A comparison of new economic methods in USSR environmental policy with western approaches

Previous comparative studies on environmental policies in the East and West mainly focused on relating differing features of environmental management to different political, social/economic, and ideological conditions in both systems. The present article attempts to identify common experiences. In this respect, an obvious similarity can be seen in the fact that environmental management in the East and West emerged as a regulatory “command and control” approach, which was supplemented later by economic incentives. The 1988 USSR Resolution “On the Radical Transformation of the System of Natural Conservation” introduces a set of economic instruments as one of its main elements. This is less a radical change of environmental policy than a determined acceleration of previous approaches. Existing and newly designed economic methodologies provoke a comparison with similar approaches in market economies. The economic methods designed in the 1988 resolution include charges for the use of natural resources and the emission of pollutants, which are notable for their firm commitment to reduce emissions even below set regulatory standards. While experiences with this approach may be of great interest for Western countries, liability regulations of the United States can be of great use for designing relevant provisions implementing the USSR resolution. A number of bilateral treaties have demonstrated already the political relevance of an East-West exchange of experience in environmental management.     

The use of GIS for monitoring and predicting urban growth in east and west St Paul,Winnipeg, Manitoba,Canada

Most urban growth in Canada occurs in the urban-rural fringe. The increasing dispersal of the Canadian urban population is due to centrifugal forces pulling urbanites past the suburbs into the surrounding exurban communities. Most Canadian urban centres are located on prime agricultural land. Exurban sprawl devours an inordinate amount of the better agricultural land. The growth around the city of Winnipeg is a case in point. Within Winnipeg's urban field are the rural municipalities of East and West St Paul. The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of urban growth on the agricultural land of these RMs as well as the rate of urban growth in both Municipalities based on database analysis using aerial photographs taken in 1960 and 1989 and Geographic Information System (GIS). East St Paul was found to have a higher rate of urbanization (from 10.14% to 43.75%) between 1960 and 1989 than West St Paul (from 7.36% to 23.57%). The growth prediction using Markov probability chain analysis showed that East St Paul will henceforth experience a reduced rate of increase than West St Paul. The rate of urbanization for both RMs is found to be comparable with areas surrounding other major cities such as Toronto. The largest increases in urban land use categories occurred in and around the existing exurban settlements. It was found that most urbanization take place on the most fertile soil.     

An economic analysis of the stability of East-West mineral trade patterns

This paper explains the nature and variability of East-West mineral trade patterns for manganese, chromite, phosphate and potash. This variability is assessed inherently as well as in relation to underlying causal factors. The impact of these factors is analysed in terms of their sources: domestic cost conditions, changes in economic activity, currency and dollar exchange requirements, trade controls, balanced payments needs, technological change and political goals. Results point to the importance of basic mineral needs in Eastern Europe and the rising costs of production relative to declining ore grades in the USSR.     

Aluminium fabricated products: Trends in Hungarian trade

This paper attempts to reveal the durable and occasional factors influencing the Hungarian trade in aluminium semi-fabricated and fabricated products. The analysis starts with the presentation of various figures showing the major trends in the Hungarian exports of aluminium products and it is based on identification of a variety of determinants affecting the fluctuation of trade. Specifics of the Hungarian trade in aluminium fabricated products to the West are further illustrated by short case histories. Conclusions are then drawn regarding the discovered aspects of trade determinants.     

宁西铁路的开通与沿线区域经济发展

宁西铁路的建成与开通对加强我国东西部地区之间的联系和促进沿线地区的资源开发、经济发展将产生重要的影响,沿线经济带正在逐步形成.从区域经济的角度,运用点-轴理论探讨了宁西铁路线与沿线经济发展区域一体化和形成经济带应注意的几个问题:加快沿线城镇建设,完善综合交通通道,强化铁路为地方经济服务功能,建立沿线区域经济协作体系.     

Authority Pooling and Regional Organic Agriculture Standard-Setting: Evidence from East Africa

A key characteristic of global organic agriculture governance through standards is the coexistence of regulatory fragmentation and regional integration. To reduce barriers to organic trade, especially for market participants from developing countries, international and transnational entrepreneurs increasingly promote the setting of organic agriculture standards (OAS) in different world regions, for example, in East Africa, the Pacific, or Asia. Although scholars from different disciplines have done a lot of research on the role of standards in global governance, we still know little about why and how regional standard-setting processes evolve. Applying findings from regime analysis, entrepreneurship, and political authority, the article introduces the concept of authority pooling. It argues that legal, moral, and technical authority sources interact in a blurred functional division of labour between the public and the private sector in standard-setting. The article presents results from a within-case study of the development of the East African Organic Products Standard using the process-tracing method. It detects the underlying causal mechanism by which international and transnational entrepreneurs pooled different authority sources and, thus, significantly influenced political actors in East Africa to set the first regional OAS in the developing world.     

The USSR, China, India and the world metals industry to 2010

Remarkable changes are occurring within the economies of the USSR, China and India that are influencing mineral industry activities. These three countries account for a major share of world minerals production and consumption. Their domestic reforms may ultimately have a serious impact on the global mining industry. This paper examines the present status of the Soviet, Chinese and Indian mineral industries, and forecasts conditions to 2010. Long-term characteristics analysed include industrial production, intensity of use, consumption, mine and plant expansion and trade policy. Six metals are highlighted in the study – aluminium, copper, lead, nickel, steel and zinc.     

我国出口贸易中的碳排放转移测算研究

国际贸易中碳排放转移关系到贸易双方的碳权分配与碳排放责任,处理好贸易出口和碳排放关系非常重要。本研究应用投入产出法及模型,对我国2002—2011年出口贸易的碳排放进行测算。结果显示,出口贸易与出口贸易隐含碳排放呈现出同比增长关系,从出口规模和结构看,电气、机械及器材制造业,基本金属及金属制品业,通用、专用设备制造业,化学原料和化学制品制造业等行业的碳排放位居前列,行业高碳结构性特征明显;短期内出口贸易与出口隐含碳的正相关关系不会有明显变化,但从长期来看二者的正相关关系将会趋于减弱。本研究提出以碳减排为约束,转变出口贸易结构,促进传统制造业优化升级,发展低碳贸易产品和绿色产业等建议。     

THE WESTERN WATER COMMISSION: WATERSHED MANAGEMENT RECEIVES THE AVI'ENTION OF A NEW GENERATION1

ABSTRACT: Our nation periodically reviews national water policy and considers its directions for the future. The most recent examination was directed at the western United States and the role of the federal agencies in meeting its needs. The West is no longer the frontier, but rather contains vibrant cities and booming centers of international trade, as well as tourism, mineral, and oil and gas development, agricultural, and other development. In this changing environment, federal water policies need to consider the long term sustainability of the West, provide justice to Indian tribes, protect the rivers and ecosystems on which natural systems depend, balance the needs of newcomers with those of agricultural users and communities, and meet a myriad of other demands. The Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission has just concluded its review of these issues and issued its report. Key among the recommendations is the need to coordinate federal agencies at the basin and watershed level and make government more responsive to local needs, but within a framework that includes national mandates. The Commission's recommendations are presented here, along with some of the issues that surrounded the operations of the Commission.     

Emerging market patterns in the recycled paper trade

The international recovered paper trade serves two important functions: increasing raw material availability in the paper and board industry and providing economic incentives to recycle. The purpose of this paper is to shed further light on emerging patterns in this trade by empirically analysing the changes in the bilateral trade flows of recycled paper between 1992 and 2008. According to our estimations, two important changes occurred in the 1990s and 2000s. First, the growing importance of developing economies in global recycled paper trade plays a significant role in import demand as a determinant of trade flows. Second, the changes in global trade patterns necessitate investigating the transportation cost measures used in applied research.     

Global competition for strategic mineral supplies

The USA's dependence on imported sources of strategic minerals has grown substantially since the second world war, while its ability to protect the sealanes critical to foreign supplies has deteriorated. Domestic production has been severely hampered by a lack of access to mining on public lands, and by excessive environmental regulations. No major purchases have been made for the strategic stockpile in 20 years. Concern has been growing in Western Europe and in Japan about secure supplies of strategic minerals. Being even more dependent on foreign sources of supply than the USA, some of these countries have recently initiated their own strategic stockpilling programmes. The USSR, long an important exporter of metals, appears to have changed its mineral trade policy, and has sharply reduced exports while entering the market as an importer of a number of key metals. These developments foreshadow growing competition for world supplies of strategic minerals.     

The geographic concentration of world mineral supplies

Mineral reserves are unevenly and erratically distributed throughout the world; those countries which were intensively explored in the past — the USA, Canada, the USSR, Australia, South Africa, and a limited number of Asian, African, and Latin American countries — control a large share of many of the industrially important metallic minerals. Current attitudes towards exploration and the mining industry in both the developed and the less developed countries should clearly encourage rather than discourage new exploration. Given an increase in exploration, new reserves may well be found in previously unexplored areas, but any major increase in world mineral supplies will probably come from mining very low- grade deposits and developing new methods of mining and processing non-conventional ores. While it is vital to increase research and development in exploration techniques and mining and processing technology, it is also critical to maintain current levels of consumption and trade by reversing the trend towards trade restriction on the part of some of the less developed countries who are important mineral exporters.     

Evidence Supporting Cap and Trade as a Groundwater Policy Option for Reducing Irrigation Consumptive Use1

Thompson, Christopher L., Raymond J. Supalla, Derrel L. Martin, and Brian P. McMullen, 2009. Evidence Supporting Cap and Trade as a Groundwater Policy Option for Reducing Irrigation Consumptive Use. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 45(6):1508‐1518. Abstract: In the American West water is becoming an increasingly scarce resource. Obligations to bordering states, endangered species protection, and long‐term resource sustainability objectives have created a need for most western states to reduce the consumption of irrigation water. In Nebraska specifically, the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources (NDNR) and local Natural Resource Districts (NRDs) are meeting a large part of this need by using a regulatory approach, commonly called groundwater allocation. The cost of allocation, which occurs in the form of reduced economic returns to irrigation, could be greatly reduced by using an integrated cap and trade approach. Much like environmental cap and trade programs which are used to reduce the cost of limiting environmental pollution, the trading of capped groundwater allocations can reduce the cost of limiting water use. In an analysis of a typical case in the Nebraska Republican Basin, we found that the impact of a water market to trade groundwater allocations depended on the size of the allocation and on the characteristics of the land and irrigation systems involved in the trade. Potential economic benefits from trade ranged from US$0 to US$120 per 1,000 cubic meters traded, from US$25 to US$250 per 1,000 cubic meters of reduction in consumptive use, and from US$16 to US$50 per hectare of irrigated land in the region. The highest benefits occurred at relatively high allocations, which capped withdrawals at 65‐75% of the expected unrestricted pumping level. These gains from trade would be split between buyers and sellers based on the negotiated selling price.     

Value reclamation from informal municipal solid waste management: green neoliberalism and inclusive development in Lagos,Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Lagos is undoubtedly the cultural capital and economic hub of the West African sub-region. The challenge of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) in the megacity has remained intractable due partly to the increasing rate of population growth. While solid waste policy reforms, investments, and management practices in Lagos are in the upswing in the formal economy, the role of the informal economy in engendering sub-regional material linkages and livelihoods remain unexplored. Adopting a multi-stakeholder approach and data from interviews, this study critically examines how value reclamation from informal MSWM advances green neoliberalism and inclusive development. It shows that while informal transboundary trade of recyclable materials in the West African sub-region have previously been left out of analyses of MSWM in Lagos, the informal economy of waste and new investments in MSWM have neoliberal underpinnings beyond the megacity scale. The paper concludes that integrating the informal economy in framing MSWM policy in the megacity offers scope for evolving an inclusive development strategy while also enabling sustainable MSWM in the post-2015 era.     

对外经济贸易对中国碳排放的影响:基于省级面板数据的实证分析

改革开放以来,我国的对外经济贸易有了显著的发展,外商直接投资和进出口的快速增长有效地推动了经济的快速发展。然而在经济发展的同时,我国碳排放水平日益提高,已成为全球最大排放国。为了更好地管控碳排放,研究外商直接投资(FDI),对外贸易与碳排放的关系具有重要意义。本文通过对我国1995—2011年29个省(市、自治区)的FDI、对外贸易对碳排放的动态效应分析发现,FDI与进出口水平的提升均有利于降低我国碳排放的水平,“污染天堂”假说在我国并未得到证实。同时,本文验证了“环境库兹涅茨曲线”在我国的存在,证实了我国的碳排放水平与人均GDP存在倒“U”型关系。     

Causes and effects of siltation on the environment of Nepal

Summary The present investigation was carried out in 1986, and is based upon about 20 years of river discharge data (1960s to 1980s). There are three important river-systems in Nepal - Sapt Kosi River system in East Nepal, Sapt Gandaki River system in mid- Nepal, and Karnali River system in West Nepal. The average annual highest rainfall is 3,685 mm yr^–1, and the greatest mean annual suspended sediment load (1.434 g L^–1) was recorded in Sapt Gandaki, while the water discharge from Sapt Kosi (1,747 m³ s^–1) was the highest and so also was the silt discharge (0.4 million ton day^–1). The correlation between water discharge and silt discharge was found to be statistically highly significant as verified by correlation and regression analyses.An abatement of human interference in the catchment areas of these rivers, and fodder/fuelwood plantation through the active participation of local people in their marginal land to decrease the human pressure on natural forests, are considered the two major easy, effective and economic methods to control the siltation hazard that is causing extensive deterioration to the environment in Nepal.Dr Govind P.S. Ghimire is Reader and Associate Professor in the Central Department of Botany at Tribhuvan University. Mr B.K. Uprety is an ecologist working on the Environmental Impact Study Project of His Majesty's Government, Nepal.     

China's foreign trade in metal minerals: Performance and prospects

This paper examines China's mineral trade and notes a widespread enthusiasm about that country's potential to supply minerals to the rest of the world. It is felt that this enthusiasm is misplaced since the balance of China's trade in metals is in deficit and the quality of its reserves far from exceptional. It is concluded that China is likely to remain a major metals importer for the rest of this century.     

The decline of a regional fishing nation: The case of Ghana and West Africa

Inadequate trade policies, globalization of the fishing industry, dominance of Europe's distant water fleets, declarations of exclusive economic zones (EEZs) by neighbouring West African nations, overfishing and a lack of good governance contributed to the decline of Ghana as a regional fishing nation, a position it had held since the 18^th century. The prohibitive cost of access arrangements limited Ghana's access to distant waters. The country's marine environments have been impacted by overexploitation of stocks and the use of destructive methods. Subsistence fishing has become the sole means of survival for many fishers. The decline of the fishing sector has limited the country's ability to meet domestic demand and threatened the economic and food security of many Ghanaians. The article traces the early history of Ghana's fisheries, their gradual decline during the last four decades, and outlines recommendations for policy changes to address the situation and steer the nation on a course towards sustainable fisheries.     

VOTER REACTIONS TO THE 1976 WATER DEVELOPMENT AND QUALITY REFERENDA IN TEXAS1

ABSTRACT: Since 1957, Texans have had the opportunity to vote on eight referenda concerning the allocation of state funds for water resources development and the maintenance of water quality. In 1976, a water development amendment and a water quality amendment were presented simultaneously to the voters of Texas, affording a unique opportunity for electoral-geographic comparison of county-level returns on the two issues. In this paper, cartographic and statistical analyses of the county-level voting outcomes for each referendum are presented. In both cases, the referenda were supported by voters in water-deficient West Texas, especially those counties dependent on irrigated crop production. In contrast, urban voters and East Texans tended to oppose both amendments. However, support for the water quality amendment in the urbanized areas of Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio enabled this amendment to pass statewide while its counterpart failed. The results highlight the importance of local differences in perceived water policy needs, and in doing so they illustrate that geographical anlaysis of returns from initiatives and referenda is a useful tool for understanding the locational conflicts underlying water resources and other policy efforts.     

Impact of market reforms on future patterns of non-ferrous metal consumption of the former Soviet Union

The study examines the implications of market-oriented reforms on the prospects of non-ferrous metal use in the former USSR. Past metal consumption behaviour of the USSR is found to differ considerably from prevailing patterns of the advanced market economies. The study estimates a large 'intensity- of-use' gap across metals, which can be taken as a relatively easily mobilizable source for efficiency improvements via market reforms. Two scenarios for economic reforms are modelled, notably radical and gradual. Both are shown to cause a collapse of varying intensity in domestic metal demand lasting until the mid-1990s. For the subsequent period, a turnaround in consumption trends is projected, which is sharper under the radical reform scenario. The projected collapse of domestic demand argues for an increasing exportable surplus in the former Soviet Union for a range of non-ferrous metals, with potentially severe depressive effect on world prices.