyological samples, Colisa. BRC4Env is also associated to several biological collections: microbial consortia (entomopathogenic bacteria, freshwater microalgae…), terrestrial arthropods, nematodes (plant parasitic, entomopathogenic, animal parasitic...), and small mammals. The BRCs and collections of BRC4Env are involved in partnership with academic scientists, as well as private companies, in the fields of medicinal mining, biocontrol, sustainable agriculture, and additional sectors. Moreover, the staff of the BRCs is involved in many training courses for students from French licence degree to Ph.D, engineers, as well as ongoing training.     

The role of stakeholder attitudes in managing contaminated sites: survey of Romanian stakeholder awareness

The past decade has seen substantial policy effort directed at promoting the reclamation and reuse of urban brownfield or potentially contaminated land. This paper is based on the results of a survey regarding the role of stakeholder attitudes in managing contaminated sites at the Romanian level. Findings indicate that effective policies and programmes need to be framed within an understanding of the different needs of national development. While different perceptions were identified in regard to the meanings of several concepts and terms used in this field, important aspects related to the need for developing a correctly ranked and coordinated decision-making process were also identified. Additional findings indicate gaps in the legal mechanisms intended to promote brownfield rehabilitation in the course of redevelopment. At the same time, the survey respondents suggested several recommendations such as the necessity of developing a risk assessment to establish the level and extent of contamination that can endanger human health and the environmental integrity on a site and also the need for greater compatibility between land-use planning processes and environmental legislation related to contaminated site management. The paper presents general conclusions engaging all the recommendations drawn from the survey questionnaire as well as from the general current situation in Romania.     

Common property systems,migration, and coastal ecosystems

Common property systems are a critical institution mediating the relationship between population change and environmental outcomes, especially in coastal and marine ecosystems. Evidence from El Salvador; Goa, India; and the Solomon Islands demonstrates how the social structures and institutions stemming from patterns of human migration variably influence environmental out-comes through their effects on common property resource institutions. In each of the case studies, the demographic phenomenon is not population growth or a change in numbers, but an underlying process that affects population size and growth rates: i.e. migration and associated social relations that result from or cause more migration. The following 3 cases studies provide the respective historical and cultural context to show that there is a nonlinear link between population and environment, which when explored reveals the importance of understanding how individuals and communities are embedded in sets of social relations that must be considered when evaluating environmental policies or when determining the causes of environmental degradation.     

Agroecosystems,nitrogen-use efficiency,and nitrogen management

The global challenge of meeting increased food demand and protecting environmental quality will be won or lost in cropping systems that produce maize, rice, and wheat. Achieving synchrony between N supply and crop demand without excess or deficiency is the key to optimizing trade-offs amongst yield, profit, and environmental protection in both large-scale systems in developed countries and small-scale systems in developing countries. Setting the research agenda and developing effective policies to meet this challenge requires quantitative understanding of current levels of N-use efficiency and losses in these systems, the biophysical controls on these factors, and the economic returns from adoption of improved management practices. Although advances in basic biology, ecology, and biogeochemistry can provide answers, the magnitude of the scientific challenge should not be underestimated because it becomes increasingly difficult to control the fate of N in cropping systems that must sustain yield increases on the world's limited supply of productive farm land.     

National Park Development in China: Conservation or Commercialization?

The rapid development of parks and ecotourism in China has attracted worldwide attention, not only for the beauty of the landscape that the parks are protecting but also for their abundant and often unique biodiversity. However, in some areas, the development of ecotourism has actually led to the degradation of local ecological, economic, and social systems. Using National Forest Parks for demonstration, this article analyzes the current political, institutional, legal, environmental, and economic issues concerning National Parks in China, and examines their potential future development. Although the intention of National Park systems in China is to raise environmental quality, and to protect biodiversity and social livelihoods, their success has varied. Future success will be measured by their capacity to reduce poverty, to promote long-term rehabilitation of wildlife habitats, and to simultaneously protect Chinese culture and biodiversity.     

A Summary of the APCA/EPA International Specialty Conference

Atmospheric change has emerged as a major global environmental issue of national and international concern in the 1990's. The dominance of the legislative and regulatory perception of atmospheric processes over their scientific understanding has left both regulators and atmospheric scientists ill-prepared to respond to emerging atmospheric-environmental issues. A view of clean air is presented whereby the legislative/regulatory and scientific perception of the physical and chemical processes of the atmosphere are linked to achieve the goal of a healthy atmosphere and sustainable environment.     

论环境经济办法

一个好的经济政策应该是一个好的环境政策,反之亦然。这里所说的环境经济办法是一个全新的环境经济政策体系,它是由绿色税收、环境收费、绿色资本市场、生态补偿、排污权交易、绿色贸易、绿色保险等方面构成的。它们是市场经济的产物,与强制性环境政策相对应,两者共同构成一个比较完整的内在相通的政策体系。新的环境政策体系的理论基础是环境价值观、价值规律和价格形成机制。     

Brownfields redevelopment issues revisited

The value of revitalising contaminated or brownfield sites has gained widespread acceptance. The efforts at remediation and eventual redevelopment of these sites involve several stakeholders, because the exercise directly impacts a number of different interests. The key issues to be resolved for the successful rejuvenation of brownfields are technical, legal, financial, future land use and community issues. Satisfactory resolution of these issues results in a happy confluence of interests working together to ensure the full exploitation of these underused assets. This paper fully discusses the issues and the attendant obstacles to redevelopment of brownfield sites, and examines some of the more successful approaches that have been employed.