Research priorities for managing the impacts and dependencies of business upon food,energy, water and the environment

Delivering access to sufficient food, energy and water resources to ensure human wellbeing is a major concern for governments worldwide. However, it is crucial to account for the ‘nexus’ of interactions between these natural resources and the consequent implications for human wellbeing. The private sector has a critical role in driving positive change towards more sustainable nexus management and could reap considerable benefits from collaboration with researchers to devise solutions to some of the foremost sustainability challenges of today. Yet opportunities are missed because the private sector is rarely involved in the formulation of deliverable research priorities. We convened senior research scientists and influential business leaders to collaboratively identify the top forty questions that, if answered, would best help companies understand and manage their food-energy-water-environment nexus dependencies and impacts. Codification of the top order nexus themes highlighted research priorities around development of pragmatic yet credible tools that allow businesses to incorporate nexus interactions into their decision-making; demonstration of the business case for more sustainable nexus management; identification of the most effective levers for behaviour change; and understanding incentives or circumstances that allow individuals and businesses to take a leadership stance. Greater investment in the complex but productive relations between the private sector and research community will create deeper and more meaningful collaboration and cooperation.     

Public–Private Governance Patterns and Environmental Sustainability

This paper discusses public–private governance patterns which have emerged in global environmental management. These patterns originate from a spontaneous non-governmental basis or have intentionally been created and constructed by international organisations or states. The paper identifies four patterns of environmental governance between international organisations, governments and private actors. Theoretically governance patterns in which private actors play a prominent role, pose a challenge to state sovereignty and remould the traditional state centric pattern of environmental management. However, the article emphasises the fact that these patterns remain no more than constructs of international organisations, non-governmental organisations and governments, whose first priorities are not always environmental conservation. The paper suggests that the oldest public–private type of environmental governance, in which the environmental organisations are in advocacy roles, reform environmental management in a more concrete and sustainable way than the more recently emerging patterns.     

新能源汽车补贴政策工具挖掘及量化评价

现阶段中国大力开展新能源汽车示范推广工作,中央及各地方政府已相继出台一系列补贴政策。在严厉打击新能源汽车"骗补"及补贴政策重新调整等背景下,分析梳理现有政策从而对其进行整体把握与正确判断显得尤为重要,从而为政策改进与优化做准备。本文选取了截至2016年底国家和北京市颁布的涉及新能源汽车补贴的相关政策。首先,从采用文本挖掘的方法整理出的政策文本的高频有效关键词从中提炼出的政策工具,可分为供给型、需求型、环境型三类,分别从技术推动、市场拉动和环境支撑三个方面促进和规范新能源汽车市场。发现现有政策工具仍存在一些问题,如缺乏支持新能源汽车技术提升和产品开发的供给型政策工具;环境型政策工具的作用重点欠科学,对充电基础设施建设的重视程度不够;补贴过于聚焦新能源汽车购买环节等。其次,结合政策特点运用PMC指数模型构建了新能源汽车补贴政策的量化评价框架,通过变量分类、参数识别建立了多投入产出表,并通过PMC指数的测量、PMC曲面的生成综合反映政策各维度的情况。再次,采用实证分析的方法,选取3项新能源汽车补贴政策(P1、P2、P3)为研究对象,对政策进行量化评价。结果得出3项政策的PMC指数分别为7.52、6.95、6.21,均在良好的等级之内,P1政策的量化结果为优秀,P2、P3政策结果为良好,且具有较大的提升空间,可考虑在激励措施等方面予以加强。最后,根据新能源汽车补贴政策无法取得预期效果的原因,提出三点政策优化意见:(1)重视供给型政策工具的使用,加大新能源汽车科研资金投入;(2)环境型政策工具的作用重点应放在充电等基础设施的建设上;(3)需求型可考虑采取以公共交通带动私人交通的策略。     

Sustaining the Gains Made in Ecological Restoration: Case Study Collingwood Harbour, Ontario

As part of the commitments made by the governments of Canada and the United States in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, Remedial Action Plans (RAPs) are being developed and implemented at Great Lakes Areas of Concern. The Areas of Concern are specific places around the Great Lakes basin ecosystem where environmental quality is degraded to the point that certain beneficial uses (the ability of fish, wildlife and humans to thrive) are impaired. According to the United States and Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1987, the federal governments, in cooperation with state and provincial governments, are to ensure the public is consulted throughout the development and implementation of the RAPs. While not explicit in the Agreement, it is logical to posit that given the effort and investment in environmental improvements, community capacity to sustain the recovery of beneficial uses beyond the life of the RAP should be a product of the RAP. This report examines a case study to test the hypothesis that public ownership of the RAP process can result in the development of community capacity to sustain environmental recovery. The question is, were the principles of the RAP, 10 years after delisting, taken into account to ensure sustainability of growth along the waterfront and within the Town? To arrive at the answer it is important to explore the approach used in the Collingwood Harbour RAP process, and concepts and principles of sustainable cities and towns. This paper provides evidence that such principles are being applied in Collingwood and were nurtured during the development and implementation of the RAP.     

The Clean Development Mechanism and Sustainable Development in China's Electricity Sector

Abstract

The Clean Development Mechanism, a flexibility mechanism contained in the Kyoto Protocol, offers China an important tool to attract investment in clean energy technology and processes into its electricity sector. The Chinese electricity sector places centrally in the country's economy and environment, being a significant contributor to the acid rain and air pollution problems that plague many of China's cities and regions, and therefore a focus of many related energy and environmental policies. China's electricity sector has also been the subject of a number of economic analyses that have showed that it contains the highest potential for clean energy investment through the Clean Development Mechanism of any economic sector in China. This mechanism, through the active participation from investors in more industrialized countries, can help alleviate the environmental problems attributable to electricity generation in China through advancing such technology as wind electricity generation, clean coal technology, high efficient natural gas electricity generation, or utilization of coal mine methane. In this context, the Clean Development Mechanism also compliments a range of environmental and energy policies which are strategizing to encourage the sustainable development of China's economy.     

Sustainable Development and Environment: a Renewed Effort in the OECD

The importance of sustainable development has been clearly recognised by the OECD Council at Ministerial Level. The Communiqué of the 1998 Ministerial Meeting states that Ministers agreed that the achievement of sustainable development is a key priority for OECD countries. They encouraged the elaboration of the Organisation's strategy for wide-ranging efforts over the next three years in the areas of climate change, technological development, sustainability indicators, and the environmental impact of subsidies.... Further, Ministers asked the OECD to enhance its dialogue with non-member countries in these areas and to engage them more actively, including through shared analyses and development of strategies for implementing sustainable development (OECD, 1998d).To help countries achieve the transition to sustainable development, a framework is required for the integration of economic, environmental and social policy. This was the main recommendation of the report in November 1997 to the OECD Secretary-General, Donald J. Johnston, of the High-Level Advisory Group on the Environment (OECD, 1997b). The OECD and its affiliates (including the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), the Development Centre and the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT)) are well equipped with the broad, multidisciplinary expertise to assist Member governments in this task. Work on sustainable development encompasses the full range of activities of the Organisation: macro and micro-economic analysis; environmental policy; labour markets, education, health and social policies; agricultural and fisheries policies; energy policy; technology policy; regional, local and urban policies; and development co-operation. Activities with non-members add an essential global perspective. The challenge is to move beyond a sectoral approach to integrated policies, and to exploit potential synergies and interrelationships between this wide range of competencies. The aim is to move as far as possible towards the harmonisation and integration of policies within an overall economic framework.     

鱼类洄游通道恢复——国外的经验及中国的对策

简要介绍了鱼类洄游和鱼类洄游通道恢复的概念及类型。从法律与政策、资金筹措、恢复方法、恢复效果监测评估、信息交流与公众参与等5个方面介绍了欧盟、美、日、澳大利亚等国在鱼类洄游通道恢复方面积累的先进经验和成功实践,并在此基础上提出了我国鱼类洄游通道恢复应采取的对策：开展鱼类洄游通道恢复的立法和政策制定工作,加强鱼类洄游通道恢复工作的法律保障力度;开展流域阻碍鱼类洄游的障碍物调查和影响评价,制定流域鱼类洄游通道恢复规划;探索建立和完善多元化投入机制;加强鱼类洄游通道恢复研究能力建设,建立科学的技术支撑体系;开展鱼类洄游通道恢复关键技术研究;重视河流鱼类洄游通道恢复效果的监测评估工作;开展信息交流和公众教育,积极营造全社会参与的良好氛围。     

Life cycle assessment tool of electricity generation in Portugal

This paper investigates multi-stakeholder arrangements initiated by businesses and NGOs from the North that aim to enhance a more sustainable agricultural production at specific localities in Southern countries. We aim to better understand the search for concerted action in multi-actor arrangements. Therefore, this paper presents a diagnostic framework with three strategic challenges the partnership projects are facing: linking global economic objectives to local needs, values and interests; bridging public and private interests and responsibilities; and seeking trade-offs between social, environmental and economic values. Starting from the partnerships’ Theory of Change, this diagnostic framework is applied to comparative case studies of partnership projects in the cocoa sector in Indonesia, which are part of a Northern-based public–private partnership to improve farmers’ prospective. It is concluded that the economic reality faced by the farmers differs from that of the Northern actors; collaboration with governments is difficult because of different organizational cultures; and the partnership projects underestimate the strength of vested social relations the smallholders are part of. Overall, the initiators of the partnerships seem to work with a too restricted economic interpretation of the local reality.     

Estimating willingness to pay with the stochastic payment card design: further evidence from rural Cameroon

This study reports new empirical findings of the field test of the stochastic payment card (SPC) design recently proposed by Wang (Contingent valuation of environmental resources: A stochastic perspective, 1997a; Journal of Environmental Economics & Management 32:219–232, 1997b). The purpose is to see how well this new contingent valuation method (CVM) elicitation format works in different cultural contexts, and what lessons can be drawn in general regarding its usefulness in environmental valuation. The survey is designed to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) values for an intended community-based environmental project in rural Cameroon (i.e., the control of malaria using larvivorous eating fish species). In order to estimate the bid function, Heckman’s 2-step method is used to detect, and if possible, correct for sample selection bias, an issue overlooked by the 2-step modeling approach proposed by Wang (1997a). The results suggest generally that in the presence of sample selection bias, Heckman’s 2-step estimates are more efficient and reliable for the public project in question than Wang’s proposed 2-stage modeling approach.     

省级政府环境政策制定过程的特征分析——以陕西和云南水土保持生态补偿政策为例

近年来,省级政府制定的环境政策逐渐增多。在数量繁多的各类问题中,省级政府的决策者如何能够充分认识到某个环境问题的重要性和紧迫性,将其置于优先考虑的位置,进而出台一项环境政策?与经济发展政策相比,省级政府制定环境政策的过程有何特征?本文通过研究两个案例来探讨这些问题的答案,一个案例是陕西省制定的水土保持生态补偿政策,另一个案例是云南省正在制定的类似政策。研究表明,在省级政府制定环境政策的过程中,政策倡导者往往不是省级政府决策者,而是省级政府中行政主管部门的领导。政策倡导者建立政策的途径是说服作为决策者的省级政府相关领导,进而使之批准政策出台。其说服方法是建立由相关部门和其他利益相关者组成的支持联盟,通过科学研究阐明问题的重要性、紧迫性以及和政府职能的相关性,并提出具有科学基础和立法基础的政策方案。这一过程既区别于中央政府制定环境政策的过程,又与省级政府制定经济政策的过程不同。     

Mixed oligopoly,foreign penetration,and environmental taxes

This paper examines the impact of foreign penetration on the public firm in a mixed oligopolistic market. Through the establishment of a mixed double oligopoly market, this paper analyzes how the share of foreign investment affects the environmental policy, the pollutant emission, and the social welfare under the condition of the state tax. The results show that: first, the introduction of foreign investment has some crowding-out effects on the social level of output. Second, the entry of foreign investment increases the profit of the public firm by a large margin, and the maximum profit of the private firm has been reduced. Third, the increase of foreign investment in public firm does not necessarily improve the environment.     

Correction to: Allocation of risk and benefits—distributional justices in mountain hazard management

As financing protection against mountain hazards becomes increasingly challenging and therefore investments have to be prioritized, dilemmas of justice emerge: some local governments and individuals benefit from natural hazard protection schemes, whereas others loose. Decisions on whom to protect often caused contradicting concepts of political understanding, which differ in interpretations of fair resource allocation and distribution. This paper analyses the impact of different philosophical schools of social justice on mountain hazard management in Austria. We used data from a spatially explicit, object-based assessment of elements at risk and compared potential distributional effects of three political jurisdictions. We found that—depending on the respective political direction—various local governments gain and others loose within the actual distributional system of mitigation strategies. The implementation of a utilitarian policy approach would cause that high income communities in hazard-prone areas would mainly benefit. Consequently, this policy direction would encourage the public administration to ignore their own failure in the past natural hazards management and prevention. On the other hand, following a Rawlsians approach mainly peripheral communities would gain from new policy direction who often show besides natural hazards problem mainly large socio-economic challenges. Finally, the most radical change would include the implementation of a liberalism policy, whereabouts the state only provides hazard information, but no further mitigation measures. These findings highlight the distributional consequences of future mountain hazard management strategies and point to the crucial selection of policy direction in navigating the selection of various adaptation schemes.

     

地方政府生态环境治理注意力研究——基于30个省市政府工作报告(2006—2015)文本分析

注意力代表着政府决策者对特定事务的关注,注意力的变化是政府决策选择变化的直接原因。环境治理注意力是环境治理进入议程设置,进而出台政策、实施治理的前提。政府工作报告是政府进行资源配置与精力投入的指挥棒,也是"政府将重视什么、哪些领域得到更多投入资源"的通知书和承诺书,它是政府注意力分配或者变化的重要载体。本文收集了30个省市地方政府自2006年到2015年共300份工作报告,通过文本分析方法,试图发现地方政府生态环境治理注意力的变化规律。分析结果呈现:1从时间轴上看,地方政府对于生态环境的注意力强度逐渐增加;2从地域轴上看,东、中、西部政府生态环境注意力差距并不明显,相比而言,中部处于一个稍低的位次;3从生态环境的范畴看,具体领域得到进一步扩展,中央与地方对环境具体事务保持了较高的一致性,注意力的变化与决策环境和中央宏观政策有重要相关关系。尽管在某些时间点,某些地域存在离散点,但总体而言,在中央政府强调经济发展需要与当地环境资源承载能力相协调的大背景下,地方政府将注意力大幅转向民生事务和生态环境。鉴于地方领导人任期以及注意力本身的"易变性",要保持地方政府环境治理注意力的强度和持续性,1增加制度供给,使环境治理成为法治常项;2将环境治理在公共事务治理的排序中前置,将环境治理放在突出位置;3提升环境事件的信息强度,向地方政府传导积极的环境治理压力。     

Decentralization,spatial disequilibrium,and restructuring of coastal tourist destination-Empirical research from Sanya,China

The objective of this article is to speculate on resort restructuring in the market-oriented reform process in China.Previous studies show that spatial disequilibrium was aggravated by decentralization,which leads to the difference in tourism policy and investment,public goods,and service;a profound analytical framework is much needed for further empirical studies.This article has reviewed the relevant studies on links between decentralization and restructuring,spatial influences of decentralization on tourism,based on which we put forward the theoretical framework of resort spatial restructuring from the view of political economy analysis,then we elaborate on and discuss it based on the example of Sanya,China.In short,the article suggests that decentralization of fiscal responsibilities and institutional power contributes to the spatial disequilibrium of tourism industrial structure,land use,public infrastructure and service facilities,and to community inequality.Interests of government,investors,and community should be comprehensively coordinated in the resort spatial restructuring process from three aspects:restructuring government,optimizing space structure,and tourism industry.Furthermore,we argue that resort restructuring in the context of Sanya requires coordination of various interest groups through four ways:restructure the government power under administrative division adjustment,optimizing spatial structure,expanding industrial space to diversified tourism products,and building resort management services organization.Finally,we discussed some policy requirements for resort sustainable development.     

环保公共服务均等化的内涵及其评价

大力推进基本公共服务均等化是政府管理的重要课题之一,但对于环保公共服务均等化的概念、内涵和评价方法仍缺乏深入的分析。本文探讨了环保公共服务及其均等化的概念和内涵,从政策服务、监管服务、治理服务、应急服务、信息服务和教育服务的六个方面明确了环保公共服务的主要内容,对环保公共服务中权利机会均等、过程均等、结果均等的内涵进行了诠释。在此基础上,运用德尔斐调查法和专家评估法,构建了以投入、资源、服务和结果的四要素为维度的环保公共服务均等化评价指标体系和相应的评价方法。通过对2008年我国31个省级行政单位的实证分析,结果表明评价结果能够较准确地反映环保公共服务均等化的整体状况和问题所在,该评价指标体系和评价方法能够作为政府决策的量化工具,为我国公共服务均等化的推进提供参考和依据。     

PFI项目履约监管机制的研究

提高资源利用率，是实现城市可持续发展的关键。PFI模式有效解决了政府投资的低效率问题，提高了公用基础设施的投资效益，为改善国家基础设施面貌，推动城市化进程做出了贡献。然而PFI项目中作为公共利益代表的政府与追求私人利益最大化的私人投资者在某些方面是有冲突的。政府应该通过提高管理手段和行政能力对PFI项目实施科学化管理，可以通过在特许权合同中引入违约罚分机制、履约报告制度、期中评估与期末评估制度、特殊情况下政府介入机制和强化标准的制定等方法，提高投资人的履约质量。     

Transforming systems of consumption and production for achieving the sustainable development goals: moving beyond efficiency

The United Nations formulated the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in 2015 as a comprehensive global policy framework for addressing the most pressing social and environmental challenges currently facing humanity. In this paper, we analyse SDG 12, which aims to “ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.” Despite long-standing political recognition of this objective, and ample scientific evidence both on its importance and on the efficacy of various ways of promoting it, the SDGs do not provide clear goals or effective guidance on how to accomplish this urgently needed transformation. Drawing from the growing body of research on sustainable consumption and production (SCP), the paper identifies two dominant vantage points—one focused on promoting more efficient production methods and products (mainly through technological improvement and informed consumer choice) and the other stressing the need to consider also overall volumes of consumption, distributional issues, and related social and institutional changes. We label these two approaches efficiency and systemic. Research shows that while the efficiency approach contains essential elements of a transition to sustainability, it is by itself highly unlikely to bring about sustainable outcomes. Concomitantly, research also finds that volumes of consumption and production are closely associated with environmental impacts, indicating a need to curtail these volumes in ways that safeguard social sustainability, which is unlikely to be possible without a restructuring of existing socioeconomic arrangements. Analysing how these two perspectives are reflected in the SDGs framework, we find that in its current conception, it mainly relies on the efficiency approach. On the basis of this assessment, we conclude that the SDGs represent a partial and inadequate conceptualisation of SCP which will hamper implementation. Based on this determination, this paper provides some suggestions on how governments and other actors involved in SDGs operationalisation could more effectively pursue SCP from a systemic standpoint and use the transformation of systems of consumption and production as a lever for achieving multiple sustainability objectives.     

SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

<正>Chinese Journal of Population Resources and Environment,Print ISSN 1004-2857,Online ISSN 2325-4262,Volume 11,2013.Chinese Journal of Population Resources and Environment(www.tandfonline.com/tpre)is a peer-reviewed journal published in March,June,September,and December by TaylorFrancis,4 Park Square,Milton Park,Abingdon,Oxon,OX14 4RN,UK.     

Feeding the world sustainably: knowledge governance and sustainable agriculture in the Argentine Pampas

This article discusses the role of knowledge governance arrangements in the mainstreaming of sustainable practices, in particular, in the creation, sharing and use of integrated and contextualized knowledge. That is, knowledge which accounts for the social, economic, institutional, and ecological dimensions of potentially sustainable practices, and which considers the need to adapt generic practices to the sustainability requirements of specific places. An actor-centered approach is proposed for the study of the historical evolution of knowledge governance arrangements in order to understand their role in the adoption of sustainable practices. The approach is applied to explain the rapid adoption of no-till agriculture in the Argentine Pampas. A radical knowledge governance transformation occurring in this region during the 1990s led to increasing knowledge exchange and pushing sustainability practices to the top of key actors’ agendas. This embracing of no-till agriculture illustrates the crucial role played by farmers’ associations as boundary organizations: linking farmers with actors specialized in the generation of scientific knowledge and technology. This case reveals that sustainability transitions can be fostered through knowledge governance arenas characterized by: (a) promoting public–private collaboration through boundary organizations, (b) assigning private actors a leading role in the adoption of sustainability practices at the production unit scale, (c) fostering the public sector competence in regional and socio-ecological research, and (d) addressing the heterogeneous needs of knowledge users. However, the case also shows that the success of no-till agriculture in the Pampas is pushing the agriculturization of surrounding areas where this practice is largely unsustainable. This finding suggests that present knowledge governance arrangements fail to contextualize practices that are potentially sustainable.     

Balancing the interaction between political stability, human rights and private investments in the sustainable development process: an ongoing challenge for African governments and their peoples

Past and current experiences within many African countries confirm the hypothesis that the interaction between political stability, private investments and human rights is a critical element in the pursuit of sustainable development. Unfortunately, socio-economic and political crises African countries went through (and are still undergoing for some) have often occasioned a negative interaction between these three factors, with the consequence that the sustainable development process of Africa is yet slow comparatively to other developing regions in the world. Thus, in order to find the way forward, Africa needs more than ever before an effective leadership with rulers that are able to implement good governance principles in the functioning of the political system and also the participation of citizens, as far as possible, to public decision-making in respect of questions directly relevant to the sustainable development.